I'm worried about taras feet.. * pics *

[horseygirl123]

Its been just over 2 and a half weeks since I had tara's hind shoes taken off, I had them taken off as the vet and farrier both said what lovely compact and healthy hooves she had, also she over-reaches so I thought taking off her backs would help her not to cut herself so much.

Since having them off she seems ok in the school but as soon as I take her out hacking she's very hoppy and sore, we have to do some roadwork to get to bridlepaths.

She is fed on baileys lo-cal balancer, with added baileys garlic powder. I pick her feet out twice a day and every other day I wash them and apply hoof moisturiser.

Heres some pics I took today, only managed to take pic of one of her feet, the one which looked worst and bruised

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s267/horseygirl123_photos/CIMG2410.jpg


A closer look :

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s267/horseygirl123_photos/CIMG2411.jpg

view from underneath:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s267/horseygirl123_photos/CIMG2413.jpg


As she is still sore and is obviously uncomfortable out hacking on the roads I was wondering if I should have shoes put back on her, what do you all think??

[ashlingm]

i took my shoes off guys shoes last year (normally only had the backones off during summer) anyway like you i was told his feet were in very good shape and strong yet he went lame. (turns out new bone had grown and was irrating his ligaments) i put it down to having taken off his fronts as in the 4 years id owned him it was the first time he has ever gone lame...he then got his normal shoes put on again by recomendation of a specialist vet (several hundred euro later) and he was sound within 2 days. i now dont chance taking the front ones off - guess it depends on the horse...maybe try putting fronts on her again and see how she goes

[horseygirl123]

i took my shoes off guys shoes last year (normally only had the backones off during summer) anyway like you i was told his feet were in very good shape and strong yet he went lame. (turns out new bone had grown and was irrating his ligaments) i put it down to having taken off his fronts as in the 4 years id owned him it was the first time he has ever gone lame...he then got his normal shoes put on again by recomendation of a specialist vet (several hundred euro later) and he was sound within 2 days. i now dont chance taking the front ones off - guess it depends on the horse...maybe try putting fronts on her again and see how she goes

She's got fronts on, its the backs I took off.

i just felt awful today as we were halfway through our hack and she started limping and trying to get onto the field.

I'm worried also with the bruising she has, as to whether it will hurt to have shoes put back on :confused:

Is that bruising just from today do you think, or has it been under-lying for a few days?

[ashlingm]

i find it normally takes a while for a buise to show...a day or more. Id leave her for a few days and see how she is... try reading this article http://www.thenakedhoof.com.au/html/article-TransitionToBarefoot.htm some horses have just spent so long in shoes that its hard for them to readjust. you might just have to go back to being shod...but in the meantime let the bruising go away and give her feet time to recover. hope this helps

[Palomino Mare]

hi, i would put the shoes back on.

unless there is a remedial problem with her feet that would benefit from them being off then put them back on.

white hooves bruise really easily. jerry has 3white hooves and if he looses a shoe on them he goes lame through the bruises. if you want to keep her barefoot then it will take time for her feet to build a resistance to "au natural" and you will get chunks out of her feet and brusing for a while before they get better.

if she's got good feet then theres no need to take the shoes off. have you tried over reach boots on her??

amz x

[Iron Maiden]

Barefoot is something IMO that you need to research & commit to doing. The horse will take a while to adjust, but again IMO the benefits of getting a horse to the stage of being happy barefoot outweigh the drawbacks. I'm not sure what PM means about the white hooves, I've had 3 horses with 4 white feet go barefoot & they have all adjusted well, my current horse is able to show jump, xc, hack on roads, grass & stony tracks and go on full turnout without boots, her feet haven't been cracking, no chunks out of them. In our case I think it's down to having a good trimmer, doing a bit yourself between trims to address any issues the trimmer has pointed out & not over-doing anything. She did go through a phase of being a bit footy on some hacks when the weather had been dry for ages, I changed what I was doing with her & schooled more and all was well. Bottom line is that to a greater or lesser extent shoes prevent the shock absorbing structures in the foot from doing their job. I don't want my horse becoming unsound because of concussion on the hard clay ground we get round here, so barefoot is the best option for me. Might have to rethink that if we ever event seriously because you can't put studs on a bare foot, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Whatever I do it'll be the best option in my mind for the safety & welfare of my horse (and me!).

[Bebe]

Based on the pics I don't think you've got anything serious going on that should prevent her from being without shoes and comfortable. 2.5 weeks isn't very long and I suspect she just needs a bit more time to get used to her bare hooves before she's capable of working over more challenging ground.

The bruising appears to be old and should grow out shortly. It's a myth that white hooves bruise more easily, are softer or more prone to chipping. White horn is exactly the same make-up as dark, it's just unpigmented which means you see bruising more readily than on dark hooves.

The soreness you're seeing could come from one of a few things:

Frog pain: Her frog looks lovely and full but based on the position of her heels she'll be taking an awful lot of weight on it at the back. It could be that it's over developed because of this and as a result is painful.

Heel position: her heels are quite long and as a result are forwards of the widest part of the frog, resulting in a lack of heel purchase and possibly excessive weightbearing of the frog (as above).

Toe: She has incredibly little wall at the toe. This could cause soreness. I'd like to see a lot more wall in this area.

Quarters: The quarters are high of the sole so taking weight in the wrong place and you've got flaring there also. This could be the cause of the bruising in this area.

All of this should be easily remedied. I'd be looking at hoof boots as an interim measure if you want to continue without hind shoes.

[MelanieD]

Pretty much 'what Bebe said' :D

Is the frog higher than the heels? If its taking most of the pressure because the heels have worn down and the frog isn't used to it then that'd explain the soreness. Check carefully for any stinky stuff in the dip in the middle of the frog, even a little bit of infection in there can cause soreness.

The bruising is likely to be quite old by now, whatever caused it would be long gone already. They look like pretty good feet considering they've been shod. But by what I'm used to seeing for barefoot feet they look generally a bit weak (walls a bit thin, not much heel purchase..) with frogs slightly over-developed to comensate. If the feet have been shod for quite a while then it usually takes a month or so at least to start getting a decent amount of inner wall at ground level and the whole foot to start toughening up and be able to take more wear so wouldn't worry too much after only two and a half weeks. It can take 6 months or more to really get a good foot but should be capable of doing a decent amount of work before that. Maybe just be careful of the amount of work you do on hard ground or get boots to use until they adapt to being without shoes. OTOH they look like good feet that have been coping okay with being shod so its really up to you if you want to put in the time to get her working without shoes or not.