Thoughts and wisdom please..

[Tillytoo]

Cracker has lost a shoe, devil and I am really tempted to ask farrier to have the other one off and see how he goes barefoot all round.

He always remarks that he has really nice little feet and how hard they are, and as we are very much fair weather riders and will be doing next to bugger all for the foreseable I wonder if he might as well not have any. He has never had back shoes, and has never seemed footy on any surface. Probably the most we will do is a lesson in the school, and a couple of short hacks with a little bit of roadish track, the rest is field, no gravel or sharp surfaces, all fairly level.

I know the ground conditions are probably awful at the moment to start this, (really wet) but he is in at night. He is on grass and hay, and a dirty bucket of chaff for tea.

What are your thoughts, shall I give it go? He hasn't had any foot problems to make me want to try this, and has never been lami, but I feel if he has such good hard feet as the farrier says, and isnt doing much, it might be a good idea to try it. I just fancy keeping him as natural as possible really.

 

[juliecwuk]

i would give it a go i never even considered the time of the year when i took mine all barefoot....

 

[Kite_Rider]

i would give it a go i never even considered the time of the year when i took mine all barefoot....

This ^^^ except I only have one.
Definately worth a try.

 

[newforest]

The in at night allows the foot to dry out, so that's better than standing all the time in nothing but mud.
The foot will change shape, i would probably try and see but add in the other surfaces. In order to harden up, the foot would need to experience surfaces.

Bare behind you are part way there anyway. I have boots for the just in case. You could also do that as and when and if.

What i will say is i don't feed anything for being bare. I wouldn't feed for having shoes on so never makes sense to me. The foot is the last to get nutrients, so poor feet can indicate issues elsewhere.
I did have pony that didn't go well bare, fed various things and made no difference.

 

[Tina2011]

First time I tried Evie without shoes was in winter and she ended up with an abscess which the farrier said could be due to mud/bacteria going into the nail holes. I am not sure that was the reason but I think I would go safe and wait till the ground is not so wet and muddy.

Evies shoes finally came off in the summer about two years ago when my sharer was pregnant. I gave her a month off road work then slowly started building up longer rides. She hasn't looked back. Her feet are much better without shoes although we do have to avoid some really stoney road surfaces.

 

[Tillytoo]

First time I tried Evie without shoes was in winter and she ended up with an abscess which the farrier said could be due to mud/bacteria going into the nail holes. I am not sure that was the reason but I think I would go safe and wait till the ground is not so wet and muddy.QUOTE]

Oh. I didnt think of that, and turned him out as usual with just the one shoe, so if hes going to get bacteria in it, its probably in there by now.

I phoned Farrier and he's happy to take the other one off and see how he is, he is quite confident he'll cope well barefoot. YO also thinks he'll be Ok.

Farrier is comming next week and hopefully the colder weather will firm up the ground. We are going to try it.