Why did you decide to go barefoot?

gossip28 · Why did you decide to go barefoot?

Was just musing & wondered how everybody on the forum got into barefoot?

Personally, my farrier had a hernia & I couldn't find another so I gave barefoot some thought, rang Nic who super-kindly came all the way from Exmoor to trim for me. She recommended Pete Ramey's book, I read it & it made sense so decided to try barefoot 'as an experiment' at the livery yard I was on at the time. I saw some very different sides to people I thought I knew after I had taken my horse's shoes off - seems to bring out the worst in some people - which was interesting in itself. But although a couple of times when she was a bit footy I thought I would just get her sound & put shoes back on, of course when she was sound she didn't need the shoes .. d'oh!

Would love to hear other people's stories... Very Happy

Jo.

cptrayes

I had two horses. One of them had fabulous feet but was increasingly unsound walking over stony surfaces. Since he was an eventer it was a decision between going for pads and trying something drastic. The other was a lot worse. His front feet were huge and desperately flat. He couldn't stand on concrete to be shod and had to be done one foot at a time. In his worst foot, his frog was 3 inches from one side of his foot and 4 from the other and he clearly stood with his entire weight going down the inside wall and not spread across the whole foot. On top of that, he pointed that foot constantly and I was certain he was in pain. I tried and tried to get my farrier to sort it out, but he was completely unable to see why I was not happy and actually seemed puzzled by me making a fuss about the severe imbalance. I had already tried two other farriers, who were even worse - one leaving his toes too long and the other fitting shoes so small he made his feet bleed cutting them to fit the shoe.

So for me, it was desperation. I never in a month of Sundays expected it to work!

My farrier, a man with over 30 years experience, and his son, newly qualified just out of college told me that the second horse would never manage without shoes. He evented at affiliated novice (jumps to 4ft 1inch) in the July after going barefoot the previous September.

horsesfirst

My farrier at the time (who trains all the apprentices in the area) was dreadful. Wanted to put shoes and pads on a two year old (now I know that the only problem we faced at the time was a b awful trim job and rather wet ground.)

I didn't know anything about feet, but I knew good quality bullsh*t when I heard it.

This was before the internet existed - or even word processing let alone email - in fact computers still wrote in green and you had to know how to code to use one. (that's how old I am!) Embarassed

Horse remained shoe free. Lots of things happened - nothing to do with feet - and then I found another farrier who couldn't see the point in putting shoes on a healthy horse (let alone pads).

Lots more stuff happened - all of it adding to the weight of evidence that for my horse barefoot was best. Including several successful rehabs who were all converted to barefoot with my pro barefoot farrier.

So never really made the choice to go 'barefoot' and I wasn't really driven to it by incurable lameness. If the original farrier wasn't such a **** the issue may never have arisen.

But lots of stuff has happened since which could have easily swung me towards shoes if I hadn't had a happy barefoot horse for years.

It is tough when you have responsibility for a metabolic, poorly raised, compromised horse being looked after by a novice at a livery yard which treats horses like Barbie dolls.

And then there is Grace. Who is a whole new ball game. But its going to be a barefoot one. Cool

Chris Thompson

Ok this has been told before but here goes again.

I was in Houston on a business assignment in 2003, and at that time "knew" that horses had to be shod if they were in work. I was having difficulty finding suitable horsers to ride and read ina book about Darolyn Butler's Adventure trail rides www.horseridingfun.com, so booked myself on one.

Most of the horses there were Arabs but they brought me a paint horse called Choctaw, and told me he was a Spanish Mustang

and we went for a ride along the sand trails through the woods. Choctaw and I got on well and I requested him the next few times I rode. I also noticed he was not shod, in fact I noticed that none of her hroses were shod Shocked

I soon met Darolyn and asked her why she did not shoe her horses, assuming it was because the sand trails were soft. I got GBH of the ears and was lent and told to read Strasser's book "A lifetime of soundness" before my next ride.

