Kally and Tali have joined the Barefoot Massive!

[tasha]

I now have 2 very quiet sounding horses :) Main reason for going barefoot is the money it saves, but it does make a lot of sense to do it anyway as they have a very light workload.

I'm not worried about Tali, as she has been barefoot for years over her life and her toes are like rocks. Kally on the other hand has inherited all the crummy aspects of the TB blood in her and can be a dainty little thing if she so decides. She only has fronts before and for a week before The Removal she only had 1 shoe anyway, so I couldnt really have made it more gradual. Should I be worried? Should I take any precautions? I reckon a little road work, building up over time, will help condition her tootsies, but how much should I be doing?

[GeeJay]

You may want to think about using boots and pads initially as they really do help during the transitioning period. My EP told me to walk my boy in hand or ride if it seemed OK to do so for 20 minutes a day on tarmac. What has your farrier or EP recommended?

I took my boy's shoes off last July and have been very lucky as we soon stopped using the boots and he goes out barefoot all the time now over any surface. Unfortunately it's all down to the individual horse, hope things go OK with your two.

PS it didn't save me any money at first, in fact it cost me more, what with trims every 4 weeks and buying boots, pads, Clean Trax etc. Thank goodness he's on 6 weekly trims now!

[tasha]

I dont see the point of boots - if she struggles that much I'd rather put shoes back on. My farrier didnt recommend anything, I didnt ask. I asked if he thought she'd be OK, and he said we should give it a go :) I'll try the 20mins a day though, seems a sensible start :)

[MelanieD]

The boots work as a kind of inbetween step rather than a permanent thing. Lets you do as much work as you want while you wait for the feet to improve enough to be able to do without them. If you don't mind restricting work then you can get away without them, just might not get as quick an improvement in the feet.

The other important thing is to give it some time before deciding its not working.. the first month or two are the most difficult with excess wear so not the best time to decide that she just can't cope at all without shoes because it might just take a bit of time for the feet to adapt.

20 mins is a good start point, and keep an eye on comfort and the amount of wear and cut back or increase the work as needed.

[H & Bailey]

hi good luck just take it as you feel ,i have front boots for bailey, even though he has been barefoot for years he has very flat soles and they arent concaved, sometimes he gets a bit footy on stoney ground ,if i know im going for a long ride or somewhere stoney i will pop his 'trainers' on so he is comfortable.the plus side is he is barefoot in the field etc. no pulled or loose shoes , so you know you can ride anytime:D

[tasha]

Im hoping its not backfired on me, I went away for a few days and now Kally's pretty lame on one front. No sign of any damage, a possible bit of swelling on the cannon but no heat etc. I took her rug off (she's out 24/7 and heavily rugged) and it seemed to improve it a bit. Im giving her the weekend off and if no improvement I'll get the farrier to have a look and then if needed the vet.

Tali on the other hand is as sound as a pound and showed it off several times on our ride today :rolleyes:

[Yann]

Could well be a bruise, especially if the feet are a bit weak, Tess was similarly unsound for a few days shortly after I took her fronts off.

[lachlanandmarcu]

Big advantage of boots on barefoot: summer, had to use boots on flat foot girlie, bit of a pain but only needed farrier trim £10 a time not £60...., winter, no boots needed and farrier just ran rasp round, cost £0.00!!!!! NB shes never been shod so much easier I think, am thinking about taking them off the big boy but havent taken the plunge there yet....:)

[tasha]

Had the farrier out last night, its an abcess. So the joys of foot poulticing are upon me for the next 3 days :) I think its quite a nasty one, loads of very smelly gunk out this morning, and much less lame horsey. Farrier thinks once its been poulticed we should shoe her again until she's over it and then think about barefoot again.