I have had it with shoes! *small rant*

[CurlyWurlyRach]

*grumble moan gripe*

After a whopper of an over-reach cut I had Curlys (my TB mare who is currently out of work) back shoes pulled and all was good in the land of feet for a few weeks (remakably less blood on her - she usually accumulates a scar or two on her legs - loonatic that she is but i refuse to boot her for turnout) and today? Its POURING down, dark, cold............and shes lost a shoe :rolleyes: Shes remarkably sound considering she has one shoe on so I swore loudly and cursed whoever invented the things whilst playing 'hunt the shoe' in the field - i had to admit defeat after a while, shall ring the farrier tomorrow to come pull the last one off.

She was barefoot when I got her as she was pretty much turned away for a year and came out of it with feet like iron (had cornucresent (sp?) rubbed on once a week) and was absolutley fine on a surface but tripped on the gravelly surface on the yard - me, in my wisdom had her shod.
After her back shoes came off she wasnt lame at all, theyve been off for three weeks and the frog looks 100x healthier than it did (to me anyway - i know nothing about feet - her shod front ones have bits hanging off and look manky) and its obvious the feet are stronger - when i pick out her shod fronts, the pick leaves a mark on her soles - i havnt got a hope of marking her backs! Only problem is that her backs are all cracked at the bottom....

I thinking that for now i'll just get them rasped by the farrier while shes not in work (unlikely to be back in work till spring).

I've got £100 christmas money that I was going to buy various bits with but I dunno whether she needs hoof boots or anything? We very seldom hack out at the current yard (the new place I have my eye on will be lots more hacking but all off road on grass)

Im very soggy and cold and my horse is lame. Down with shoes i say!

Grr.

[lachlanandmarcu]

If the only gravel near you is on the yard, you can probably not use anything. And I find summer worse than winter, mine needs boots in summer but not winter, so Id try without at this time of year.

It sounds like the horse is made for barefoot! , I have a shod and a never shod and the 'never shod' aint going to be shod if I can help it....good luck:)

I use Boa boots and they are great, never slipped, never rubbed.:D

[MelanieD]

Sounds familiar! Getting utterly fed up of lost shoes was one of the reasons by first barefoot one ditched to shoes.

No shoes on while not working sounds good, and there's always boots if you don't want to go with shoes when working. Skanky frogs can happen bare sometimes as well but frogs do usually improve barefoot compared to when shod IME, and exfoliating sole can happen whatever as well, just can build up sometimes if there's a shoe in the way stopping it getting worn off easily, so wouldn't worry about those. cracked stuff around to bottom should take the hint and go away after a while without shoes as well..

If work mostly on grass then you have a very good chance of getting away without boots. Wouldn't use the cornuwhotsit stuff though, apparently encourages speed of growth but doesn't do much for good quality growth.

[Yann]

If she's out of work you have nothing to lose and everything to gain leaving her shoes off. So long as you have no really bad surfaces to deal with between field and stable you'll be fine and I would expect to see her improving in the interim. Try and incorporate a period in the dry every day for her feet and think about routine scrubbing and or soaking with hibiscrub, milton or similar a couple of times a week, that will help too.

Back feet are invariably better than front ones, which would explain some of the differences - the cracked looking sole is perfectly normal and it will come off when it's ready.

[Roofio]

whip em off and see how she goes! of course take lots of pics and you'll most likely be amazed in the change. i thought j would curl up into a small heap without the precious things nailed to his tootsies. turns out he's actually not that bad :cool:

j's backs are loads better than his fronts, they almost look like something worthy of being attached to a horse these days!

if you find she needs them you can invest in some boots in the spring, spend the christmas money on something she really needs now, like a collection of matching feed buckets, or another rug for her wardrobe. you know, those equine essentials ;)

i have to say, there is only one farrier i'd let within 100 yards of J now, and i'd be pretty loathe to put shoes back on, something major would have to happen!

[SB1]

Hello,

We are planning hind shoeless at the next farrier visit. My girl has a wonky stifle and finds it very uncomfortable getting shod behind, she is not able to hold her foot in the right position anymore : (

I have spoken with my farrier that this would be an option in the future, so as I am 5 months pregnant we thought this would be an ideal time to give it a try. We never loose shoes - last one off was in 2004 on a XC course! so I am hoping that her feet will be up to it. We have recently moved yards so there is a good mix of roadwork and nice fields to hack round.

I like the idea of Boa boots too, did some endurance a few years ago and people there raved about them. I'm hoping that by the time the summer comes around we will have some good growth and will be able to tell how we will get on.

...bit nervous though, been putting shoes on for over 10 years now.......

Treen

[Yann]

Just to chuck something else in to the equation, horses often do quite well with their shoes off in the winter despite the wet and mud and then stop coping so well come the spring. The change from soft to hard ground is part of it but the main problem is usually spring grass, even if the horse isn't remotely your typical laminitis candidate. If the feet suddenly start to flare and or you get raised digital pulses it's a sure sign that this is going on.