What I found out was that Darolyn had 50 barefoot endurance horses. This is her barefoot story http://www.manesandtails.com/darolyn.html or http://www.horseridingfun.com/barefootin.html

To cut a long story short, I took Choctaw on loan and he and I did a lot of barefoot miles together, including a 50 mile endurance ride, over terrain that varied from smooth to rough and in some cases that would give a mountain goat pause for thought.

Darolyn also got me trimming (you ride him, you trim him was the edict).

Anyway, at the end of the assignment I returned to the UK and out of necesity started riding shod horses again. They just did not feel right - too noisy, too much concussion, not enough grip, etc. Then I came across a yard near to Didcot that had barefoot horses. The rest as they say is history, including Brego's story.

brucea

My wife told me to.

Sez

QAR

Bruce that is brilliant Laughing

Our first horse was shoeless, big piebald cob, never even thought about putting him in shoes. With him we didn't 'do barefoot' (hadn't even herad of it!) we just had him regularly trimmed by a farrier and didn't think about anything else. As it was he was a good doer so lived on a token amount of feed with relatively poor grass and hay.

Never really gave feet much of a thought. Sold the cob because he was a fab hack but hated the RC stuff we really wanted to do. Second horse came fully shod, which somewhat perturbed me in that I didn't feel it was 'right' but its what you do with a 'proper' horse right? Long story of lameness, remedial shoeing, box rest etc etc during which time I was more and more convinced he shouldn't be wearing shoes. MRI scans showed tendon damage, ligament damage, navicular changes etc. Took his shoes off and his feet improved enormously but he remained unsound and was not entirley happy and some days downright miserable. Took the decision to have him PTS on 05 Dec 2007. I'll always wonder that if we'd known at the start with Ace what we know now whether he'd still be with us.

Decided barefoot was teh way to be and went out looking for a horse that was happily living barefoot and found Mr P Very Happy

Chris Thompson

Forgot to add just about the time Darolyn went barefoot her yard was flooded and she lost her grass, so her barefoot horses were in sand surfaced fields with ad lib access to round bale hay that was put in a feeder.

There was some coarse grass around the yard that they would eat if they got the chance, and they were occasionally turned out into the surrounding woods to forage. They were partial to bamboo strangely and water melon skins.

Knowing what I know now about diet, I cannot help wondering how much the loss of grazing helped in her barefoot sucess.

cptrayes

Gossip what a wonderful thread this is! Thanks for asking the question.

C

Bruce - good man! Did she give you a titbit when you did what you were told, or is it verbal reward only in your yard?

lazeearabians

I had my first brush with barefoot about four years ago when I bought a saddle off a woman who was a trimmer in Cumbria (totally forgotten her name - Rhona or Rhonda?). It wasn't something I'd ever thought about before, though of course I knew people who rode without shoes but doing it myself wasn't even on my radar.

I went away from her house thinking how much sense it made but no idea how to take it any further - besides my horse had been shod for most of his life without problem. So I left it at that.

A couple of years later whilst competing endurance I met Sarah (Sez) and later on Helen Newton - both of whom were competing barefoot with their horses. I was convinced by the theory of barefoot - logically it had to be healthier for the horse BUT I wasn't convinced it was something I could do successfully. I'm not one for faffing around soaking feet or not riding because of a six month transitioning period, or messing around with fiddley hard to put on boots. Besides my two horses (herd was growing!) had both been shod most of their lives without problems.

I got to know Helen better, rode with her more frequently, and became more and more impressed with how her horses went. I was getting closer to jumping over the edge but TBH was put off by the sometimes evangelical nature of barefoot posts on various forums plus the idea of not being able to compete for a period of time.

Fast forward to May this year. I'd changed farrier - new farrier came highly recommended - and two things happened. One - I noticed my horse's off fore hoof starting to flare on the inside. This had never been noticable before, though when I looked at his vetting cert from when his old owner bought him as a three year old, it did comment on poor foot balance particularly on his OF. When I bought him he was in Natural Balance shoes. Second - we did a 40k CR at Cannock and at the post ride vetting the vet noticed swelling on the inside of his OF cannon bone, just under the knee. She clearly wasn't expecting him to trot up sound but he did, however clearly something was making his leg fill. I had him scanned a week later convinced ligament or tendon damage and luckily he was clear but things don't happen without a reason IMO and it seemed too much of a coincidence with the OF flare.

