Transitioning

[martini55]

Just looking for experiences:) How did your horses find transitioning from shoes to barefoot? Did they adapt easily or were there a few problems along the way? Also, how long did it take for you to be able to do full work again with them (with/without boots)?

[Yann]

I hacked Rio out the same morning her shoes were pulled and she was fine from the word go on easy surfaces. It did however take an awful lot longer for her to manage over difficult ground without boots, and she was unable to cope without them for a while when the ground changed from wet to dry, which would have been about 7 months in. After a few glitches with the trim she finally 'got there' in mid summer and has pretty much stayed that way since despite the constant wet.

Tess was uncomfortable on everything except soft pasture to begin with, she was fetched in and put out in boots. I gave her a month off being ridden but was hand walked and long lined her in boots and pads. After that she pretty much resumed normal work booted up for everything. After about 3 months I was able to ride her bootless in the sand school. At Christmas she had a month not being ridden again after my EP gave her a setup trim which took a lot of flare and really balanced the feet up but again resumed normal work in boots and pads afterwards. After 7 months I've just started hacking her bootless over easy surfaces and she's doing fine so far. I'll continue to boot for anything further / harder / faster or if she dictates it. Now we're under a UKNHCP trimmer the approach is very much to get the horse comfortable and working as much as possible, which suits us just fine :)

[MelanieD]

Roxy's feet were a mess when the shoes first came off so it took a while for her to be able to do proper work again, she's been one of the more difficult ones. Didn't really mind though since she spent more time with a shoe missing than she did with a full set, was getting to the point where her feet wouldn't hold shoes anymore, had an amazing ability to loose a shoe every time I'd planned a long ride, generally didn't do too well at staying in work shod and was a total baggage to ride.

Roxy wasn't even totally comfortable in the field for the first few days, but got over that pretty quickly. It was about 2 months before I did anything other than the occasional 5 minute plod around the school, she was in full work booted and very short hacks without by about 4-5 months. It was a year and a half before she was in full work without anything on her feet, then pretty soon after that she had a mild bout of laminitis which restriced how much she could do last summer while the worst of the damage was growing out. She's now been barefoot over 2 years and is in full work (including really long hacks and tanking up stoney tracks with no brakes) without ever needing boots.

Mia wasn't ever shod but had a very messed up foot, it only took a couple of trims and cutting alfalfa out of her diet to get her to stop producing abcesses and be sound over everything.