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 "Drank the Kool Aid"
Posts: 5496
  
Location: Iowa, LA | Lindsay- I promise you that I had the best of the best farriers and vets working together to get my horse sound and nothing they did worked until I pulled his shoes. They had him jacked up in pads, wedges, glue-ons, equi pack, blah blah blah. I had multiple people telling me that I had the best farrier working on him and if he couldn't fix him, no one could. Well, like I said, he did get his feet looking better about a year into working on him, but he was still LAME. And, then six months later, his feet were right back to where they were before he started working on them. I could write a book on barefoot, now! LOL I took in a THOROUGHBRED off the track (which everyone told me I would never be able to have good feet on a THOROUGHBRED) with feet like Jug's and walking like a marching soldier....strangest thing you'd ever seen. He was toe jabbing because his heels hurt so bad. Of course, my vet said YOU CANNOT PULL HIS SHOES OR HE WILL REALLY BE LAME. Well, I pulled his shoes and started booting him. By the next trim he was a little better, and by the third trim I really saw the difference. When that horse left me, after being barefoot about 9 months, he had gorgeous feet and was walking BAREFOOT (no boots) on gravel and moving (striding out) like a horse should. He is what convinced me to pull shoes on every horse I had.
Also, once you pull those shoes, you will see that the amount of growth is crazy. It took me 1 whole year to grow a complete new foot on Jug when he was shod. It took me 8 months barefoot. He had been shod many more years than that TB I took in, so he did have a lot more long term damage. The TB only took 6 months to grow a complete new foot! That is without all the crap I had Jug on when he was shod!!! I had him on a hoof supplement, gelatin, magnetic bell boots, blistering the coronary band, etc etc etc and it still took him 1 year to grow that foot out! 8 months with NOTHING put on those feet and NO SUPPLEMENTS at all! All he gets is grass, grass hay, Purina Ultium, and California Trace minerals. No cracks, no chips, no crumbling walls on any of my horses now. And I NEVER paint anything on the feet like I used to. Always keep this little saying that I heard from Pete Ramey in mind: "You grow hoof in MILES, not MONTHS". The more exercise that horse can get, the better for his feet.
I'm not telling you that shod is wrong and maybe one day I'll have to shoe my horses again. But I can promise you I will do everything I can to NOT shoe. When you have a well educated farrier like the one in Decatur TX that shoes but knows how healthy barefeet can be and how much better it is for them, then you have found a gold mine! He's got the best of both worlds! He flat out told me that the way they teach in farrier school is NOTHING like he shoes/trims. He said he went because he needed that little piece of paper to give people confindence, but he shoes completely different than that.
I hope that I don't offend anyone, but this is just my experience with my three shod horses. I also had one baby that had never had shoes and he improved with better trimming. His feet had a funky shape with extremely flared quarters. Several board members have since contacted me and have gone barefoot. I would love to share their stories, but not sure if they would want to come on here publicly and speak.
I wish you the best of luck! I hope, no matter the route you choose, your horse does well! Again, it's just my little bit of experience since going barefoot. Farrier lady can certainly give you better advice than I can! ;-) | |
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"Drank the Kool Aid"
Posts: 5496
Location: Iowa, LA | And just because I've drank the Kool-Aid and am bat s**t crazy about this barefoot crap now:
I want to show you pics of my mare's feet before and after going barefoot. Note how elongated the hoof capsule was. This is so typical of shod feet. They almost look like the horses are on stilts, yet the coffin bone is right next to the ground. This is not a foot that is long on growth, but the internal structures of the foot have actually "sunk" towards the ground. Farrier Lady can probably explain what happens better than I can. Notice how much the hoof capsule shortened after pulling shoes and also, again, take note of those heels changing from long/underrun to backing up and standing up. Ok...I have GOT TO GO FEED NOW! LOL I'll leave your thread alone for a little while!! ;-) Just wanted to show you more *proof* of how the feet can change for the better.
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 Hog Tie My Mojo
Posts: 4847
 
Location: Opelousas, LA | That is so typical of racetrack shoeing, there are still farriers at the track that believe you get more traction by paring out the sole into a "cup" and that long toes give you a longer stride. Don't get me wrong, there are some very good farriers at the track but many are not and most trainers (and vets too) are not educated on what a foot should look like.
Here is an example of years of bad racetrack shoeing, this horse has bowed several times (hmmmm, I wonder why) and is now a pony horse. In the solar view you can see how streched the white line is. One shoeing in NB shoes and he is much better, still a long way from right.
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 Expert
Posts: 2674
Location: Silver Lake, MN | Love these posts!! I learn so much with this. | |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1118
Location: The South | Thank you Annemarea and Barnmom for the pictures!! And Annemarea-I don't want you to "leave my post alone"! Girl, you have no idea how much this is helping me. I am so excited to learn about this, now more than ever. I'm fixing to leave for an appointment, but when I get back I'm going to try to study the pictures some more and see what I can learn.
Farrierlady-you're a brave woman to offer to help me with any questions I may have along the way. I've been stuck in the house since my accident Sep. 22nd so I'm going a little crazy! Maybe this will give me something to focus on so I don't bounce off of the walls. Shoot, learning about feet and shoeing might be as helpful to me as it is for my horses! 
I'm loving these Christmas emoticons | |
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  Potato Soup Queen
Location: Alabama | Here's some food for thought.... Many race track farriers never shoe a lame horse.....think about it. | |
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"Drank the Kool Aid"
Posts: 5496
Location: Iowa, LA | Farrierlady - 2013-12-18 1:56 PM Here's some food for thought.... Many race track farriers never shoe a lame horse.....think about it.
Why??? | |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | I'm guessing because if they were lame they would have been pulled from the race and if I remember right most TB are shod pretty close to the race itself... | |
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Hog Tie My Mojo
Posts: 4847
Location: Opelousas, LA | At $40 or more a day, they don't keep a lame horse in training very long.
or
They are so full of cortisone they can't be lame.
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The horse is not lame until AFTER he is shod.
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