I still wasn't quite ready to make the leap though (the season had only just started and I wanted to keep on competing, so I'd said to myself I'd try barefoot at the end of the season when it didn't matter if I couldn't ride much) and got my farrier to try Epona plastic shoes. What a disaster. He failed to follow the fitting instructions properly and after doing a 50K at Dukeries the OF shoe fell off! I had to quickly get it reattached to pass the vet but plastic shoes clearly weren't going to be a viable option and more importantly neither was my farrier.

So it was either go through the stress of finding a new and competent farrier or just sod it and go barefoot.

I got back from Sherwood Forest and phoned Ross and Mel. A couple of weeks later Ross deshod my horse, fitted me with some Renegades and away I went. We haven't looked back since. We carried on competing doing a 65k successfully in Gloves about six weeks after his shoes came off. I'm lucky in that he started with good feet and has a tough as old boots character. He also doesn't seem to be metabolically challenged (mentally challenged maybe!), so has made things easy for me.

I've since taken the shoes off my old horse and the new horse I bought in August. I am a big fan of boots - don't think I'd have taken the barefoot plunge without having seen how well Helen N does with hers in boots and how easy they are to put on and use - no faffing about at all!

And incidentally the OF flare and associated swelling on the inside of the leg have not reappeared since removing the shoes. I really think if I had ignored it and carried on competing I'd probably have had a lame horse by now.

Sorry about the autobiography Very Happy

perils

Hi I'm new to this forum and have only been 'bare' since May but it's something I have been thinking about for years but as there was no one else in my area that was barefoot I stayed with the crowd and carried on having my horse shod. No real problems with my farrier with my previous horse but he was getting older and somewhat slower( the farrier that is!!) I then went to NZ for 2 yrs and many horses out there are shoeless mainly coz it's harder to find a good farrier but they are going into it in a big way. Had a standardbred off the track and he came barefoot, no problems with him.. I then returned to the UK and bought a 5yr old warmblood mare with low milage who was shod so carried on with old farrier but she was a bit more fussy with him. After a yr I moved house and turned out mare into new field which has big stream running through and was very wet everywhere. Within 2 weeks she's pulled both her fronts off in the field and she was only shod a week before we moved.. So that was my kick up the backside to seriously change my system. I have a driving friend who had taken all her horses barefoot after buying one barefoot and has great success so contacted her and she put me onto Nic and the rest is history! Very Happy

Still have a looooong way to go with getting the management and diet right, seem to go 2 steps forward and then one back but made a bit of a boob with the MgO as wasn't giving her the correct amount! Read the info wrong so have upped it this last week and seems better already.

It's definitely a lot of work but worth it, I'm moving back to where we use to be this weekend and haven't told any of my old riding mates what I've been going this summer so will interesting to see what their reaction will be. I wonder who'll be the first to accuse me of being 'cruel' etc!!

Penny

cptrayes

I'm loving this thread!

Can we add our details of who trims? I trim for myself, but that is only because there was no barefoot trimmer obviously available in this area at the time - 5 years ago. I did and eeeeenormous amount of research and read absolutely everything going. I probably drove Nic nuts asking her what her experiences were on the courses she was going on, and each time she visited here over the years she checked my horses for me to see if she could see if I was doing anything wrong. That's me, what about you?

Nic

Chris Thompson

I trim my own horse - as far as I know there are no trimmers in this area.

Nic used to trim him - and did a good job under difficult circumstances, but then told me it was time I did it myself.

