These are our horses. Buddy is to the left and Nikah is to the right with Samantha, our youngest
daughter riding her in the Springfest Parade
May 2, 2009.
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The high-performance barefoot horse approach is widespread in USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
There are barefooters in South Africa, Zambia, at least 15 European countries, the Caribbean islands, Chile, Argentina, Pacific island nations, Taiwan, and Singapore. Barefooters do trail and pleasure riding and
driving; competition in endurance, dressage, gaited, polo, reining, "fox" hunting, and harness racing;
livery stables, several in the mountains; and horse-drawn carriage businesses. A racing stable in UK is successfully racing barefoot horses in both flat and steeplechase races. We have had excellent results
using barefoot to rehabilitate foundered horses to full soundness and ride-ability. The wild-horse
barefoot trim re-balances the navicular foot to allow healing of inflamed tissues.
To us, the barefoot movement has these strengths:
--We, as horse owners are figuring it out among ourselves -- bringing information from many sources, and field-testing through our own observations and experience, to find what works best.
-- While there are excellent teachers giving clinics on how to trim a barefoot horse, also many of us are showing a friend how to trim, deepening the friendship as we share a skill.
-- There are a number of university researchers now studying how hooves work and corroborating our informal field-testing about the benefits of keeping horses barefoot.
Due to damage inside the shod hoof, it can take as long as a year after you remove the shoes -- called the "transition year" -- to rebuild internal tissues and grow out a high quality, tough hoof wall. While this may seem like a long time, if you leave the shoes on, the hoof will not have a chance to heal at all.
Hoof boots are an excellent, part-time solution for many of the situations we have used horseshoes for -- a horse can be barefoot for all the non-working hours of the week. For the first several months after pulling the shoes, horses should use front hoof boots for riding. Some will need boots during the entire "transition" year, especially those that work on gravel roads, rocky trails, frozen ground, or pavement, to protect sensitive internal tissues while they heal.
Horses that live in wet climates, or are in a constant state of borderline "grass laminitis," may always need hoof boots for riding on rough or hard surfaces. Horses that work on abrasive roads should use boots on all four feet for some percentage of their work time (such as alternate days), to prevent excess wear of their hooves.
Hoof boots are getting better every year. It will soon be workable for nearly every previously shod horse to live barefoot and wear boots for trail riding.
Horses that work on soft arena footing can be sore from lack of concussion / circulation. They should be walked 10 minutes on a firm surface before and after the arena work to relieve congestion in the hooves.
While some thoughtful farriers are helping their clients go barefoot, many have not caught up with us in learning how to do the wild-horse trim, which differs in important ways from the conventional "pasture trim."
The typical "pasture trim" makes horses sore (this is a typical barefoot trim done by a farrier who typically trim as though preparing the foot for a shoe).
-- The heels are left long; encourages contraction, toe-first landing, and "navicular" pain.
-- The toe callus is trimmed away; a thin sole doesn't protect the coffin bone.
-- The bottom of the wall is left flat, as if preparing for a shoe. This encourages flaring in the barefoot hoof. Flares are painful, like pulling really hard on your fingernail.
-- Farriers often ignore the forward-flared toe, leaving a stretched white line and poor coffin bone suspension, thus the horse is "sore on gravel" and on rocky trails.
Just recently have we been really studying the hoof and how it functions; learning that it is more valuable to the horse than just a block of wood that we could carve in any shape we thought apropiate for the hoof. Can you imagine how you'd feel if you had someone cutting / carving away your calluses every month or so. YIKES!
Barefoot horses gain:
-- quality of movement, because a light, naturally shaped hoof with early breakover, allows the entire leg to move more freely and the foot to land heel-first;
-- surefootedness, because barefoot hooves can feel the ground and have better traction;
-- stamina, because the flexing hooves help provide blood circulation to the entire body system.
I believe the time is coming when the owners of shod competition horses will have to consider going barefoot in order to remain competitive.
What can a correct lifestyle do for horses:
Tom Teskey DVM (Tom Teskey article www.easycareinc.com/education ) believes we can dramatically improve the performance of "our athletic friends" far beyond what most of us have ever seen. Barefoot care is one small part of a horse-friendly program of care. Tom thinks we will be amazed to discover what horses are capable of, when we learn how to provide an entirely horse-friendly lifestyle.
Importance of Heel First Landing
This section will answer most of the questions people email me about.
Heel-first landing in the front feet is necessary for soundness, and indicates a correct trim. (Hind feet nearly always land heel-first, due to the zig-zag arrangement of the hind leg joints, and this is one reason why hind feet are more often sound.)
When a horse lands toe-first, or flat, over a long period of time, "navicular" pain is likely to develop, and the oval shape typical of shod hooves is very slow to re-shape to a round foot.
If a front foot is landing toe first on level ground, look for one or more of the following -- these are the most common hoof difficulties:
1) Forward flared toe causes late breakover, which in turn gives the front leg too little time to fully extend forward for a heel-first landing. Even a slight flare delays breakover.
Forward flared toe comes from:
a)The mechanical forces of horseshoes, which tend to deform the hoof capsule in a forward direction, over time.
b) On a barefoot horse, when the wall is trimmed to a flat bottom, as in preparation for a horseshoe, rather than a mustang roll.
c) "Grass laminitis" / insulin resistance / Cushing’s syndrome, all of which make the "white line" (laminae) stretchy so that the toe wall is easily pulled away from the coffin (pedal) bone.
If a horse has had a strong mustang roll for many months and the toe wall will not grow down straight, this points to insulin resistance, which is seen more as horses age, or Cushing’s, an age-related decrease in pituitary gland function. Which can all be controlled with herbs in a no sugar diet along with walking/moving around.
