125. Horse shoes - a necessary evil?

So, i have made a decision with regards Spices hooves and unfortunately that is to put shoes back on her. Having persisted for 4 months with attention to diet, turnout and work load i feel i have given it my very best shot and now is the time to face up to reality. Someone once said to me that 'every horse can go barefoot but not every owner can' and at the time i believed this statement to be true but having seen Spice get progressively worse over the last 4 months i can honestly say that i don't think it is. Perhaps if Spice was never shod in the first place she'd have had more of a chance of succeeding - that i will never know but at present i believe her hooves are just to weak to go through the transition. She seems constantly uncomfortable and that's just being on grass without being ridden so i know that for her to be sound on roads even if it is at all possible would take another year at least and in the meanwhile what do i do watch her suffer and become so stiff she can hardly walk?

I feel that a lot of the barefoot stories you read always end in success but i'm betting that there's a hell of a lot that don't so i wanted to be honest and tell everyone about giving up because i think horse owners should try to remain as open minded about this subject as possible.

I do believe that it is Spice's genetics which have led to this failure (although i know there are barefoot thoroughbreds out there). But bare in mind that a typical thoroughbreds hooves are likely to be weaker than those of a native breed. Just like some humans have thin nails some horses have thin walls.

Just like some horses grow a thick winter coat some horses don't because some have been bred to be fine and fast so rather a horses coat is replaced with a rug as are its hooves replaced with shoes.

Why am i not going to put hoof boots on Spice? Because if she's lame in grass i don't believe hoof boots will make her sound. And what if i lose a boot during a ride and she steps on a sharp stone which punctures her sole and gives her another abscess? My friends thoroughbred horse had 9 abscesses in one year and that happened just being out in the field!

Of course there are other alternatives to hoof boots...plastic shoes which are undoubtedly better for your horse but at £175.00's a pair are also completely unaffordable for me at least.

http://www.imprintsport.com/

I am glad i tried going barefoot with Spice because i have learned heaps and it forced me spend some much needed time with her on the ground.

But i would like to point out to anyone else considering going barefoot that if your horse has genetically weak hooves then you may be fighting a losing battle - no matter how hard you try.

I guess the difficult thing is finding a professional who will give you an honest unbiased assessment of your horses hooves. I know two barefoot trimmers told me that genetically Spice had strong hooves but then again they were barefoot trimmers and i'm guessing a farrier would say the opposite and my vets comments were 'she has very flat soles and thin walls so you're probably going to have to put shes back on her'...so who do you believe?

Personally, i think the vets opinion is likely to be the least biased so i would probably start there and if they are of the opinion that your horse needs shoes - it probably does.

Spice is only a quarter thoroughbred, half appaloosa and something else so she isn't even 100% thoroughbred but looking at her you would probably think she was.

For those considering going barefoot, Linda Cowles from HealthyHoof.com offers the following advice...

Removing the shoes from a marginally sound horse and giving it a good trim doesn't miraculously cure the effects of years of imbalance, inappropriate diet, thrush or poor shoeing.

If your horse has been living with pain for months or years, be prepared to develop a simple therapeutic plan that will increase your odds of ending the tremendous emotional and financial drain you've experienced once and for all. Your horse can often be sound in a few months, but you need to be able to change how you feed him and manage his feet.
Healing Takes More Than A Good Trim!

Clients who proactively invest in supportive modalities like dietary assessment, acupressure, body work, dentistry, thorough saddle fitting, nutritional self-education and chiropractic, increase the odds that their horse will experience a good degree of soundness. Other rehab accelerators are instituting a routine exercise program; using boots and pads to improve movement quality; and improving the horses environment to eliminate the potential for thrush and laminitis.

The fact is, pathological horses need to develop and strengthen their internal hoof structures, and to do that they need consistent exercise with correct movement.

A horse that is hobbling around sore gets minimal benefit from the movement because toe-first movement, typical in horses with hoof pain, delays or prohibits that horses rehabilitation. Clients who invest in riding or rehab boots used with dense sole and frog pads to stimulate good heel, sole, and frog development, see comparably dramatic changes. Some horses need boots around the clock initially, but most do fine using boots only for exercise.

Plan To Succeed!

I suggest that all of my clients read the articles on Pete Ramey's http.www.hoofrehab.com web site and visit http://www.ironfreehoof.com/. These are two of the many places I go when I need answers or information. I'm humbled by the ability horses have to overcome years of imbalance and distortion, and by the depth of their owners care and compassion.

I also suggest that clients assess their horses diets and prepare to change how they feel about things like uncontrolled pasture access, grain and grazing muzzles. Safergrass.org http://www.safergrass.org/ and Dr Eleanor Kellon's site http://www.drkellon.com/ both give responsible owners a great place to start assessing diets.

