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 Expert
Posts: 1631
   
Location: Somewhere around here | So my horse has one club foot in the front, he was born with it but my husband bought said horse as a yearling so he's been managing his hoof since 2010. We had a very good farrier educating my husband (and sometimes me) about care of club feet and what to do and what not to do. We've never had shoes on this horse and my husband has learned to rasp and barefoot take care of this horse for the past few years because our farrier wasn't willing to come to our house just to rasp one horse. Honestly, from a business standpoint I don't blame him. So this horse is a grade 1 club, you can't even notice unless his feet get too long, but I was curious about a few things.
1. We're updating his rasping to every 2 weeks instead of 4, and mainly doing his heels and rounding his hooves in a slight mustang roll way. This is only if it's needed.
2. My husband and I were talking about maybe trying shoes on him to help with traction in the arena, but with rasping him every 2 weeks that would be a lot of money to dish out every month.
So I've been thinking about glue on shoes but I only had one horse before this that needed shoes and that was because he had navicular. I'm a big fan of letting the horse be barefoot as long as it's in their better part. I know some horses NEED shoes and some don't.
Has anyone one here had a athletic horse that had a clubbed foot? What did you do with him/her to give them the best chance?
Edited by cecollins0811 2018-02-03 7:41 AM
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1100
Location: Southeastern Idaho | The mare I currently rope on has a clubbed right front foot. You wouldn't know she has a clubbed foot unless you were looking for it. Use her as an open breakaway horse and one of the main ranch horses. Athletic enough for me for sure.
I have owned her since she was a yearling. Regular trimming (as you are doing) is a must in my opinion. This mare's club foot grows more rapidly than the others. Her heels were very contracted on that foot as well. I have used shoes on her since she was broke as a 3 year old. (we waited a year as she was small.) She started being very sensitive and ouchy right after shoeing as a 5 year old. We (farrier and I) decided to try Natural Balance shoes on her fronts to help with sole and heel support. Now that is all she wears. No more sensitivity after shoeing. Her heels have never looked better. But I have to have her reset every 5-6 weeks.
If we could go without shoes here I would love to. We have a weird combination of terrain in our Valley. Marshy soft valley (where we live) and rocky dry hills (where the cattle summer). I haven't been able to get away without shoes. My mare is 10 years old now and still (knock on wood) going strong. Love her and she is the first one I catch when I need a job done. |
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Veteran
Posts: 155
| I had a gelding with a slight club foot and he was shoed every 5 weeks and barefoot a couple months in winter. He stayed sound for years with this program |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12704
 
| My Zan stallion has a club foot. It's barely grade 1 now after 4 years of no shoes and an excellent barefoot trimmer. Bad farrier work created the club in the first place. Now that he is this many years into barefoot he can walk over 95% of surfaces without any wincing. Only where the gravel is larger and thinly spread over a hard surface bothers him at all now. He was never going to be a 1D horse, but cleans up every year in the 3D. He is Mr. Consistent in his runs.
I would never put shoes on him again. It causes me much stress to consider having to find another good barefoot trimmer if mine leaves or retires! If keeping your guy filed and shaped isn't stressing anyone I would keep doing what you're doing. |
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 Serious Snap Trapper
Posts: 4275
Location: In The Snow, AZ | Do you know what grade his club is?
My mare is about a grade two. She is shod. Went barefoot for a while. But she was slipping a bit, so put rims on the front. She needs done every 4-6 weeks. She’s a slow grower though and always has been. She is 14 this year and is running harder then she ever has. I’ve never had any issues with her club foot. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 383
| You can look up Pete Ramey he has tons of info about barefoot trimming “ correctly” - I have a gelding who had a pretty bad clubbed foot for years - ( Even at his worst he was still a top 1d and pro rodeo $ earner) but I had to inject coffin joints every 4 months to keep him sound- I studied a lot of Pete Ramey pulled my horses shoes and have been barefoot now for almost 2 years and now my boy no longer has a clubbed foot he does still have a slightly higher heel on that foot but he’s WAY more comfortable throughout his whole body! And he’s still clocking 1d- in my experience shoes are one of the worst things you can do to a club foot- I highly recommend the Pete Ramey cds and book |
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Expert
Posts: 1631
Location: Somewhere around here | As I mentioned before he's a grade 1 club. I'll have to look Pete up today! We bought a barefoot trimming book and it should be here today. I'm really excited to read it and learn more. We've been thinking about shoes because this past year/half a year he's been sore after every time we trim him, but he is a fast grower so we do our best to keep on top of it. |
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Expert
Posts: 1631
Location: Somewhere around here | shilohorse - 2018-02-04 10:26 PM
You can look up Pete Ramey he has tons of info about barefoot trimming “ correctly” - I have a gelding who had a pretty bad clubbed foot for years - ( Even at his worst he was still a top 1d and pro rodeo $ earner) but I had to inject coffin joints every 4 months to keep him sound- I studied a lot of Pete Ramey pulled my horses shoes and have been barefoot now for almost 2 years and now my boy no longer has a clubbed foot he does still have a slightly higher heel on that foot but he’s WAY more comfortable throughout his whole body! And he’s still clocking 1d- in my experience shoes are one of the worst things you can do to a club foot- I highly recommend the Pete Ramey cds and book
I got my book in yesterday and lo' behold the author is Pete Ramey! |
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