Saturday, October 27, 2007

barefoot

i've been thinking lately about this...

Molly has been barefoot for ages (only had shoes on for 6 months, then took them off againn, since I had her, and it was years before that since she'd been shod).

She doesn't get white line disease. She doesn't get thrush. She hasn't had any abcesses (touching wood as I type).

she's trimmed by the farrier every few weeks.

I don't wash her feet out every day or whatever....

You all know the work she does (granted, not huge amounts!)

Anyway, I spend a lot of time reading other forums and what other people seem to struggle with. White Line disease, thrush, abcesses; and i get the feeling they get trimmed more often than Molly does.

Do other people do too much? is this not a less is more situation? bearing in mind that as the horse moves, the hoof is getting worn, and there's a balance to be struck between the amount of growth/amount of wear - if the work/growth balance is right then hardly any trim would really be needed, just tidy ups...

anyway, what do people think?

And I wonder

1 comment:

Muriel said...

From my failed barefoot experiement, I would say that the horse management is the key to barefoot.

Linda's feet came apart when:
1/ I changed her stall for a bigger one with a pen,
2/ they changed the sand of the round-pen for a VERY abrasive one,
3/ work level increased dramatically.

Her feet disappeared ...
She is fed mainly hay, and MagOx, oils etc... Nutrition is okay and under control. But I could not control her environement ...

So IMO, it really depends the ground and the bacter in the soil too.

I di what you told me too, I set up my StatCounter account ;-)