Chunky cob: boots or shoes?

Roxy's Mum

Roxy's Mum

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Jul 21, 2009
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I'm not sure whether this should go in the barefoot or shod section so apologies if this is in the wrong place :redface:

I've decided I need to take action regarding protection for Roxy's feet. She has always been barefoot since I've had her (over 3 years) and not had any problems with that. We have over the last 3-4 months increased our hacking work and she has on several occasions become a tad foot sore and picky on stony ground. A lot of our hacking is on compacted gravel & stones and while I encourage her to walk on the verge or soft parts she often won't stay there, plus some of the time there is no option of softer ground.

The farrier has suggested he puts fronts on her if it does not improve but to be honest I'm not comfortable hacking her out now because she is always uncomfortable on rough surface.

So I have two options; either find & buy boots big enough to fit or have her shod. It feels like a huge decision to make and I want to make sure I make the right one. If anybody has been in a similar situation & can vouch for either way I'd appreciate it.

Her feet otherwise have always been so healthy & I don't want to risk jeopardising that. If I keep going as we are just barefoot I'm severely going to :help:
 
Years ago we were in the situation of not having any means of getting our horses shod. It was barefoot or nothing.

I never found a boot that would stay on, or not intefere with the horse's way of going so much as to make them a liability.

Any of ours that start with what you describe fottyness on gravel, but uncomfy on the road after a long ride we now shoe. Maybe only in the summer when we are doing lots more work, but it's far easier than messing about with boots. We chop and change summer to winter without any bother at all. THe only one who is shod 12 months is Frances' horse as he is very unhappy in work without shoes.
 
Shoe. It only happened to us because of our lameness issues but having seen how much happier flip is on every type of ground, I'm more enthusiastic about shoeing (although the cost makes me want to cry!)
I know if I could, it would be better to work on diet and health to get the horse to happy with harder stonier ground, but sadly we don't all have the facilities to make this happen so half shod.
I researched boots quite heavily before we ended up ordered to shoe - I was going down that route in a last ditch effort to sort. Looking back, I know it would have just been something else for miss worry wart to bother about. My lack of confidence would stop me doing anything in them for fear of them falling off.
 
I'd shoe if I were you, my horse has large feet, I did find some boots that would fit him, but in all honesty I could see them becoming more of a faff. They get sucked off in the mud, fall off, twist or rub at their feathers. If you loose one, you have to go back and find the bloomin thing. My horse has lovely healthy feet, but in the summer where he is currently on livery he does have access to to much grass and it makes him a tad foot sore over the gravel, I like you hack over compacted gravel (the bike tracks) but I do have the option of a lot of softer grassier tracks etc

Over the last year I've learnt that in the winter through his diet and his needs that way, we are fine without shoes in the winter, autumn and early spring but come spring (and that first flush of good grass) he needs shoes on in the spring and in the summer, I only have him shod at the front during that period, rest of the times it's shoes off and he can walk/trot/canter/gallop happily on all surfaces in the winter.
 
Having just recently made the big decision of putting fronts on Scarlet I know how you feel. You want to do the best for your girl and its daunting to pick the route to take.

Can only give you my experience, S was barefoot for her 7 years of life but the yard I moved her to has very stony tracks and she was struggling. Farrier was reluctant to put shoes on as her feet are or were really good but I could not shake the guilty feeling for making her pick her way slowly along some of the bits we hacked, getting left behind and def foot sore even walking up the hardcore to the field some days. I went with my gut and got her fronts....she is soooo much more forward going/enthusiastic out and on the bad tracks that I know I made the right choice for her.
 
Thanks guys, Liz your situation sounds pretty much identical to ours. I'm sure that fronts is the right way for us rather than faffing around with boots - but it's a tough decision to make with a horse that has always done so well barefoot, I hate to interefere with that but then again if I don't it'll only get worse.
 
to be honest, i think you should shoe.

Personally if it were Moet then I would be straight away buying and trying boots, i wouldn't have a doubt about it at all as i would 100% exhaust boots first before resorting to shoes. The fact that you are torn between shoes/boots says to me that it will be easier to go for you to go for shoes.

not sure if i worded that well enough to explain my thoughts lol! - trying to say that boots can be great but i think you need to be committed to the process of fitting/buying/trying/assessing constantly the fit, if there are doubts that you are going to be happy then go for shoes.

Also my hacking is varied - in that i can choose routes with less roadwork or less gravelly routes, but if for example i lived somewhere where every hack required gravelly paths then in all honesty i would be looking at a permanent solution (shoes).
 
