Unshod v shod and LGL

JanC

New Member
Nov 10, 2006
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Interested in your thoughts regarding LGL and shoes masking the symptoms. Is the horse without shoes who gets very footy on rich spring grass and finds working difficult better off than the shod horse who may still get LGL but with shoes doesn't show footiness? My horse got LGL last June - her first summer barefoot and I've just had to take her off the grass yesterday because she was footy,had warm feet and pulses. Already all heat and pulses have gone today. However, I'm now thinking she could well have had LGL 2 years ago - same grazing - but she was shod and not obviously in pain. Does shod with LGL = no pain and unshod with LGL = pain?
 
My limited knowledge suggests that whilst we were unaware that Daffy had LGL with his shoes on (I didn't even know it existed, it was back on the heels or nothing), the fact that it is (or was) more apparent now he's barefoot means to me that there is a reduced chance of him getting full blown lami because I'll spot it as LGL first assuming that's the path it takes. I'm at a bit of a disadvantage though because Daffy is walking on his soles, which means he could be sore because of that, or he might have LGL or it could be something completely different. :rolleyes:

I'm willing to try and do everything to stop him getting LGL again, so he'll hopefully be staying barefoot, but if somebody wasn't going to take those steps then their horse would probably be more comfortable, and therefore better off shod.
 
For me, its now an issue of knowledge. When i first met J, coming up to 2 years ago now, he was shod with the most horrendously massive, even for a horse his size, and horribly flared feet. He was reluctant to stride out on most surfaces and eventually went lame, basically mechanically caused LGL. I had no idea at the time his feet were causing him so much pain.

Since we've been through all we've been through and I now know what i know, i'd be very reluctant to put shoes back on him for a variety of reasons, unnoticed LGL being amongst them. I am fully aware that i could shoe him now and we'd be away as if the last 2 years never happened - but i would still know, deep down that I could be missing something.

I'd rather persevere with boots and pads to keep him comfortable than shoes - much more temporary and enables you to spot much easier when the symptoms are alleviated. I guess with shoes, although the horse initially wouldn't feel it, so you would keep working them, potentially causing damage that later leads to more pain than if they'd been barefoot, you'd spotted it and taken action to rein it in.

Its funny really, i was adamant shoes were the only thing that could keep him comfortable last year :rolleyes:
 
Is the horse without shoes who gets very footy on rich spring grass and finds working difficult better off than the shod horse who may still get LGL but with shoes doesn't show footiness?

Depends on your perspective I suppose. The shod horse is more comfortable and capable, so that's definitely a good thing, but the problem is still there and could potentially get a lot worse before it really showed up. To be fair though in many cases it would appear that it can just bubble along at a low level without doing any drastic harm to the horse or their hoof form. I do honestly think LGL is one of the main reasons most horses need shoes to be comfortable, aside of issues like workload and weak structure. As well as possibly unsuitable grazing we pump them full of mollassed mixes and chops which also have the same effect. The big problem is that not all horses are affected to the same degree.

Both my horses also get footy on too much of the wrong sort of grass, in Tess's case the feet also go splat.

Does shod with LGL = no pain and unshod with LGL = pain?

To a large extent, but I've seen shod horses stumbling and avoiding stony areas too, so it doesn't prevent it altogether.
 
I've had the same horse that gets LGL shod and unshod and I prefer unshod by far!

When she was shod she wasn't really footy but there were a couple of times when I did think maybe something wasn't quite right. Then her feet totally splatted and flared and she got really 'naughty' to shoe and started bucking when ridden. She lost shoes all the time and was getting slow and nappy out on hacks on those rare occasions she actually had a full set of shoes still attached and managed to do some work. Eventually decided that since shoes obviously weren't fixing her problems we might as well try without since feet that horrible at 6 years old is really not going to make for a horse that's sound long term. There was the most minging horrible load of WLD under the shoes and it took months to grow something vaguely resembling decent feet.

She was then fine for a year or so since she was at a yard halfway up a mountain with very poor grazing and no grass at all for a large part of the year. We moved to different grazing around about the time people were realising LGL existed and discovered exactly why her feet had gone splat in shoes when they did it again.

She's had one bout of LGL that tried to loose the 'low grade', feet really went splat just as badly as when she was shod. She was more obviously sore so it was very obvious there was a problem. Recovery was so much easier without shoes, much easier to trim flare off asap and get it to grow out and much easier to kill off any little bits of WLD. She did have her work limited for a few months but did still manage to do more than she'd managed the last summer she was shod and was happier doing it.

Now that I know she's prone to LGL she's muzzled or kept off grass if she gets at all footy and she now has rather nice feet and even has proper concavity. She has had a couple of very mild bits of LGL last summer but caught early and dealt with so overall no major effects on the feet. I know from experience I can't trust digital pulses at all on this one so if not for being able to see that she's footy I'd have no way at all of spotting LGL quickly and dealing with it.
 
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