Assessing Health & Level of Soundness Before & After Shoes Are Removed

I assess movement before and after a trim; movement assessment is one of the best tools a trimmer has.

When a horse is chronically unsound or has an extreme pathology, I suggest that clients have X-rays taken, and if it appears that the horse has metabolic problems, I also suggest testing the blood for glucose and insulin levels.

If a horse's pain could be structural or the result of muscle problems, chiropractors or body workers be consulted, and if a horse has symptoms that lead towards ulcers and gastric distress, a vet needs to be called in.

Soundness doesn't begin and end at the hoof.

Do all trimmers recognize all of these symptoms or suggest these tests? No. We aren't vets, and we aren't body workers, but seeing horses on a regular 4 to 6 week schedule and trying to help chronically unsound horses become sounder eventually teaches more perceptive trimmers to look for clues about the root cause of unsoundness.

If the previous farrier removed excessive amounts of sole, frog and bar when trimming, I suggest leaving the shoes on longer, allowing the sole to thicken and mature, and let the trimmer remove the shoes to ensure that its done correctly. When the sole has been excessively thinned, or the horse has laminitis, rehab boots and pads (I often suggest Old Mac's because they are also a riding boot) may be used around the clock until the sole has developed adequate density.

A good barefoot hoof care provider is in the business of improving a horses level of soundness, so if a horse is unsound, your trimmer should be interested - even if they can't resolve the problem personally. Unsoundness can be a result of body pain, tendon injury or internal problems. Keep your trimmer in the loop.
Emphasize Replacing Shoes with Boots & Pads - NOT Removing Shoes

Hoof protection is important immediately after removing shoes unless a horse has great feet and a perfect rehab environment. With some exceptions, I require clients to buy front boots. Sometimes rear boots are required.

Your hoof care provider should be able to fit and adjust a variety of boots, and should stock at least one brand of boots. They should be able to explain booting and padding to ensure that you understand the benefit of boots over shoes and to reinforce the value of booting through transitions.

Its a good idea to take regular pictures and take notes of your horses transition; it's easy to forget how bad a horses feet were when the transition started.

The Transition Process

Pull Shoes, Trim and Bevel, Fit Boots & Pads -- And Ride!! If your horse was sound in shoes? Once shoes are off, I suggest that my clients use boots when necessary for hand walking, turnout and stall use.

In essence, use boots if needed to keep horse moving correctly and comfortably. Many transitioning horses don't need boots except for trails, but boots are critical for tender feet, and inadequate booting results in significantly longer transitions.

Most horses coming out of shoes need some protection for trail riding, and many owners don't recognize poor movement, so if you aren't sure about the quality of your horses movement, get used to riding in boots. It'll pay off in the long run.

The Myth About Building Tough Feet - When I first started taking my horses barefoot, I was told to ride over gravel and rocky trails barefoot to "toughen feet up". It made sense, but my horses feet got progressively more tender until they could barely move in pasture. Their soles were too thin and immature from having years of shoes followed by inappropriate farrier pasture trims and imbalance to move correctly on hard, rough surfaces. Attempting to rush hoof development by riding barefoot when soles are tender will reverse or extend the transition period.

It takes most un-shod horses several months to a year to develop into a "Gravel Cruncher", and some horses will always need boots on tough gravel. A hint is that the better your horses diet is (low carb hay, low to no grain or molasses, no high carb pasture) the faster your horses feet will transition and the stronger they will become.

Properly fit boots are easy to use with a little practice, and vendors like Easy Care provide educational materials and support if your trimmer isn't available to help you. Your trimmer should stock and sell at least the EasyCare products (the industry leader) including the pads, but should also know about popular boots like Renegade and rehab boots like the Soft Rides.

Boots protect feet with flat soles, weak heel buttresses, sole bruising, white line separation and tender frogs. Horses that are extremely tender can be helped more by adding padding and boots full time for the first few weeks to accelerate their transition.

When Do Sole Pads Help Transitioning Horses? I put Easy Care Dome Pads in the boots of most of my coming-out-of-shoes clients; I like their density, the pads make the boots feel tighter, and the cushioning improves the movement of most horses. Some flat footed horses need Comfort pads, which are thinner.

When Do Frog Pads Help Transitioning Horses? If a horse has atrophied frogs and has compromised movement, I cut frog shaped wedges out of a foam kneeling pad (sold in garden departments) and tape the wedge to the sole of the boot where the frog will hit, then boot the horse and walk it out to see if it encourages better movement. If it does, I duct tape the frog pad firmly in place in the sole of the boot. EasyCare also sells frog pads.
How To Support Good Hoof Development During the Transition

Hoof and Frog Health - Oxine thrush soak and topical thrush treatments like Usnea, Pete's Goo and Oxine provide a way to eliminate Thrush forever. I suggest several days of daily 20 minute Oxine soaking sessions to most clients after the shoes come off. See my Links Page's Thrush section here:.

