megan
Intermediate Poster
Posts: 108
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Post by megan on Jan 12, 2013 18:41:57 GMT 1
My horse is loosing her shoes days after being shod, my farrier is now charging me to replace them as he says her field is so muddy she wont keep them on anyway! the other horses in her field arent loosing them as often , should I just give up and go without while the ground is so soggy!? she wears overreach boots too and still looses them. If I go shoeless will she need some time before being ridden for her feet to harden and grow a bit? its becoming an obsession! are her shoes still on or not!!! Im loosing so much riding time because of this its getting daft!
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Post by jen1 on Jan 12, 2013 18:46:48 GMT 1
Id not bother, make sure her diet is right that would help with horn quality, and use boots
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Post by specialized on Jan 12, 2013 18:48:15 GMT 1
If she is regularly losing shoes I would be questioning the shoeing technique, especially whether the feet were correctly balanced.
With regard to removing the shoes you would probably struggle to be riding without boots initially - but you may be lucky, however the hoof balance issue would still need addressing.
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Post by kizi on Jan 12, 2013 18:59:23 GMT 1
My mare kept losing shoes the last 6 months exactly the same before I took them off for good! With a proper podiatrist trim she has transitioned waaaay better than when I had the farrier remove them previously.. I didn't think she'd manage barefoot because every time she lost a shoe she'd be bare and sore within hours. But now they are off almost 2 months and she's really good, perfect on hard and soft and only a little ouchy on stones where as previously she wouldn't even walk on grass without them... All down to the trim...
Tried the over reach boots too. Now, I needed the push to get her barefoot anyway and I had other reasons, but in all the years I had her she never lost a shoe (with a good farrier too) until the last few months, she was always fed the same etc too. The only difference was that due to ongoing soundness issues from an injury we had tried a bigger shoe than normal on veterinary advice... It wasn't that she was pulling them off, or that the mud was pulling them off, because even with the over reach boots she was, we've always had mud! It was simply that the shoes were too big for her natural foot shape and so her foot was not the natural shape and not able to hold them on due to how she was now moving, she could lose any one but mostly fronts etc etc...
If you want to keep her shod I would advise (not knowing you,horse,farrier etc etc) be sure her feet are good enough and being shod properly, if others are keeping theirs when she's not then it can't be the mud... So I would say its either her feet or the shoeing method...
Before I removed my mares shoes for good we had put her back to a smaller shoe size and she didn't lose 1 shoe is 8 weeks......!! Otherwise, go barefoot with research on diet etc
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Azrael
Grand Prix Poster
Posts: 2,733
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Post by Azrael on Jan 12, 2013 19:19:33 GMT 1
Loosing shoes was a big part of why coblet had hers off, it was getting so bad that I was hardly ever managing to ride. The field was muddy but she was loosing shoes a lot more than any of the others, turned out she had white line disease which had weakened the walls and made it difficult to keep shoes on. She also had some nasty cracks. She had a month or so of just walking in hand then boots for riding for about 6 months and I got more riding done in that time than when she'd had shoes on. In less than a year she was working without shoes or boots and all cracks had grown out.
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gill
Grand Prix Poster
Posts: 1,036
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Post by gill on Jan 13, 2013 11:21:33 GMT 1
Had this problem with my highland farrier suggested removing shoes . that was 4 years ago and we have never looked back. She has never had boots. And even with all this mud her hooves are in tip top condition.
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Post by marianne on Jan 13, 2013 12:11:32 GMT 1
I ended up taking my TB barefoot BECAUSE he couldn't keep shoes on! I suspect the farrier at the time wasn't as knowledgeable as I'd have liked and never mentioned nutrition as a major factor .... however 7-8 years on TB has really good barefoot feet :-)
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megan
Intermediate Poster
Posts: 108
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Post by megan on Jan 13, 2013 15:35:34 GMT 1
Ok , so what should I be feeding her to help with feet??
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Post by ladyndibs on Jan 13, 2013 16:36:42 GMT 1
From what I've read there are three equally important parts to good feet, shod or not.
Diet, a low sugar diet is often enough but some horses get footy if fed alfalfa in any form, may be something to bear in mind if you're having any problems, also some horses benefit from mineral suppliments, I think there are a couple of balancers that are better than others. If you want to try minerals seperately then magnesium, copper and zinc are really good for feet especially if you also give some sodium as it helps their body absorb the minerals.
Exercise, hooves generally grow in response to the amount of work they have to do but it can sometimes take a little while for the hoof to grow harder and stronger so it's important that your horse has regular exercise. Your horse will tell you what surfaces they can and can't cope but generally most horses will cope happily on tarmac roads and as the hoof hardens you'll get a feel for what they can or can't deal with, boots are sometimes an option but don't suit every owner/horse.
Hoof trim, it doesn't need to be a trimmer, a farrier should be able to trim a horse shoes or not but it is more important that the frogs and soles are able to do their job not just 'look pretty'.
Hopefully some experienced people will be able to add to or correct what I've written. Oberon I seem to remember has posted on here from time to time (could be wrong) but has a vast knowledge of hooves barefoot or shod and I'm sure there are lots more people who can help.
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Post by specialized on Jan 13, 2013 18:50:39 GMT 1
Just to add to diet, a good probiotic can be critical as a poorly functioning hind gut will often lead to poor feet.
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Post by ladyndibs on Jan 13, 2013 19:00:40 GMT 1
Just to add to diet, a good probiotic can be critical as a poorly functioning hind gut will often lead to poor feet. Specialized what sort of thing do you recommend? Is brewers yeast any good? |
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Post by specialized on Jan 13, 2013 20:14:40 GMT 1
Brewers yeast is fine, but there is some evidence that the best for horses is yea-sacc.
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Post by Hannah on Jan 13, 2013 22:54:05 GMT 1
megan, what do you feed your horse at the moment? You may find that being out 24/7 is not ideal for barefeet especially if it is very wet. Some horses are also particularly sensitive to grass (I have one like this). I would advise doing as much reading up on barefoot as you can, then just take off the hinds to begin with, you may find that without back shoes, the fronts get pulled off less easily.
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Post by jen1 on Jan 13, 2013 23:30:54 GMT 1
see my theory is that if feet are healthy that wet has nothing to do with it,i wonder how camargue horses fair,? ours live out and you can tell who isn't doing to well, although i wonder if hind gut could present its-self as metabolic problems, ?
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Post by specialized on Jan 14, 2013 9:51:06 GMT 1
Agreed jen, ours are out 24/7 in the wettest conditions without problem - in fact over-dry conditions can give as many problems as the wet. If the feet and particularly the frogs are healthy there should not be a problem in the wet.
I am sure hind gut and metabolics are related, we have a livery with ems and if his probiotics are dropped he tends towards laminitis very quickly.
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