[SB1]

Just to chuck something else in to the equation, horses often do quite well with their shoes off in the winter despite the wet and mud and then stop coping so well come the spring. The change from soft to hard ground is part of it but the main problem is usually spring grass, even if the horse isn't remotely your typical laminitis candidate. If the feet suddenly start to flare and or you get raised digital pulses it's a sure sign that this is going on.

Will keep that in mind too! Our old yard had acres of very lush grass, although laminitis has never been something I've had to think about. Where we are now is poorer quality paddocks as far as greenness goes, but I always felt I was battling with weight over the summer - they were moved when the Y/O decided to do so..to make was for her cows!!

[MelanieD]

We are planning hind shoeless at the next farrier visit. My girl has a wonky stifle and finds it very uncomfortable getting shod behind, she is not able to hold her foot in the right position anymore : (

I've got a dodgy stifled one barefoot. She can find getting her foot in easy positions to be trimmed difficult sometimes so I just get a bit creative, wouldn't like to see her having to try to cope with being shod since trimming can be difficult enough. She does great without shoes. She does tend to wear her back feet out of balance but they grow quickly enough that I can just re-balance them more often. If they aren't quite keeping up then I can usually speed them up enough with a hoof supplement but she doesn't even need that most of the time. Otherwise I guess she'd have to wear boots some of the time, which isn't so bad.

Since she can have some time off to get used to it to start with that should make things easier than needing to work reasonably quickly. What yann said about spring :)

[SB1]

"If they aren't quite keeping up then I can usually speed them up enough with a hoof supplement but she doesn't even need that most of the time. Otherwise I guess she'd have to wear boots some of the time, which isn't so bad."

What do you feed as an extra? I have used biotin years ago, but she is currently on blue chip and codlivine for old people and old person course mix, all of which have extras for the elderly : )

Rather not have to go down the farriers formula line, but will if it makes a difference to her! Granted I've not yet looked at what is in it.......

[MelanieD]

She's normally on half amount of Bailey's LoCal, since being on that she very rarely needs any extra 'hoof stuff' unless the stifle is being extra horrible. When the feet do need a bit of a boost I normally just bung some NAF Biotin (it does have more than just biotin in) in the feeds, not the fanciest hoof supplement but does the job just to get a tiny bit faster growth.

[SB1]

She's normally on half amount of Bailey's LoCal, since being on that she very rarely needs any extra 'hoof stuff' unless the stifle is being extra horrible. When the feet do need a bit of a boost I normally just bung some NAF Biotin (it does have more than just biotin in) in the feeds, not the fanciest hoof supplement but does the job just to get a tiny bit faster growth.

Thanks. I would go for biotin first instance. We had no shoes on not long after I bought her as we burst a tendon sheath, so off they came during our 6 months box rest. She wore her fronts down a bit at the start, standing stomping, but I don't remember any major problems.

They come off again on January 30th. I plan on riding until the end of February, stomach permitting, but have done our last competition until the summer, so we can start cutting back on what we do. Very nervous now.......I guess it is like everything else though, best to know as much as possible, the good as well as the bad!

Thanks for the pointers on feed and grass!

Off for some tea now!

[CurlyWurlyRach]

Farrier is away until after new year *panic sets in*. Shes not ridden, out in the day in a boggy sloppy field and in with a huge shavigs bed on a night with about 2 mins of concrete between the two, will she be ok with one shoe on? The foot with a shoe on is a bit of a mess (i had a good look today) and all the nails seem to have been pulled back inside the hoof (leaving an alarming crack) and i cant see them at all but the shoe still seems firm?

The plan tonight is to leave her out for an exra hour when i know she will fencewalk like a loony in the hope that the boggy fenceline will pull the other one off.

[Roofio]

is there noone with a pair of strong arms and a few farriery bits and bobs (can't think of the proper word for those plier thingies!) who can whip it off for you?

you'll prob find it'll come off of its own accord, but it'd be nicer to take it off methinks ;)

[CurlyWurlyRach]

nope nobody with 'farriery bits' :p would normal pliers do the job i wonder....

[Iron Maiden]

I've taken a couple of shoes off with pliers & wire snips, they did a good job but the shoes were loose already. One of the great benefits of now having a barefoot horse is no wrestling with loose shoes & none of the heart sinking 'clip - clop- clip - clump' moments that I used to experience so frequently with my old horse. I only decided to go barefoot with my old horse in the first place because he cast 2 shoes within 3 weeks of being shod but I am sooooo glad I did!

[Yann]

I wouldn't try pulling a shoe unless it was very very loose indeed without the right tools, you can do a lot of damage. If the clenches are risen and you can nip the tops off or rasp them flat (assuming you have a rasp or file) then it may be possibly to use pliers to pull the nails individually. If the shoe is very loose it may be possible to lever it gently off, but the consequence of the horse getting restless, pulling away and standing on the shoe part way through don't bear thinking about. If in doubt leave well alone.

[CurlyWurlyRach]

the clenches have sunk right into a crack in the hoof that wasnt there before - im presuming thats how she pulled the other one off but the shoe itself is still very firmly on.

I will ring round on Monday and try to convince some nice farriery bod to give me a hand.

As long as she wont die being left with only one shoe for a week or so.... (theres only two farriers in my area so they get well booked up).