Depends how big the hooves actually are but there's less choice for the larger foot in terms of boots. That's not to say that the right pair of boots won't give you reliable service, or be a 'faff', they've come on a long way in the last few years.

If you do shoe I'd give serious thought to pulling them off for a few months every winter and growing the nail holes out, you probably won't need them then anyway.
 
I would probably boot first and then think about shoes.
If you have increased your work i would also look at diet, the foot needs time to get its act together so to speak. You are wearing down the foot quicker that it it is growing.

If it is just stony ground is there anything else going on. Mine is a bit footy but only on stones. She has a weaker feet but is now growing down good growth.

Other than that i would shoe, i don't believe all horses should and could be bare.
 
newforest said:
I would probably boot first and then think about shoes.
If you have increased your work i would also look at diet, the foot needs time to get its act together so to speak. You are wearing down the foot quicker that it it is growing.

If it is just stony ground is there anything else going on. Mine is a bit footy but only on stones. She has a weaker feet but is now growing down good growth.

Other than that i would shoe, i don't believe all horses should and could be bare.
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Anything else such as...?

I have considered addressing her diet and did start a thread on here (click here to read) about what that should be changed to but as our hacking isn't endurance or every day (we're averaging 2-3 days per week for about an hour at a time & sometimes a longer hack at weekends) I've decided to stay as we are. She has a tiny amount of chaff along with half a scoop of Thunderbrook Pure Essentials Base Mix. As she's prone to being a bit on the chubber side I don't want to necessarily increase her feed just because we're hacking more.

She is out 24/7 in a herd. I don't get much control over turnout, i.e. can't pen her into a small area. We've not had feet problems until recently with the increase in work - in fact, we've not had any problems until this slight footy business. Otherwise she is a picture of health (yes could lose a few kilos but has done recently & hopefully if we can increase exercise will continue to do so).
 
Basically it comes down to what's most important, the barefoot ideal or the benefits of being able to exercise Roxy without her way of going being compromised and the worry and faffing.

I went through a period with Joy where I really wasn't happy. I'm a big barefoot advocate. However, my yard and my situation don't lend themselves to offering the best success at barefoot.

The grazing is rich, I don't believe in stabling, I don't get to ride regularly enough to stimulate hoof growth. My biggest challenge with Joy is getting her to relax, if she's footy she's not relaxing and it compromises her way of going. I'm not willing to have her sore and we are on flint. By sticking to roads which she's always been fine on (except the gravel patches) her feet wore away quicker than she was growing them. On the road where the gravel was (country roads with gravel from the verges Steven across) then Joy would avoid the gravel and not be able to travel straight which wasn't good when cars were about.

I felt guilty at shoeing but she's a better horse for it. We do more now and she always comfortable and carries herself well.
 
If a horse is sore i tend to think of lgl and it is showing for some reason the foot cannot do the job we are asking it to do.

I agree with above though a sore horse is a tense one and you are riding on tense muscles and in effect comprising the way of going.
I do a lot of leading out first, daily for about twenty mins initially to allow the foot chance to build up hardness before ridden. Then i begin the ridden.

However despite leading previous chap out for 6months and feeding whatever supplement he was never happy bare and we had boots. Some horses are more sensitive and the trimmer said there as no pathological reason he had rock hard feet.
Them difference in his walk with boots was instantly noticeable, we walked so much better.
 
Personally, I would shoe. In an ideal world, yes, barefoot would be fab. But unless you have loads of money and your own set up to put in tracks and sand paddocks, and the will to insist they don't graze naturally, then I think shoes is the only option.

Yes, I know barefoot is more natural, but then most of us don't really keep horses as they should be naturally kept - even a 20 acre field is going to be pretty much all the same grass and going. Naturally, horses would roam 40 odd miles a day, and wouldn't be ridden on stones and tarmac.
 
then I think shoes is the only option
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I think that depends very much on what the horse and rider are doing, there are plenty of scenarios where boots work very well and do give you the best of both worlds.
 
sjp1 said:
Personally, But unless you have loads of money and your own set up to put in tracks and sand paddocks, and the will to insist they don't graze naturally, then I think shoes is the only option.
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I am puzzled why being shoeless requires you to need lots of money? Is that not a sweeping statement or have i suddenly become rich and no one mentioned it.

Can you explain what you mean by not grazing naturally?
 
i tried barefoot for kennedy but as his feet are like dinnerplates and he was unhappy on the stoney bits and always seeking grass verges, i decided to shoe again as couldnt find boots large enough for them to fit, he now has fronts on and is much happier and im able to ride and hack him to keep his weight in check
 
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