We all know that times are tough. How do you save money when it comes to your horses? Do you increase the time between calling your farrier? Do you have any other cost saving measures?
Have you stopped shoeing to save money?
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I stopped shoeing my horses because I feel that steel shoes cause alot of the lameness issues with horses, such as navicular. And it does help save money also, which always helps. Barefoot trimming puts the horse back to nature and benefits them with more blood flowing thru the frog.
We also supplement our horses with beet pulp and in the winter add alfalfa and hay pellets to help the bulk hay go farther. It may help save only a few bales of hay a month cost wise but it helps. Blanketing them during the winter helps keep their body heat in and helps so we don’t have to feed extra to help keep them warm. And we have to haul out to ride on trails so we have been staying closer to home to help with the fuel costs.
Every little bit helps save and we still keep our horses in good condition.
I do farrier work, and I find that a lot of people are shoeing less. However we are still seeing many issues with the barefoot horse. One of the biggest problems I am seeing is balance, and shooting forward of the toe.
The balance on the foot is being thrown away. A barefoot horse may need to be trimmed more regularly than a shod horse, because when he travels, if there is any imbalance, the travel wear will make any imbalance more significant. Shooting forward of the toe is the reluctance to trim in the heel at all so as not to sheer it, causing breakdown in the heel tubules, and retarding growth in the heels. Lastly I have seen more white line this year, probably due to wetter weather, changes in feed quality, and poor communication from farrier to owner, which would allow early treatment of white line issues.
In response to barefoot trimming: another view from the Willamette Valley: Over here in the valley where hooves soak up alot of water and are soft, barefoot trimming rarely works at all. The poor horse is continually lame or abcessed. Even when not significantly lame, I see them gimping along and compensating their natural gaites to get by. Robbing a horse of its heels alters its natural way of traveling and throws out the window the sound teaching and rationality that the angle of the hoof must follow the angle of the shoulder in order for the horse to travel as that particular horse was intended to without future breakdown of ligament and bone. The navicular bone to be exact. Over in the desert this type of trimming may work on a larger level of success due to the fact that hooves are hard year round…but over here in the valley…horses suffer- and their farriers keep advising the owners to give it more time… my advice is…DON’T! If your horse is in pain- do something about it just as with any other type pain…treat it…and the treatment is…put them back in shoes! Not all horses were meant to go barefoot- use common sense. IN the winter over here in the valley most of us leave our horses barefoot becuz we don’t ride much in the mud… I agree that to keep a horse in shoes for a lifetime could be damaging…but mainly due to heel contraction since the steel shoe doesn’t allow the hoof to flex as it would if bare… but not specifically in danger of hoof damage due to lack of blood flow…if the horse is working regular or able to walk around in pasture that excercize alone is enough exertion for their large hearts to pump sufficient blood down the leg to the hoof and circulate it back up the leg to keep the hoof healthy…It is shod and stalled horses that are at risk of bad hoof due to lack of bloodflow due to too many hours of standing idle. When the heart s at rest is when the job of the frog is in its higest demand to return the blood up the leg. These unnatural and sedantary equine lifestyles would benefit from going barefoot when not in use. On another level…as far as balancing the cost… barefoot trims cost more and must be done more often… add up the cost at the end of the year against what was spent on same horse in a year when shoeing. Then balance it with how many times you couldnt ride your horse due to being tender after a trim. Then decide if its worth it. Please take into consideration that I am writing my of view from experiences I’ve encountered from the Valley where it is wet. Horse hooves are dramatically different over here. Going barefoot can be seriously damaging to a horse over here.