Lot's of B's.
When I got Bob he was barefoot behind and shod in front. His fores had obviously been shod for a while as his back feet were lovely and his front feet were... not .
So I tried to get a farrier to whip his front shoes off but it wasnt easy to find one (shortage up here). Eventually the yard Bob was on (he has moved now) grabbed one whilst I wasnt around and asked them to get his shoes off. Well. Not best pleased. I just arrived the next day to a slightly traumatised pony who refused to pick his feet up, and the story that it had taken an hour for the farrier to get the shoes off my rearing, kicking, plunging pony, who had been dragged against a door to stop him rearing any more, and then farrier had refused to trim the feet as he was too dangerous.
We'll leave that there .
He'd had the shoes on for about 11 weeks and his toes were quite long, so I left it a week and worked on picking his feet up, then got Pink's Lady to come and trim them for me. Took AGES (he was rather suspicious) but eventually got them looking rather nice and him walking nicely and landing heel first and balanced right.
He then spent basically all of the summer turned out at grass, and his feet self-trimmed nicely. He is slightly pigeon toed so PL came and rebalanced them very slightly once or twice but otherwise they stayed fine. His thrush is gone, frogs much better, bars developing nicely and generally foot looking much better all round.
Worryingly though, they havent really grown very much since that first trim - luckily we were cautious with it and didnt do anything drastic. He has been 100% fine on them until I started hacking him recently (once or twice a week since October). The roadwork has worn them away a little and on the rocky or frozen ground he has now become quite sore. The ground is always frozen in his field at the moment and Im worried he's constantly bruising his soles on it .
Had a look at the feet yesterday - left fore is short but fine, right fore also short and he has worn away his outer wall a little and is weight bearing on a slightly raised part just in from the wall, on his sole. He's 100% sound and strides out on the soft (gallops down the field to see me when it has rained) but is very hobbly when the ground is hard or rocky (in hand on yard, Im obviously not still riding him like this).
I was warned that Fell ponies are awful for having no foot growth but also that they dont wear their feet down easily. Im hoping that once Bob's general hoof health improves this will be true.
So, Questions. First, obviously his feet do grow as they were overgrown when his shoes came off. Will the growth pick up in summer (please!)? Any advice on how to manage his feet better during the transition? And also, which boots would suit him best (he is not being ridden again til he has boots)?
His feet are long, not round. Tried some Old Macs (that we happened to have around) on him yesterday and they were too wide and not long enough - his heel was standing on the back of the boot and the straps wouldnt do up, but you could get a finger down each side.
Happy to spend around £100 to get him a pair so suggest away.
Thanks!
xxx
PS. back feet are 100% sound on all surfaces and very healthy. Not wearing down like front ones are at all. Occasionally needs slight remedial rebalance (so obviously growing) as he is slightly cow hocked but they arent a problem at all - it's just the fores.
When I got Bob he was barefoot behind and shod in front. His fores had obviously been shod for a while as his back feet were lovely and his front feet were... not .
So I tried to get a farrier to whip his front shoes off but it wasnt easy to find one (shortage up here). Eventually the yard Bob was on (he has moved now) grabbed one whilst I wasnt around and asked them to get his shoes off. Well. Not best pleased. I just arrived the next day to a slightly traumatised pony who refused to pick his feet up, and the story that it had taken an hour for the farrier to get the shoes off my rearing, kicking, plunging pony, who had been dragged against a door to stop him rearing any more, and then farrier had refused to trim the feet as he was too dangerous.
We'll leave that there .
He'd had the shoes on for about 11 weeks and his toes were quite long, so I left it a week and worked on picking his feet up, then got Pink's Lady to come and trim them for me. Took AGES (he was rather suspicious) but eventually got them looking rather nice and him walking nicely and landing heel first and balanced right.
He then spent basically all of the summer turned out at grass, and his feet self-trimmed nicely. He is slightly pigeon toed so PL came and rebalanced them very slightly once or twice but otherwise they stayed fine. His thrush is gone, frogs much better, bars developing nicely and generally foot looking much better all round.
Worryingly though, they havent really grown very much since that first trim - luckily we were cautious with it and didnt do anything drastic. He has been 100% fine on them until I started hacking him recently (once or twice a week since October). The roadwork has worn them away a little and on the rocky or frozen ground he has now become quite sore. The ground is always frozen in his field at the moment and Im worried he's constantly bruising his soles on it .
Had a look at the feet yesterday - left fore is short but fine, right fore also short and he has worn away his outer wall a little and is weight bearing on a slightly raised part just in from the wall, on his sole. He's 100% sound and strides out on the soft (gallops down the field to see me when it has rained) but is very hobbly when the ground is hard or rocky (in hand on yard, Im obviously not still riding him like this).
I was warned that Fell ponies are awful for having no foot growth but also that they dont wear their feet down easily. Im hoping that once Bob's general hoof health improves this will be true.
So, Questions. First, obviously his feet do grow as they were overgrown when his shoes came off. Will the growth pick up in summer (please!)? Any advice on how to manage his feet better during the transition? And also, which boots would suit him best (he is not being ridden again til he has boots)?
His feet are long, not round. Tried some Old Macs (that we happened to have around) on him yesterday and they were too wide and not long enough - his heel was standing on the back of the boot and the straps wouldnt do up, but you could get a finger down each side.
Happy to spend around £100 to get him a pair so suggest away.
Thanks!
xxx
PS. back feet are 100% sound on all surfaces and very healthy. Not wearing down like front ones are at all. Occasionally needs slight remedial rebalance (so obviously growing) as he is slightly cow hocked but they arent a problem at all - it's just the fores.
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