2)If the toe-first landing is due to a:
a) forward flared toe, we need to "back up" the toe to the edge of the sole.
b) fungus infection in the back half of the frog (peeling layers or "shedding frog") and / or a deep crease between the heel bulbs. Fungus is very painful, and the horse will land toe-first deliberately to avoid this heel pain.
c) Soft, undeveloped digital cushion* due to:
a) horseshoes, which prevent frog contact with the ground
b) horse did not go many miles per day as a foal, or currently does not go many miles per day,
on firm ground, which toughens the digital cushion.
*a shock absorbing tissue just above the frog, which is supposed to be tough and fibrous
In most domestic horses, especially those that have been shod for a long time, the horse will deliberately land toe-first to avoid concussion on the soft digital cushion.
Horses raised barefoot with sufficient movement, or those in ongoing endurance training, or that live in large enclosures in dry climates, often have tough digital cushions, and their heels can be trimmed (or will naturally wear) down to the level of the sole.
If your horse's front feet land toe-first, you need to find the cause and change the conditions that are preventing heel-first landing. The hoof must land heel-first consistently, to become sound.
For ALL of these conditions,hoof boots are appropriate for trail riding until the hooves are sound and the horse is able to land heel-first consistently.
What we learn from wild horses
Jaime Jackson, a farrier, went out to study the hooves and living habits of the wild mustangs of North America (escaped domestic horses and their feral descendants). Their hooves were far different from anything he had seen in domestic horses; he decided that what he had been doing as a farrier was unnatural and harmful. He changed over to a barefoot trim practice, and found that when he trimmed lame feet to the mustang hoof shape, they would recover, even from severe lameness’s.
In The Natural Horse, Jackson describes the lifestyle and hoof shape of horses living wild in their natural environment. The tough, sound, beautiful feet of horses living in wild herds in the western United States are worn to an efficient, short-heeled trim by the many miles they travel every day.
The horse is a creature of wide-open, dry plains and mountain slopes -- except for the wide-footed breeds of northern Europe, which are adapted to living in marshes. The horse's native environment includes extremes of heat and cold. The ground is dry, hard, and often rocky. Rivers or water holes are scarce. The wild horse's food is the dry, sparse bunch-grasses of low-rainfall areas, and a variety of forbs, shrubs, roots, and bark - this is why we use herbs.
Wild horses walk a daily circuit of about 20 miles to find food, water, and other "amenities" such as minerals, herbs, shelter from storms, and safe places to sleep. All this walking wears and shapes their feet to perfection.
The horse is exactly designed to live well in that environment. Every part of his body, and the social life of the herd, is fashioned for a strenuous life -- and he requires extremes to stay in peak health. Horses have lived this way for millions of years, far longer than human beings have existed. The horse is a successful species -- the design works!
The horse's hoof is a masterpiece of living design, built to handle awesome mechanical requirements. We can sustain it by providing what it needs. We can set up "natural boarding" for our horses, to promote their health in captivity, so that they can have an environment similar to what they were designed for.
Jaime Jackson's Paddock Paradise explains the key to keeping horses moving -- a long, narrow, continuous loop or "track" which takes them to each of their daily needs in turn. Groups of horses that live on such a walking loop wear their feet enough that they need only minimal trimming. They get much more exercise than those that stand around in a typical rectangular turnout.
What the words mean
Laminitis means inflammation in the laminae -- the interlocking, paper-thin strips that hold the hoof wall onto the coffin bone (also called "P3," referring to "3rd phalanx below the knuckle or fetlock.") Laminitis happens for many reasons, including infection or disease anywhere in the horse's body; colic; overeating on grain or other high-sugar foods; foaling problems; Cushings or other insulin-related imbalance; and overwork on a hard surface ("road founder").
Laminitis is extremely painful, and will result in loss of the laminar (white line) connection unless the cause is immediately removed. Wild horses treat laminitis by standing in cold water and by moving the usual 20 miles
a day with the herd in search of food; within 2 or 3 days it goes away.
Founder means that the coffin bone has dropped away from the inside of the hoof wall and is pressing down onto the sole corium. There is extreme pain both in the torn laminae and in the sole corium.
Sinking, the other type of founder, means that the entire white line has separated; the coffin bone has settled down onto the entire sole. You will see a channel or trench around the entire coronet, about the right size to roll a marble around the hoof. Because there is no remaining laminar connection, a sunken coffin bone is a lot more difficult to rehabilitate.
Founder can be due laminitis -- the laminae separate because they are inflamed. Or it can be due to constant mechanical forces that pry the hoof wall away from the coffin bone.
Mechanical founder is the gradual, silent stretching and separation that we find in many shod horses, or in the overgrown, neglected feet of some "rescue horses." This is what we saw with Nikah - along with disease and cheesy white fungus.
Flare or flaring means a visible change in the shape of the hoof wall when there is stretching or separation of the laminae, due to either inflammation or mechanical forces. If only the bottom of the wall is flared, it is usually due to the hoof needing a trim; this kind of flare is often curved and easy to see.
A flare due to laminitis or long-term mechanical stress (shoes or an imbalanced trim) often is straight in outline, and may be difficult to recognize. The angle of the wall changes abruptly, high up -- sometimes so close to the coronet that you can't see where it changes.
Flare tells us that white line stretching or separation has occurred; flare and white line separation are the same thing. A founder is a flare that has gone so far that the coffin bone has rotated.
“In this day and age, it’s hard to find a farrier you can depend on; let alone one you can trust. Common Sense Hoof Care was recommended to me by a friend, and now I know why – the quality of service I received was outstanding. Keep up the good work!”
Nyla