I have called Mark out once when I was not sure of something, but I think it was just me being overcautious.

gossip28

Hi perils, welcome Very Happy

Glad you like it Carolyn, (I loved yours on H&H!!) I'm enjoying finding out a bit more about everybody's stories. I am doing my own trimming now Confused

Find my ridden horse a lot easier as she virtually self trims. The yearling has inherited her mothers good feet (don't wish to be controversial Wink

) so am lucky there too.

QAR

We're EP trimmed with OH now maintaining a roll between trims.

cptrayes

brucea

stormybracken

Fell of after yet another incident, hated horse, so turned him away with another herd while I decided what to do, took shoes off as he's a bossy b*****, after a year had a few months of fantastic behaviour and first time ever he was fit and healthy, no need for shoes, we were in love.

Then I blew it.

My old farrier still trims him and the pony, and if he can assimilate the changes required and do the right thing as well as talk the talk (which he is very good at) he can stay! This is a bit of a fluid situation as almost eveything he has learned and trained others to do is being turned on its head. I think if he can continue I will learn to trim for the long term, but if he stops I have a trimmer ready to step in.

gossip28

"Shoes off horse, put brain in owner."

Love this statement, sooooooo true!!! Laughing

Helen N

23rd May 2003 was the last time Carly wore metal shoes! I can hardly believe that it was so long ago Shocked

He had just been given the all clear after his check ligament injuries and a long period of box rest. I was determined that this wasn't going to happen again, something told me that shoeing had not helped his situation Wink

, so the shoes were off, a trimmer was found and the rest is history! Sarah B and I came to the same conclusion at around the same time. She took it so seriously she was off to America to find out more and train with the best Smile

Shoes became a thing of the past. From the moment Carly became shoe free he stopped tripping Surprised

Touch wood he has not tripped or slipped on the roads since that time. Over four years ago I bought another arab, Rooster, the first thing that happened to him when he arrived at the yard was Sarah taking his shoes off. Since then he has done many miles of endurance both barefoot and booted. I trim their hooves myself with Sarah advising me when necessary Wink

I would never have shoes nailed onto my horse's feet, I am proud to say I would rather use boots Wink

I am not one to preach about barefoot, I would rather quietly get on with it and if other people like what they see and become barefoot with their horses as a result, direct or otherwise, I feel I have done my bit for the cause Wink

stormybracken

I'd buy that t-shirt! Although talking of spending money, this is possibly why some owners can't be successful - it isn't about buying a fix, and like so many other areas of horsemanship the truth keeps coming.

I was telling the farrier about Nic & Sarah's marketing ideas for Magic Barefoot Powder and Magic Barefoot Liquid, and he commented on the number of horses he is seeing who are having so many supplements you can call these others "Laxatives", because that seems to be the end result. Perhaps it's not just owners whose brain starts to work... Wink

Sooph

Took Ruby's shoes off August 2008 - we'd been through several saddle fitters - tried conventional, flair, treeless, half trees etc and been generally told horse was just naughty, vet thought she had kissing spines. Finally worked out (took me a year!) she had sore feet and kidneys - now works nicely in balance saddle when sound. We still have major problems with keeping lami under control, however if she does have a problem at least I know about it and can start to deal with it straight away.

micki

I went barefoot because i stopped riding when i had my kids. I tried to put my horse back in work just after having my second child and she damaged a ligament so was still out of work. I am now just trying to bring her back into work after 5 years of not being ridden. She has an upright foot and as soon as she has shoes put on her heels contract so i'm now trying barefoot as i don't want to make her hooves bad again as they are in good condition for her. I'm trying to find some boots to be able to work her so i don't ware her foot too much when she is ridden.
My other horse is a 2 year old and i'm not shoeing him as i would rather work him in boots if he needs them.
I may be asking lots of daft questions as i really want this to work for both of them

rose

My girl is home bred. She was unbroken and barefoot until she was 4 lived out with shelter in a large field with her mum. She got laminitis in the summer of her 4th year and was on six weeks box rest. I then moved her with me from Scotland to England and had to put her on to livery. She was in at night and out during the day. I broke her then started shoeing her fronts only for two rounds of shoes then a full set. I shod her because thats what you did when you started riding. I never gave it a thought. Then there was an article in one of the horse magazines discussing barefoot riding. She had been shod for about 3 months by then. I decided that as she had managed for 4 years barefoot I would give it a go so off came her shoes. She was blacksmith trimmed and I had no problems. I kept her bare for 2 years until I moved yards and the riding was so flinty that I decided to shoe her. I used cytex shoes because they sounded like a more natural option that the more traditional rimmed shoes. She was shod for 4 years with no problems then I started reading more and more about the barefoot option.

