Are there some horses who really *can't* cope barefoot??

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devonlass

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May 20, 2006
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devon
So just musing really about the spotty one and his feet.

Yet again once he was in regular work he started struggling with his feet and had to be booted to carry on.

This has happened several times now and although there is no clear reason he just does not seem to be able to cope totally bare once on work.

Fine with his boots on,but when left bare after few day's work he starts to get reluctant and just not keen,boots go on and he's much more lively and keen and really enjoys his work.

TBH before I have thought that maybe it's me reading too much into things and being a worry wart (I do tend to obsess over his feet lol),but this was brought up by my friends livery who was riding him,after the second week she texted me saying she had put his boots on as feet were wearing a lot and he was becoming reluctant to go out,totally different horse with the boots on (again her words not mine).So it seems this is a real issue and one that hasn't gone away.

His feet 'look' great,and indeed there is no reason that he should struggle,BUT they seem to wear quicker than they grow,and he just does seem to find it hard going with nothing on his hooves.He shouldn't on paper so to speak,but he just does.Backs are better BTW,is fronts that are the problem mainly.He was fine when shod on the fronts,and is fine in his boots,just not happy bare.

My trimmer say's his hooves are on great shape,and I would agree,but why does he struggle so much when in work??

I will of course be discussing with my trimmer,but won't be seeing her for a while as Marb not at home with me at present.
Just curious really as to what others might think or have experienced.I did think this was just a lack of regular work thing combined with me over thinking it,but actually it seems to not matter what the circumstances are he cannot cope with regular ridden work completely barefoot.
 
TBH, I hate this sort of question, and I was really tempted to avoid and pretend i hadn't seen it :ninja:

But here's my thoughts, FWIW:

- my heart says ALL horses have evolved a set of hooves designed to cope with rocky/sandy/harsh terrain. The genetic tinkering by humans over the last few hundred years can't have made that much difference.

-my head has to admit that sometimes the way we keep/others have have kept our horses does screw their hooves up at times, and it can take a long time to correct.

-DIET is a major factor -I am sure you have read all about the evils of excess sugar/starch from hard feed or grass, the problems of iron / copper inbalance etc etc

- As I said recently to someone else, unless we are very lucky, we can only expect hooves to cope with what we have prepared them to cope with, so road work for example has to be built up regularly and gradually.

- I TRULY believe that horses are healthier in their whole bodies when they are barefoot.

- Is your trimmer confident enough to not fee threatened if you asked for a second opinion? there could be an issue your trimmer has become blind to, just by familarity, and a fresh pair of eyes might spot something?

-there is no shame in booting to work. How much work does he do booted? They often need hundreds of miles in boots, to develop the hoof structure to cope without boots.

-whats his digital cushions like? How about his frog and central sulcus? Quarter relief? just random thoughts now!:redface:

- and to finish, just to bore everyone who has heard me say this a thousand times:redface:, the reason mine are barefoot is because of my TB, who had flat, cracked, thin, shelly, disgusting hooves, horribly lame on the frequent occaisions she threw a shoe, violently opposed to being shod - she ended up barefoot because no farrier dared try to shoe her anymore - 12 years later she has GORGEOUS tough sound hooves, a dramatic improvement, which took 2 years before the boots were off, and have continued improving as I learnt more, especially about diet.

waffling over - sorry
 
devonlass said:
So just musing really about the spotty one and his feet.

Yet again once he was in regular work he started struggling with his feet and had to be booted to carry on.

.
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Sorry, just read your post again - I think your answer is what you wrote above - he either needs a MUCH slower build up of road work to allow his hooves time to adapt, OR you carry on with the boots for road / stoney track work until his feet have toughened up.

Simples:giggle:


PS I am assuming he is out 24/7?
 
My two lines of thought would be:

I know he lives out, is there a case of too much grass

However, as he is fine for a couple of weeks, I would be thinking that due to the intermittant nature of the work, his feet are not having enough time to adjust. He gets worked a few weeks and his feet growth starts to adjust, then he is out of work so they adjust back. Perhaps a more gradual build up, or persisting in boots is he way to go forwards - the feet respond directly to the stresses placed on them - but they do take time to make this adjustment, its not overnight.
 
There are some horses who cannot cope wihtout shoes for whatever reason.

