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Member
Posts: 12
| My gelding was shod all around up until yesterday, when we switched barns and I made the decision to pull all shoes. My reasoning behind pulling them was because this horse is *extremely* hard to keep shoes on. He had all 4 redone on Tuesday (4/5) and by Saturday (4/9) his backs were loose to the point of clanking and his fronts were coming off. Since we moved him from an active trail stable, where he went on rocks and hard terrain constantly, to grass pastures and loose soil. The move wasn't exactly planned, it was more of a 'get the h*** out of Dodge, pronto' type, or I would have had a chance to transition him a bit better. However, now we're noticing how sore he is from the shoes. The vet that looked at him yesterday said to leave him barefoot for a few months, let him get settled into just being a horse, and go from there. He has contracted heels (?) and his fronts are too short and his backs too long, even though they were just trimmed. I will no longer use the farrier I did, as he was connected to the old barn, plus his work is just bad. My questions are, are there any supplements I can put him on to help him regrow a good foot, and what can I do to ease the pain for him a bit? Right now he's not going to be worked much, just put on pasture and let to be a horse until I graduate in a month's time. So, any suggestions? |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
 
Location: SE Louisiana | Biotin... But you have to understand. The hoof grows out of the hairline and it takes a year to reach the ground. Do not let the new farrier rasp off the upper hoofwall as it grows downward or there will not be enough wall left to support the horse when it finally grows down far enough to reach the ground. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | Sounds like it was your farrier's poor workmanship that caused you to lose the shoes all the time. As stated above I'd put him on Biotin but if he's really sore you can have your farrier use glue on shoes to provide some protection from the ground. If it's going to be really wet, or muddy where he is don't bother as they won't stay but if it's sandy or dry there it will help keep him from potentially developing an abscess. |
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Expert
Posts: 3514
| Equine Regen. Will.help with.pain and.inflammation and you will.have a new hoof in 4.weeks |
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 It's not my fault I'm perfect
Posts: 13739
Location: Where the long tails flow, ND | komet. - 2016-04-12 11:45 AM Biotin... But you have to understand. The hoof grows out of the hairline and it takes a year to reach the ground. Do not let the new farrier rasp off the upper hoofwall as it grows downward or there will not be enough wall left to support the horse when it finally grows down far enough to reach the ground.
This.
New feet take a really long time. My farrier broke his leg and I had to use a sub., I was dealing with that one mess up for months and only used the sub 1 time. Yes you can find things to help speed the process, but you can only speed it up so much. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 425
Location: California | If you're on FB, there's a really great group where I learned a TON about barefoot trimming. I even prefer to trim myself now. & I started with an abscess prone horse.. It's called ABC Hoofcare-natural hooves. However fair warning, they are definitely not fans of shoeing LOL. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| I have a gelding a lot like this, and I'll admit we don't do his feet as often as we should. We used the Keratex Hoof Hardener on his feet, and it was amazing how quickly they stopped breaking off and they actually looked decent when we were consistent with him.
Warning though, do not get it on your skin or their skin, it burns like no other and will leave welts. It is some STRONG stuff, but really does work great on poor hooves. |
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Member
Posts: 12
| He's going from rocks and such to pasture and good dirt. I'm giving him the time off to just be a horse, and we'll see where he is in June (?) as I'm graduating and now til then is going to be school 24/7. I'm going to go by the feed store tomorrow afternoon and pick up a Biotin supplement that an old trainer of mine recommended and start that. I'll let y'all know how it goes! |
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