After deciding to take the shoes off of Evas back feet in August I was ready for it to take some time for them to harden up and get used to being unshod.
However, it seems that she has barely even noticed the change. I was expecting a little bit of a drama to be honest, this is because when my mare has previously “misplaced” a shoe she has acted like her whole leg has been hurt. This time, when she lost a shoe there was no difference.
This does not mean that the hoof itself was strong enough to take the tantrum we had on the road. She has a favourite side to kick out and stamp with and the foot on that side came off a bit worse for wear.
Yet she was still sound.
I was expecting this to happen as she has been shod for at least the whole time I have owned her – just over 3 years -therefore I appreciate that it will take time for the hoof to firm up a bit.
The hoof did recover quite quickly and by the time I had the farrier out he commented saying that the hoofs are looking very good with all things considered. So a quick trim later and they were looking much better.
So she is getting on very well on with her feet and I am quite glad that I switched even if it is just bare foot on the back. It just shows that with somethings you need to take a step back and think about why you are doing things a certain way, especially when it comes to horses.
Barefoot is one of those really tricky issues at the moment.
While I believe that most horses could be barefoot, I really struggle to see how it is more ethical to let a horse be sore for months, possibly years while they adapt to being barefoot than to continue with shoes.
Glad to see Eva is adapting well though 🙂
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That is true. If Eva had been uncomfortable with the shoes off I would of probably put the backs on again and taken a good look at her diet and way to prepare the hoofs more ect before trying again.
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