I had her shoes taken off and continued with my blacksmith trim. She has now been barefoot for about 4 years. I changed my trimmer because she was always sore after each trim and she is now trimmed by a uknhcp trimmer. However without the invention of viable hoofboots she would not be comfortable enough to ride barefoot.

Her main problem is not her feet but her metabolic problems ie IR which shows up in her feet. Her IR seems to be getting worse as she gets older making her much more sensitive and therefore needing very careful management.

So she has been barefoot for the greater part of her life.

babyjay

I bought a 5yo (Jay my mare) 2yrs ago who never seemed 'right' shod and I don't mean in a lame way, in a just didn't seem right way (oh I can't explain it).
Now for me to feel and think that was VERY unusual for me as I have never ever considered barefoot a possibility! (been brought up the BHS way (shame)!
I kept her shod for a year. She occasionally threw a front! The last time she thew a front we had to hack a good 2 mile back home along the pebbley/shingley beach track, I thought cripes this is going to cripple her Sad

She never flinched!
I now know in hindsight why she didn't flinch -all because of the shoeing bad effects! But at the time I thought it was amazing!
So end of Feb 09 the shoes came off. This year has been the transition period and I think we are pretty much over it now (Nov 09).
There is no reputable local trimmer I know of so I did it myself along with my 'barefoot novice' farrier Smile

It sounds terrible and cringe worthy to some of you I expect, but I'm not daft to make me hos lame so caution was taken all the way.
I am still learning and fumbling my way through, but boy am I learning loads because of it Smile

To date been out showing succsefully and hunter trialing succsesfully. Spring and summer was bit of a bore as in not being able to get out and do the fun rides we like, but can't see nothing stopping us next year Smile

cptrayes

"terrible" "cring worthy"

Those aren't words you'll hear from anyone on this forum! We are a supportive bunch, especially when anyone is trying to do the best for their horse like you are.

Plenty of us learnt to trim from Ramey's book!

C

babyjay

Oh sorry didn't mean it to sound offensive or defensive Laughing

vic_s

I Bought my horse Katy about this time last year then around new years time she was lame I just thought typical TB feet and she must of been daft running round on the hard icy ground so gave her some time off and she was ok.
Then some days as i was riding she didnt feel right, had the vet out in march and he did xrays and nerve blocks and told me my lovely horse has navicular and was i insured for loss of use. Which I wasnt. I have a friend who keeps her horses barefoot and she pointed me in this direction. So in April shoes came off and Sarah B started trimmimg her Smile

So fingers crossed Katy will be another barefoot sucess story.

sarahh

My friend did it, I rode her barefoot horses and went WOW! Read lots of books, ummed and ahhhed, spoke to my farrier (who said Boy would never cope without shoes). Couldn't get a trimmer so started training. Nic came, removed Boys shoes (was fab barefoot from the outset), did a couple of trims then sent me on my way to do it myself!
Very Happy

vickyclink

I tried it in about 2003 or 2004. I cant remember which. I was friends with a person who did his own strasser trimming Shocked

his horses feet were often bleeding after trimming...! But anyway I read the strasser book and then took off my horse's shoes... i beleived in the argument but didnt have a trimmer and just had unresponsive farriar.

