We've taken the plunge!

[chewitmonster]

and I now have two barefoot horses! Toby has been shoeless since September and our trimmer said that his feet are some of the best hes seen in a long while. He even wanted to buy him from mum! :D

Silver had them taken off today. He has boots for going to and from the field on the fronts, off work for two weeks and then gradually building it up. He has virtually no wall on his fronts and he felt very funny stood with no shoes on (he basically just stood on his frogs). Bless him. Trimmer took off as much frog as she could and treated him for thrush in three of the four feet (strangely his off fore is fine :confused: ).

So fingers crossed everything works out :cool: Got a few funny looks from some on the yard but most shrugged it off and thought 'you might as well try'.

[Iron Maiden]

Good for you! Best of luck. Who are you using?

[chewitmonster]

Same trimmers as Yann :) M did Silvers feet and R did Tobys.

Just hope it works out

[Yann]

Best of luck! :) Ross and Mel ('tis they :)) came to see me afterwards and told me you'd gone for it with him. I'm sure everything will be fine, Tess's frogs were the lowest thing on her front feet when her shoes came off but within a week they exfoliated in a major way and packed down to a more normal height and a load of bits and bobs peeled and fell off her soles. It's surprising how quick they start to adapt, and you're definitely doing it at the best time of year.

Tess was able to pick up back to a pretty normal level of work in a relatively short length of time without any problem, boots and pads are wonderful things and the more work feet get (so long as they can cope) the better :)

Make sure you take plenty of pictures now because they'll help you see the improvements later :)

[chewitmonster]

Definately going to take pictures tomorrow - can't do much else with him! hehe, bless him, he did look funny walking with the boots on for the first time!

We've got the pads with the frog shape cut out to give it a bit of space, hoping to progress to the normal pads after 4 weeks.

Nice to hear his frogs shouldn't take too long to sort out, just fingers crossed its not too bad a transition

[Vez]

Yay, I love people who have barefoot horses, ( not that I have anything against those who don't! :p ) because I think it is a way better option. At my yard now only 4 out of 16 hooves are shod. ( 1 horse has the front on and the other only has the back!) and I think it is way better that way. I would perfer it if they were all barefoot. Good luck and I hope everything goes OK for you! :)

Vez xx

[Bay Mare]

Congratulations, Chewit :) and welcome to the world of barefoot anoraks :D