footsore pony - advice please

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cookieg

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Aug 29, 2009
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we've had my daughter's section a couple of weeks now and before he came to us he hadn't had his feet trimmed for some time and didn't do very much work out of the field.

our yard has quite a stony path leading to and from the entrance and he seems to be really footsore when walking on it to the extent that he sometimes stumbles whilst walking over the loose stones.

he is fine on grass and in the school. He also seems ok on flat tarmac, but he looks in so much pain on the stones, I don't want to walk him up the lane. I had the vet out last week and he said that it was probably because he had just had his feet trimmed from being quite long and had quite flat feet and also because he wasn't used to the surface. He said to keep trying him over the stones so his feet harden but I feel really guilty walking him over that surface as he looks to be in agony :eek: and I really don't want to hurt him, but I also don't want him to be confined to the soft surface in the school.

I've no experience with barefoot ponies but I really want to avoid having him shod if I can as the road work he will be doing is minimal.

how long will it take or his feet to harden or should I get some shoes put on him, he seems to be struggling with his front feet in particular. Is there anything I should be putting in his feed which is pretty much just forage at the moment as he's hardly doing any work

sorry about the essay - just need some advice!!!!!!
 
Lack of conditioning may be part of the problem but it's also possible that too much rich grass is making him sore too, it's very common especially in good doer types. If he is the tubby type then muzzling him or stabling part time might help. You could try adding a decent quality hoof supplement to his diet, but the other thing that a lot of barefoot horse owners feed to help with this sort of thing is magnesium oxide powder.

Hoof boots might well be an option if you don't want to shoe, although shoes will make him a lot more comfortable whilst the grass is growing. Once it stops ponies like this are often fine and you'd be able to do without.
 
thanks, I'll try the magnesium oxide powder, I did think about the grass as it is richer in the field he's in now than he's been used to so I turned him out into it in gradually increasing timespans but perhaps it was too quick, so I'll also try stabling him again for part of the time.

I also thought I might try some keratex or someting similar and see if that helps
 
I've put Daffy on Alpha Bute (formerly ButeX) from Global Herbs, as 7 weeks in to being shoeless he's a bit footy on all four, particularly over the stoney drive. It's made a big difference and he's only getting one scoop a day.

He also wears boots on all four now when we're going out for our daily walk down the bridleway. It seems like the footiness was affecting his musculature (we hope, because then it's simple ;)), and as Daffy has other physical issues, we couldn't let it run it's course.

Once his comfort levels are back up (and he's rebuilt the muscle) I'll look to do a little without the boots to slowly condition his feet.
 
I have used the keratex hoof hardener which is good but I find that the best way to help a barefoot horse is with their diet.
Yann has already pointed out that you might need magnesium oxide and I completely second this. It works wonders for footy horses.
The pony probably does well without shoes so I wouldnt give in and shoe him - you will just be masking the problem, not adressing it.
The grass is very rich at this time of year and I'm too having problems keeping my horse totally sound over the really rocky areas.
The best diet for a barefoot horse is high fibre, low sugar. If you change his diet for the better, you will notice a vast improvement within just a few weeks.
Avoid mollasses and cereals (the baddies! :D) and always read the backs of bags of feeds. It can become very difficult to find a good feed as most of the bagged mixes are a nightmare and even Hi-Fi Lite contains mollasses! I would recommend something like unmollassed alfalfa pellets or unmollassed sugar beet to mix in with a general supplement and your Magnesium Oxide.
Good luck with him!
 
Hoof Tougheners

If you do a search on Keratex you will find its basically just an expensive way to buy 5% formaldehyde with a bit of aluminium chloride in it ( heaven knows why aluminium salts are good for horses hooves but then I'm only a biochemist).

The chemistry behind Keratex works is very similar in principle to the process used in tanning hides to make leather. In fact a small amount of formaldehyde is sometimes used for this but no one would use straight formaldehyde to make leather as it would give you hard, highly inflexible and very brittle leather. Not what you want for hooves and I've seen a lot of criticism of Keratex for just that, hard but brittle hooves.

Have a look at an alternative product recommended by Ex Endurance UK barefoot champion Les Spark on his website. It focusses on toughness and resilience rather than hardness and he seems to get excellent results with it on some very serious rides. Its an interesting read anyway

http://www.fnesaddles.com/Hooves-Barefoot.shtml
 
Further to other comments on keratex & the likes, you don't want harder feet anyway, you want thicker hoof capsules. & you want better developed digital cushions. This only comes with growth & good hoof function. Another one for diet/nutrition being a HUGE factor. But so is a *good* trim & keeping the pony *comfortably* able to exercise, with boots or such.
 
Would you introduce magnesium oxide to a horse who is already on pretty much an ideal diet? :confused:

Daffy has shown no signs of LGL this year, although he has in the past. He is fed on Simple System's MetaSlim with their Luciestalks (both unmolassed) with CortaVet and currently Alphabute. He's on restricted grazing (no muzzle, as the MetaSlim keeps his weight down) but he does get ad lib haylage in his stable which doesn't seem to have caused him any problems in the past.
 
I think (may be wrong) that Metaslim contains magnesium sulphate, so it's already in his diet :)
 
Silver cast her shoe a few weeks back and I would say it took two-three weeks for her to adjust to where we are - it is really stony and uneven. Even now she occasionally hops about when she has trodden on something!
 
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