I bought some old macs which seemed massive and clompy and he hated them! He got flare on one front and it looked weird to me and so i worried, and then he got footy in the roads. i totally panicked and had his shoes put back on! (bangs head on wall in annoyance at self)

So then as time went on and i was studying anatomy of horses i started thinking about it again. It didnt make sense to me that when we studied the anatomy of the hoof and its expansion there was no mention made of the shoe stopping this expansion etc... and yet all the books/lecturers seemed to state that the expansion was an essential part of thehoof mechanism etc..

then I did a trec comp with my friend louise. she was barefoot and rock crunching. i kept saying 'ooh can we walk over this bit' when we were on stones, but she just went for it over them! I was reinspired to go for it with the whole bf thing.

I asked around, interrogated people and looked at the web and stared at other barefooters horses hooves... i think I phoned nic and went on at her on the phone (sorry! Embarassed

)
Then i did this ride for MS down across exmoor, across dartmoor then onto bodmin. Two of the horses were barefoot and one of the riders was an Ep. I must have annoyed them so much Rolling Eyes

asking questions for the whole 150 miles. about boots and hooves and diet and everything..

so when we got back (2 and a bit yr ago) i was really good friends (in my mind anyway Cool

) with the EP. I took the shoes off my NF pony who was the one i had ridden. she had very very contracted heels, wafer thin frogs and a weird gait cow hocks and a twisting action to her hinds Shocked

it has taken a long time to sort out the contraction, but she now has some pretty good frogs and the twisting/screwing action is pretty much gone!

The other horse had his shoes taken off 1 and a half years ago now. he also had contracted heels (not as bad as pone) and was starting to stumble. i wanted to learn as much as poss before taking his shoes off so left a gap between them.

this year i have started to compete in endurance with him and in trec again. i use the gloves on the fronts. we do that parelli nonsense too Very Happy

and he has filmed all his level3 and passed two of the components of that this year. with endurance he has had his boots taken off on moorland bits. and we ride here (dartmoor ) without boots now.
He has winter planned out with lots of dressage type stuff. to increase his strength and suppleness etc etc.
and we literally just had a lesson with a wonderful woman who trained with nuno oliviera.. she is awsome.. anyway what i am trying to say is that he is kind of multitasking and also no longer stumbling Very Happy

my youngster (4 and a half) is pretty rock crunching. she will never have shoes and has one boxy foot. but it has improved immeasurably with good trimming!

and i dont do my own trimming but do small bits and pieces in between trims that i have been shown to do...
sorry its a bit of a massive essay! Embarassed

stormybracken

hobnob

My 2 have always been barefoot but grass trimmed by farrier.

2 years ago I started trimming myself after trawling the internet night after night, knowing there must be another way as my larger pony was always sore for 3 weeks after a trim. She was fine with the farrier right up until she was 9 years old and was always sound. She has not been tested, but I believe she has IR which normally shows up at this age and pretty much overnight she started to show symptoms. Fad pads although not that overweight, filled pockets above her eyes etc.
2 years on with the right diet and regular trims by me, she is perfectly perfect !! We have to be careful with grass but her feet are amazing and we have had no thrush problems since she is barefoot trimmed. She used to have no frog and really high heels but now her feet have transformed !!

becnreps

What a great thread!
I went barefoot about a year ago.
I bought Repsol from the field, he'd been off work for about a year (due to owners lack of funds to keep him in livery) and they had his shoes pulled before he was turned away. He wasn't trimmed in the whole time he was out ( Shocked

) and when I went to view him and tried him, he was very footsore and tender. So, immediately (as you do) when I took him home, I had him shod all round.
Then, I decided that as he had reasonable feet, I would just have him shod in front. So, I suggested taking his back shoes off to the farrier and he said I should just have a go at taking them all off as he had good feet.
I took them all off, read lots and lots, got lots of advice and then joined this forum and even though we're still struggling at times, we've come a long way and I'm happy that I gave it a go!

