From shoes to barefoot for really flat footed horse

[Mollypops]

Has anyone made gone from shoes to barefoot with a really flat footed horse?

My horse has to have heart bar shoes on his front feet, hes started tripping on his front feet. Also its costing me a fortune so Im wondering about barefoot. I did ask a barefoot trimmer cant remember his name (Im in N Wales) he said we could be looking at going thru 12 months of lameness before he goes right. Other farriers Ive spoken to say his feet are far to flat to go barefoo and his feet wont take it.

So I just wanted your views, have you done this with your flat footed horse? I cant afford this remedial shoeing anymore.

Also he does really feel the stones on the road and quite frequently goes sore as if hes stood on one on hacks.

Is there any hope??

 

[ilovemyboys]

i owned a flat footed horse and she was extremely flatfooted she had been barefoot all her life and besides the occasional stumble she was fine she did get sore if we were out too long but wrapping warm towels around the sore part of her legs and giving her the next day off did very nicely to have her ok the day after that

 

[Yann]

Yes, there is, but it isn't likely to be easy, at least in the early stages. However if you can get through that it is possible to make it work quite well, and there's always the possibility your expectations will be exceeded, it can happen.

You would need the help of a good trimmer and some decent hoof boots and pads. I took my flat footed and very flared Tb barefoot after my farrier told me he couldn't do anything with her feet. Fortunately she was comfortable on soft pasture to begin with which mean I didn't have to turn her out in boots and pads, but they were needed for everywhere else, including flat concrete. Fortunately she was soon comfortable on level surfaces, and eventually able to deal with stones in hand too, but this varies with the season and she doesn't do so well when the grass is growing. I ride on anything other than grass and sand in hoof boots, with pads if needed, which keep her feet comfortable and protected.

Her feet actually change and develop some concavity every winter, but I haven't found a way of preventing them going flat again come the spring and early summer. However we keep doing a little better each year and what we do works for us. Her feet will only improve out of shoes, not stay as they were or decline further, which was the alternative.

 

[MelanieD]

Roxy was flat footed in front when she went barefoot. She isn't anymore She was comfortable in the field and when wearing boots within days, apart from a couple of occasions of being reminded that jumping fences and bombing around the field isn't clever when she went sore for a day or so.

You would be very likely to need boots or boots and pads for a while to protect the feet but they do actually protect the soles better than shoes do and do more to improve the feet so are worth the faff. Its also important to look at diet since a lot of flat feet are related to low grade laminitis.

Richard Vialls is in north wales and is good, his website is www.unshod.co.uk

 

[Roofio]

If you look back at my old threads from a year ago you'll see the state of my boys feet - he wasn't just flat footed, he walked entirely on his soles When i first had an EP out, i thought she would say there was no hope for him either

It's not been the easiest year since his shoes came off but the improvements are more than would ever have been achieved with remedial shoeing or otherwise. It is the best decision I've made, but there's been a lot of hard work and heartache along the way.

He needed boots and pads up front for turnout initially, but within 3-4 months was ok going out without them. I started bought him back into work again after around 6 months, with boots and pads, our general circumstances held us back a bit, but a yard move around 8 months after his shoes came off meant we could really crack on. He was hacking out for up to 2 hours in boots and pads. Recently he's had a few issues which have stopped us working again, but hopefully we'll be back on course soon!

A few pictures for you-

In shoes, August 2006 (remedial shoeing followed by a year of losing shoes and abscessing)

Farrier unable to get shoe on, August 2007

Sole

Oct 2007 after a few trims

April 2008

Sole and the beginnings of some concavity!

Good luck whatever you decide to do, but from my experience I would say it's definitely worth giving a go

 

[Shian89]

You could try some hoof boots. I know that you can buy comfort pads to put in most of them, the 12mm comfort pads are supposed to be for flat/thin soled horses.......if you didn't already know this before?

 

[Spoof]

Feet go from flat to concave and back again depending on footing.

My boy lives on extremely wet, swampy land half of the year and very dry 'concrete' like soil the other half.

My friend used this Superfast stuff to help her mare adapt to the wet winters here. Her feet became so bad during the winter there wasn't enough hoof to nail a shoe to, and she was so crippled up she wouldn't come out of her stall. They put this glue on and filed it down just like a shoe.

She's now barefoot in the back, with just the fronts on. It's an amazing difference.

Below are some pics of my guy, roughly 6 months apart. You can still see signs on the left of the huge abscess, and his feet have flattened dramatically.