Horse needs shoes and pads

Your horse needs shoes and pads….or does it?

These are Cal’s x-rays from the end of summer. He was sore on stoney ground, stopping when jumping, a bit stuffy generally. He was 100% sound on grass, soft ground and smooth tarmac in all 3 gaits. He had some white line separation, and long toes that seemed to take off forwards within a day or two of being trimmed. He didn’t have prominent event lines.

The vet who did the x-rays said “your horse needs shoes and pads” to increase sole thickness, and a rest from work while the feet grew. He also recommended taking the toe back.

Now as we know I am not the sort of person who gratuituously ignores experts, but I do want to know what benefits they expect to see with their recommended interventions. “Your horse needs shoes and pads”

Why shoes? and why pads? and do the two need to go together?

Lesson 1 from our barefoot experience- a hoof needs stimulus to grow. Stimulus requires movement.

Lesson 2- horses need movement to thrive.

Lesson 3- a stabled horse is a compromised horse.

What sort of rest? My version of rest is as much movement as is comfortable and safe. Walking around a field grazing is essentially rest for a horse. Anything involving less freedom is confinement and therefore not particularly restful. Please don’t get me wrong, confinement might be required if weightbearing or walking is to be prevented but that clearly wasn’t the case here.

Cal lives out 24/7.

“Your horse needs shoes and pads”

So what were the pads for?

The function of the pads is to provide constant sole stimulus to which the horse’s foot will respond by growing more sole. I consulted both farriers and barefoot trimmers and all agreed on the effectiveness of this intervention.

Do pads need to go under shoes or is there another effective way of padding soles? Did he really need shoes?

Pads can also go in hoof boots. The most time-efficient solution was 24/7 padding to grow sole as quickly as possible. Shoes are obviously a 24/7 solution. There are all sorts of shoes that can apply padding- from full steel to cyber plastic Eponas. I didn’t want to put nails in feet we have spent 3 years getting strong out of shoes. And glue-ons apparently aren’t a great solution in our wet UK climate. So really we needed hoof boots that could be worn 24/7.

Until I found Scoot Boots this would have been impossible for us- the draught feet are limited in the boots available and the previous clunky canvas boots would have rubbed or got lost. However Scoots are light, made of flexible rubber that doesn’t rub, drain well, don’t seem to trap stones or dirt, and so far have stayed put in all but the roughest horse play in silly mud.

Cal has worn his Scoot boots for 3 months, mostly. He had a couple of weeks off when the mud got very deep and then another week off recently when waiting for new pads. He had a few days off work but was so comfortable in his boots that we just went for it- the only way to ensure horses do decent mileage is to do some of it with them. The best barefoot performance feet are always those that do 20-30miles a week, ideally on bouncy tarmac to stimulate growth.

I haven’t jumped him since I saw those x-rays, but we have walked, trotted and cantered in our Scoot boots all over Delamere and Cheshire, and schooled diligently doing our Classical Riding homework.

It seems that Cal is determined to make me complete the journey to training a finished dressage horse, without pesky eventing distractions.

He is also determined to teach me to trim- those toes need weekly attention to keep them back there under control. But that is another story.

Now I will confess I was nervous when Cal went back for these X-rays. Had I wasted 3 months being stubborn? Should I just have had him shod?

I knew he was no worse, and in many ways he was much better, boucing around on tarmac, cruising slowly over stones, but I wanted to see a better toe angle and a thicker sole to give me the confidence to persevere with our alternative plan.

Thankfully the evidence is clear- our strategy is working. I’ll carry on with the regimen, and the journey, and the not jumping…for now (!). Next X-rays in another 12 weeks- in time for the start of the season.

So my horse didn’t need shoes, but he did need pads.

Educate yourselves, question everything, learn about alternatives.

The vet wasn’t wrong, he just has a huge experience of traditional remedial farriery methods and very little experience of alternative barefoot rehab. I’m sure they had no idea that this positive effect could be achieved without shoes “for support”, and how could they learn any different if they always recommend shoes.

We are delighted, but not smug. I’m just glad it’s working, and happy to spend the time putting the slow miles in and not leaving the ground too often…..for now!

Posted for inspiration for 2017 :-p