By Wiola Grabowska
I often hear people say that in the same way as we need shoes to go about our daily challenges and be able to cope with weather, surfaces etc etc, horses really need theirs for “unnatural” use of their legs that we expose them to.
I get that.
But now imagine…to never ever take your own shoes off…not after a long day on your feet…not to sit down for dinner, not to stretch out on a sofa when your feet ache at the end of the day, not for a bath or shower, not for a good night sleep, not for days. Not for weeks. Not for years. Never ever take them off…I am not sure if our feet will help us as be athletic as we can be and our joints to remain healthy as we age if we indeed spend our lives in some form protective outdoor footwear 24/7.
I find the whole hoofcare quite fascinating mainly due to the fact there is so much mainstream belief into such medieval practices like iron shoeing a live structure. I just want to know more about how to do it all differently but not just on retired/non-ridden horses. I’d love to know more about performance barefoot so Leo and I are learning together 😉 There are good few examples now out there that barefoot for a performance horse can work just fine. Hopefully there will be more.
The front shoes came off Leo on December 5th 2017 and I must say I did think that if walks away totally crippled or just unable to walk (I saw such cases before) I would put them straight back on. He walked slowly and deliberately on concrete around the yard but once on arena surface he moved well.
As with the removal of the hind feet I am going for very little interference in the first week, just making sure he has enough movement on surfaces he is comfortable on. If all goes well I will start introducing different surfaces in-hand from week 2 and aim to be back on board for hacking around end February next year. I will see how he copes with ridden work on soft surfaces (arenas) at the end of December, until then I will repeat all the proprioception and conditioning work I’d done with the hind removal back in the summer.
Here is his front feet photo story.
Above: Autumn 2016. Leo arrived with me in late August wearing custom made bar shoes. I took him out of them several months into having him and he has been in regular front shoes this year.
Last day in shoes. 5th December 2017.
The hind feet have improved nicely, he is comfortable on them on soft as well as out hacking for up to 1h hacks (not gone for longer so far due to my own injury). He has some sensitivity on them on very stoney ground ridden but not in-hand.
Here is a comparison shot of right hind:
The new hind feet growth is at a slightly different angle to the old one but at the moment he is still loading the outside of the hoof more than the inside judging by the growth. I haven’t filmed his front feet landing yet to check media-lateral balance of them but will do soon. I planned to do it this morning but the snow stopped the play!
Instead, here’s Leo in his field in the white, white world 🙂
Until next time!
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