SueH

typical girly falls in love with cheeky little TB

Click to see full size image

TB is lame RH on vetting - vet strongly advises against sale and says horse at best only good for light hacking. I purchase said pony ( I like him, what can I say). Goes lame on front a month later and x-rays confirm navicular & bone spavin. PANIC ! A Futile adventure with Circulon for navicular, pony still lame. Lots of midnight searching web...find and meet Sarah B who is about to jet of S.France but squeezes me in for consultation. Its all about digital cushions (what they he.......??) forage feeding, movement. "think things over" this lady says. Well I do, but now Mrs B is in France!....no worries, farrier can de-shoe. I am now determined this is the answer so i want them OFF. I then watch as a remarkable transformation happens and a week later my dog lame horse flies round the paddock. I tell Sarah about this on her return. Sarah is pleased (although not as surprised as me - as you know, she has seen this before ....) Our journey begins. Funrides, dressage and non-compete endurance this year. The only limitations are mine: money, time courage but my horse always seems to rise to the challenge.
[

Click to see full size image

cptrayes

I love this thread, I know I've said it already.

I am absolutely fascinated by Insulin Resistance setting in when a horse has finished growing. Mine did it at seven, prompted by an overload of carbs fed by my house-sitter while I was on holiday. I've heard now of many cases where barefoot horses suddenly can't manage any more at eight/nine. I think some Veterinary research wouldn't go amiss, don't you?!?!

C

sarahh

My haffie's mum is suspected IR & that was very sudden onset. One bout of lami, a load of abcesses and now she has to be very closely managed. Think she may have been 9... Hmmmm

hobnob

Good point Caroline. My mare at age nine went lame overnight. The 2 weeks before, 3 things happened that I think triggered her. 1) Feed changed to Happy Hoof . 2) Cows next door got into her field 3) OH shut her in stable as cows were hooleying around field when I was at work not realising she didnt DO stables and had never been shut in before. Hey presto - next day - lame as a dog !!
There is a pic on my blog of the 3 acre field she used to graze aged 3-8 Sad

brucea

Horse puberty? Hormonal changes?

hobnob

Horse puberty.... hormonal changes.......... horse 'how can I make my owner worry like hell and spend every waking hour researching on internet, more like !!! Bless her - love her to bits !! Very Happy

cptrayes

Apparently Bruce, the last growth plates to seal off are the ones in the neck vertebrae, which usually close at 8, so horses are not truly fully grown until 8. It's my personal theory that they are still on a high metabolic plane until then, and suddenly that ends and they show their sensitivity to sugars because they don't need the energy to grow any more. I would love some research done into sudden late onset laminitis.

Interestingly, mine was 7, eventing fit, and collapsed with it in the space of days. But I sold him (as a chronic laminitic, I could never get him back on grass) and they had him shod and had no problems turning him on grass out at all. Which seems to add weight to the theory that laminitis is dependant on blood volume to the feet.....

I just wish there was some money that could be earned by the drug companies, we'd see some research done soon enough then!

C

vickyclink

cptrayes

I was shocked when I learnt about it Vickyclink, but it explained why I have bought horses with short necks at three only to find that they have lovely necks at six! As you say, the damage that you could do with rollkur doesn't bear thinking about.

C

pat

vickyclink

wow pat! thats so interesting!

becnreps

hobnob

I wouldnt have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes !

westernfreak

my dressage horse was Very foot sore everytime he was shod after asking my farrier to try shoeing him cold and of course being refused ! I decieded to go barefoot as my neice had allready surgested . the diferance was amazeing what lenghend strides we acceived and just floating along the only pity was that I was no longer competing so people could see the differance ! mind you they proberly wouldnt admit it was because he was no longer encombered with lumps of heavy metal on his feet ! I also had a resque racehorse who was in a bad way and he made a good return to health and soundness unfortuneately the next owners had him shod . The healthy diet is paramount why do people feed mollasses we never used to in the good old days ? My young Quarter horses will not be shod while they are with me

cptrayes

Ah but Westernfreak aren't Quarterhorses one of the breeds which are genetically predisposed not to be able to go barefoot because of the weight of their muscled bodies on compact feeT Laughing

?