Environment - See my Passive Conditioning web page for information on providing a good environment for growing a better hoof , or my Links Page's Horse Environment section.

Regular Exercise - Provide a turnout environment that encourages the horse to exercise a few hours a day, or provide 1 hour a day of brisk hand walking or riding. Successful transitions are dependent on your horse getting adequate exercise in comfortable footing or hoof boots.

Good Nutrition - Diet is critical! High grain / alfalfa diets aren't healthy for your horse, and correct supplements support your horses rehab. If your horse has a history of laminitis or founder, has a cresty neck or is over weight, have your vet test it for Insulin Resistance and Cushing's. See my links pages selection of Diet links for more information. Safergrass.org http://www.safergrass.org/ and Dr Eleanor Kellon's site http://www.drkellon.com/ help owners start assessing diets.
Transitions Take Time

Transitions take time because the damaged and under-developed areas of your horses feet need to heal and grow strong. The only good way to "rush through a barefoot transition" is to follow the basic advice to the letter, get boots and pads for all four feet, and exercise your horse frequently and adequately. The more effort you put into your horses transition, the more your horse will get out of it.

Transition Requirements have a greater impact when you are trying to restore the soundness of an unsound horse.
Keep Your Horse Comfortable & Moving!

Transitions can be particularly uncomfortable for horses who were lame or tender before beginning a transition, and horses diagnosed with navicular, side bone and ring bone are usually sound once they are completely transitioned to barefoot. Their feet need to develop and their soles thicken and mature before that happens.

Early phase hoof discomfort is often caused by thrush or abscesses due to laminitis. Some of the discomfort a horse experiences in early transition phases may be due to thin soles, hoof remodeling or development.

Abscesses are particularly painful, and an an abscessing horse may act as if his or her foot is broken. When my clients describe an abscess, I suggest that they soak the foot in warm Epsom Salts water several times a day. I personally never dig abscesses out, preferring to soak the foot and encourage the abscess to vent naturally. See my Abscess Page for more information, and contact your hoof care provider with concerns or questions.

If your horse has abscessed, its always a good idea to recheck your diet, because mild (sub-clinical) laminitis caused by dietary imbalance is a common cause of abscessing. Laminitis can also be a result of vaccinations, hard riding or inappropriate trimming.
Responding To Skeptics Concerns About Barefoot

Once the shoes are off, take a good look at your horse and be honest with yourself and your skeptics about how comfortable or uncomfortable the horse actually is and why.

Under what circumstances is your horse uncomfortable, and how severe is that discomfort?
Does the discomfort go away when boots or boots and pads are used?
Do you use boots adequately?
Is the discomfort worse than it was when the horse was shod?
Has your hoof care provider been consulted about it?

Most of my clients describe conversations they have had with their friends, vets and associates about the advisability / sanity of barefoot transitions, and while they are comfortable with their decision to take their horses barefoot, they feel challenged by the skepticism and advice offered by people who see their horse slow down when it gets to a patch of gravel when walking around the barn without boots. I invite folks to watch me trim and ask questions even though it slows me down.

Horses *can* be hurt by invasive trims! There are many reports of horses being over trimmed, radically and unnecessarily, by well intentioned trimmers who were trained to use techniques now thought to be invasive. The best response to skepticism is to use a conservative trimmer with a history of being able to help horses like yours, then follow the necessary transition requirements and wait the skeptics out. Let your horses emerging soundness speak for you.

Every horse's transition is unique. Hoof care providers aren't all clairvoyant or psychic, so while they may have more expertise with tough transitions than owners, they can't miraculously make your horse sound or unsound. Hoof care providers trim feet to the best of their ability, most of us fit boots, suggest padding and give advice, but the bulk of the care and management of newly unshod horses is in the hands of their owner.
If Your Horse Isn't Moving Comfortably Without Boots After a Few Months...

PLEASE be open with your trimmer about how comfortable your horse is the day after a trim! I recently had a client whose draft horse I've trimmed for a year tell me that his horse is tender for a week after a trim, yet when I would go to trim the horse and ask how he'd been, I was told "fine". We can't help you if you try to not upset us with "bad news"!

Here are several reasons horses will be uncomfortable on "average" footing after a few months:

* Horses who were chronically unsound at the beginning of the transition may have internal problems that take time to heal or reverse.
* Horses on rich diets (any grain or grain based pellets, feed containing any molasses, oat and grain hays, green pasture) or with symptoms of Insulin Resistance, Cushing's, Laminitis or Founder.
* Horses with thrush
* Horses with chronic body pain or discomfort. Lameness is often a response to pain above the coronet band!