You pay a lot of money to partake in a potentially expensive sport/passtime, then forwhatever reason, limit your enjoyment, and the enjoyment of the horse by asking him to do a job and not giving all the help he needs to carry out that job.

It is not "natural" for a horse to carry a human, so it is only fair to help him along if he needs it.
 
I think it's a bit of a relative question, depends on your definition of 'coping'. Having a horse that needs booting to go happily on rough terrain for some if not all of the year isn't that unusual and can be down to all sorts of things, some of which can be influenced by the owner and some that can't. You will indeed see a big difference when you put the boots on if that's the case.

For me a horse really not coping barefoot isn't one that just needs booting for work now and again, not if boots are OK for the horse's job. It's one that is struggling to some degree either intermittently or all the time when simply going about its normal daily business in the field and on the yard with all reasonable efforts having been made to address that. They exist too, but are fortunately rarer than the first sort.
 
Wally said:
There are some horses who cannot cope wihtout shoes for whatever reason.

You pay a lot of money to partake in a potentially expensive sport/passtime, then forwhatever reason, limit your enjoyment, and the enjoyment of the horse by asking him to do a job and not giving all the help he needs to carry out that job.

It is not "natural" for a horse to carry a human, so it is only fair to help him along if he needs it.
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I'd agree with this ^ at the risk of sounding a bit blase with my horses it has always been a case of either they can cope and do so or they can't cope and then they're shod. cope meaning able to withstand normal/reasonable amounts of work without being footy/uncomfortable for a prolonged period. If mine was footy occasionally i would persevere but if they continued to be footy for no other reason then i would shoe.

I think there is a place for transitioning/building up work etc but sometimes i think too much emphasis can be on the building up when there can be a more comfortable situation for all.

Both of mine are currently barefoot.
 
I have about 30 plus horses ATM, most are not shod and work away on the roads when needed, BUT there comes a time when the work they do makes them tell me they'd like shoes please, they get shoes, they then work away sound and happy, then the winter comes and the workload diminishes and the shoes come off and they work away without shoes again until they tell me they'd quite like shoes again.

I am not going to work them when they are foot sore, they ask for shoes, they get them. Boots are not an option here, I am not even going to go there,
 
Wally said:
I have about 30 plus horses ATM, most are not shod and work away on the roads when needed, BUT there comes a time when the work they do makes them tell me they'd like shoes please, they get shoes, they then work away sound and happy, then the winter comes and the workload diminishes and the shoes come off and they work away without shoes again until they tell me they'd quite like shoes again.

I am not going to work them when they are foot sore, they ask for shoes, they get them. Boots are not an option here, I am not even going to go there,
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Boots are a oddity for me - can not quite get my head round them and wouldn't want to be worrying about rubbing/coming off/right sizes/ too much growth for shoe, too little........

I meant to say on my other post as well that my farrier reckons that most of his horses that he sees have a month or two at least over winter where they don't have shoes due to softer ground and less comp season but are shod the rest of the year when needed.
 
One day the hoof boots that were lost on the beach will wash up and archaeologists will wonder what went n on that beach! :D :D
 
Yes I think there are some that can't cope, our old tb could never go without shoe. We discussed with vet and farrier and when he was in work (he's retired now) he simply could not manage without. His feet were rubbish and crumbly but that was not the main reason. His pasterns and so long and he looked so collapsed (even numpty me could see that) that the shoe was the kindest thing to do with him. It would have been a hobbling horse and one that couldn't work if we'd taken them off out of stubborness (I did get quite evangelical at one point because Storm is not shod).
 
God i wasnt going to post onthis cause i asked a similar question and had loads of excellent info which i am still mulling over. However i called out my own farrier yesterday whom i trust completely due to having served his time years ago with my dad who was a master farrier and his advice was i may have to put back shoes on my horse due to the road work and that she is wearing down on the outside at the back on one hoof. However, we have not made a decision yet as he wiil be back in a fortnight to renew the fronts where we will have a look at it again. I think there probably is horses out there who do require shoes due to the type of hoof they may have. I would just like all the barefoot guys to consider this you say in the wild all horses are barefoot that is obviously true but in the wilds any horse with hoof problem would probably be eaten by preditors. So my theory is that if you have a problematic hoof problem shoeing would probably be best depending on the problem.
 
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