C

westernfreak

lots of Q horses are barefoot does what you are saying mean I need to take extra care of my youngsters or they will they have to have dreded shoes later on ? at the moment there feet are good touch wood ! I know when some Q horses are imported from U S A they find our grazeing to lush & they suffer with laminitus but I am new to the breed so any imfo would be very helpfull thanks very much for your reply

cptrayes

No, sorry, I am laughing because they are one of the breeds that "people" say can't go barefoot because of genetics, and they cite the fact that they are heavily muscled horses with small feet. There are plenty of people who have no problem with them barefoot at all, and think that those who do are simply getting something in the diet, environment and work wrong.

The "genetics" thing is a bit of a standing joke for us on this forum, I didn't mean to scare you, sorry. Confused

horsesfirst

Westernfreak - welcome to the forum - don't take our wicked ways too seriously. The lovely thing about most of the people here is that we are capable of having a laugh at ourselves and the world in general without getting bent out of shape.

So in the same vein and on the theme of 'genetics' Very Happy

It is inevitable because of genetics that my half warmblood, 1/4 QH, 1/4 Arab will have two weak, shelly feet which will need shoeing, one foot which is too small which will need shoeing and one good foot which can go bare Very Happy

Just need to decide which foot is which Very Happy

On a more serious note - I have seen and worked on/with QH's with foot problems, but nothing that wasn't induced by that special brand of QH managment (break em early shoe em young and feed all sorts of inappropriate rubbish to make them even fatter (sorry muscled).

Love the breed, not so much what is done to them.

Westernfreak you are wise to keep your babies bare. Also check out the material on how to keep a young foot healthy. I think Pete Ramey has some.

westernfreak

Sorry, I took you the wrong way - glad you have got a wicked sense of humour so have I, but being new thought I had better curb it! going to try & make sure my youngsters don't get overtopped, but they are from working strain not showing. Thanks for your replies. Now sat here with a glass of wine so won't be compus mentus til tomorrow. Very Happy

perhaps my name should have been oldsoak not westernfreak

sarahh

Chris Thompson

Sez

westernfreak

yhanks for all your replies .whoops must still be last nights wine I ment Thanks for replies ! ! yes have Pete R book so will refresh my memorey also have Gossip near by so will be kept in line & informed ! will be interesting to see if my youngsters change while they are at school all additives went with them but differant work soil & hay time will tell ! Isnt it awfull when they are out of your hands ?

hobnob

Welcome westernfreak !

SaphRo

I first dipped my toe into the barefoot pool two years ago. I'd moved to a newly established yard and were having troubles finding a decent farrier. My mare had suffered from horrid long toes and collapsed heals. She's recovered by then but I was keen for it not to happen again. I post quite alot on another forum and the barefoot bug had just started there. I was put in touch with a EP, who came and took my mare's shoes off tidied up the hoof and came out every four weeks to trim. At the second trim I moved to a different yard. Things were going well untill about 5 months later and Saph went fotty. I treated her as a laminitic, to no joy. She was sound in the school but footy on anything else. The yard had hardcore everywhere so even getting her to the field got a trouble. I tried hoof boots which seemed to mask the problem but still my mare was unhappy.

I'm ashamed to say I gave up. The yard farrier put shoes back on her, but he is a bloody good farrier. With the shoes back on all was going well but soon some problems came back. She's got quite straight hind leg confirmation so wore her hind shoes away smooth quite quickly which meant she slipped everywhere.

I'm now at a better yard, with a variety of surfaces which is great for transitioning and she's on grass livery. As you'll prob find out soon I think mollases and cerials are the reute of all evil and is the food of the devil so for the past five years she's been fed a forage only diet. At the mo I'm trialing Copra Cool Stance with Brewers Yeast, Seaweed, Rosehips and Cider Vinegar.

Up until her abscess we were quite happily hacking out for an hour 3 or 4 times a weeks with schooling for 3 hours a week. Now with the dark nights we would hack for 2 hours and school the rest. Her shoes came off in July.

I'm a lot more dedicated to Barefoot now, and hopefully can find a dedicated trimmer in my area to help us as my farrier - he is good but has ignored my concerns about her white lines and flare.