Early discomfort occurs because the horses feet need time to develop and toughen, but if your horse isn't moving well on good footing without boots after six months and if you have provided an appropriate diet (low carb grass hay, little to no grain), environment, exercise on good footing (flat, dry dirt, sand, deep pea gravel or or mats) or in boots, and you have treated for thrush even if you are sure your horse is okay, you need to revisit the situation. The trim may need to change! Or you may need to recheck your diet plan, saddle fit.

A vet or body worker assessment is advisable at this point, because the problem may be internal to the foot or leg.

We all hate moving from what may be an ideal barn for us, but if it isn't working for our horse and we can't modify the environment to suit our horse, moving is advisable. Barefoot isn't a quick fix or miracle cure, it's a lifestyle change for your horse.
Top Five Transition Challenges
Some horses feet have conditions that make their transition particularly challenging. Sometimes these challenges only impact the difficulty of the trim and don't impact the time it takes to transition, but some of the conditions extend a transition time out until the entire wall has re grown.

Thrush & Diet

I sound like a broken record on this, but Thrush and an inappropriate Diet are the primary reasons the horses I see have foot problems. When horses have tendon and ligament injuries? navicular? If you look at the hoof, you usually see contracted heels, imbalance, long toes, chipping walls, flare, and somewhere in that mess is thrush and a diet that is too rich for an equine.

Thin / Flat Soles

It takes several months of beveled trimming and solid hoof wall to allow for the development of a healthy, concave sole with adequate strength to support the "bony column" (the coffin bone and leg) and lift the sole above most gravel and debris.

A good bevel rounds the bottom of the wall so that it doesn't flare; instead, the beveled edge transfers pressure upwards from the walls edge towards the center of the hoof, encouraging the development of concavity and preserving the developing sole. It's important to find a hoof care provider who knows how to bevel the edge of the wall correctly.

Contracted Heels, Atrophied Frogs, Thrushy Frogs

Maintenance therapy includes having your hoof care provider trim the frogs loose flaps and open any cavities. The owner needs to soak the foot regularly until all signs of thrush are gone, then provide dry footing or deep pea gravel to insure that the thrush stays gone. Soft footing like shavings holds moisture and encourages thrush to develop.

See my Thrush article for more information
Laid Over Bars / Under-run / Under Developed Heels / Long Toes

These conditions can almost always be reversed with regular barefoot maintenance.

Laid-over bars - This condition occurs when there is inadequate depth in the hoof capsule for the bars to be upright, and its corrected by providing a good, non-invasive trim that allows sole to build a thick, durable dome that is capable of supporting the weight of the horse as its transferred to the coffin bone. Ritually thinning the sole in order to provide a surface to nail on shoes is the primary cause of the loss of capsule depth that results in laid-over bars.

Under-run and under developed heels - This is one of those "what came first, chicken or the egg" scenarios. Under-run heels are seen in conjunction with long toes; when a horse has a long inside toe quarter, it also has an under-run outside heel quarter. I feel that long toes are a result of toe-first landings, and my approach to correct them is to treat the horse for thrush (even if its not apparent) and keep the wall at the toes back in line with the coffin bone.

These horses, even when the condition is chronic, are usually sound in boots and pads for trail and arena work.

Depending on how long the horse has had this condition, it takes several months to restore the foot to a normal shape, and in the case of severely contracted or under-run heels, it may take several years. Sometimes the coffin bone has remodeled significantly, and we've seen that much of that remodeling is reversible to some extent.

Thin / Weak Poorly Attached Walls

Walls, Walls, Walls, Walls, Walls!!!

Thin, weak walls grow out fast once the shoes are removed and good circulation has been restored to the hoof. Dr Diane Isabel, a research partner of Dr Bowker's, did research on blood supply restriction in feet that are peripherally loaded, and while I don't have the study at the moment (it was quoted several times by Dr Bowker), my understanding is that blood flow into the hoof was reduced significantly (60% to 80%) when a hoof was peripherally loaded, i.e., shod.

What this means to you is that while a 8mm to 12mm wall thickness is "normal" on a shod horse, a healthy bare hoof wall quickly grows to be 15mm to 25mm thick, and is much denser than the wall on a shod hoof.

White line separation or a stretched white line is the bane of transitions and is caused directly by a too rich diet! Transitioning trimmers and owners wait for 4 to 5 months for the wall to grow a super solid hoof wall with a tight white line connection, but those changes are visible in a month or two on the right diet..

Wall Flare and dished walls - excessive wall length causes one side of the hoof to bend inward or bulge outward.
Wry foot - horse wears the outer walls excessively. This is often a result of chronic thrush but also typically involves diet.
Cracks - can be the result of coronet or tubule damage or wall imbalance

Linda Cowles Hoof Care
Serving the greater SF Bay Area & Northern California