Barefoot Breakthrough

Our long awaited barefoot breakthrough came gradually overnight. Those of you who follow us regularly will know that Cal, the gorgeous grey, has not been the easiest of barefoot performance horses. In fact had he been my first attempt at keeping a horse barefoot, he would have been back in shoes long ago and I wouldn’t be writing this post.

So why bother, if barefoot can be so difficult? That’s a long story, and the story of our recent life; but the short version is that Paddy convinced me many years ago of the benefits of barefoot, becoming sounder, happier and more confident on all terrain once his shoes were removed. He really was a barefoot breakthrough.

And Cal broke his carpal bone as a 6 year old, so I am determined that my horse of a lifetime will have every possible protection against early onset arthritis. Whatever else you believe, there is no doubt that shoes increase concussion on the horse’s joints. You only need to listen to the sound of shod hoves on tarmac to understand that. Steel shoes transmit vibration at the same frequency which gives manual road workers “vibration white hand”, and also interfere with the proprioception in the horse’s limbs, allowing them to load their limbs faster, harder and more often than the limb is ready for. If the horse’s bare foot can’t tolerate challenging ground, I take that as a sign that the tendons, ligaments and bones aren’t conditioned for that work either.

The barefoot experts reading this will know that good strong feet are the result of Diet, Exercise, Environment and Trim. Heathy bare feet, and by this I mean high performing bare feet, that gallop and hack and jump as well as work on a school surface and wander around a field, can only occur when the rest of the horse is healthy.

We feed a species specific diet: clean bagged feed with no GMO products or added preservatives, low sugar low starch , organic wrapped hay. The horses are out 24/7 on a field with various surfaces, and are grass restricted in summer, because Cheshire rye grass is great for growing milk cows but not so great for growing healthy equines.

Our horses don’t do 20 miles a day like horses in the wild,  but they are on a track system that encourages movement, and have to move around for shelter, water and hay. The field has sand tracks, a pea gravel feed area, and, in winter, lots of soft sandy mud! They hack out on a variety of surfaces, although I have been booting Cal for challenging surfaces like the stony tracks in Delamere Forest.

Trim is considered crucial by some, and by others to be largely irrelevant. I’ve always been on the side of those who consider it largely irrelevant, but Cal has had runaway toes for about 2 years and I had been touching these up every two weeks myself to limit the slipper effect. Any trim will only last as long as the foot grows- to correct the trim you need both correct growth and correct wear.

Although immensely better than 3 years ago

the top hoof is still pathological. There is still a curve in the hairline, and the toes are still too long. His soles were also very flat at that time, although his heels were a hundred times better. Although he has never had full blown laminitis, his hooves bear the classic hallmarks of long term mild inflammation, despite him being incredibly functional on his less than perfect feet.

Suddenly, these last few weeks, we have a barefoot breakthrough. I have not needed to touch up the toes at all. He is wearing his feet evenly, and he is a whole lot more comfortable on stones.

So what led to the barefoot breakthrough?

A healthy hindgut. And therefore, finally, a healthy body.

And how did we achieve that?

We started feeding Cal Phytolean. This supplement was developed by the amazing scientist Carol Hughes. Her whole focus is using natural plant-based products to achieve optimal whole horse health. We’ve also started feeding Phyto-GI and her incredibly bio-available Co-Zin.

Gone are the days of batch testing hay or haylage and balancing a bespoke mineral mix to each batch. We had previously been doing that religiously for 5 years.

Carol’s approach focusses on a healthy biome i.e ensuring the horse’s gut population of bacteria is healthy, so horses can cope with variation or imperfections in their environment. After a couple of years of minimal progress, we finally have healthy functional feet all round.

And barefoot horses are great in the snow 🙂

Hope you all had fun in the snow today.