Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I concur with Terry, pasture is the best way to go, especially in a 
herd situation.

I got a gelding two years ago.  Registered Arab, awesome bloodlines, 
excellent conformation, lots of training,( including reining) for FREE 
because the shoer of the woman who had him (for 7 years) told her that 
he had "white line disease" and would be needing tons of special 
(expensive) shoeing and would more than likely require vet attention.  
Since she was half scared of Tai, and had another horse anyway, she 
decided to give him away (And thank you Heidi (ribbetttreefrog) for the 
head's up on that one!)

He had been stalled, with turn-out in a small rocky pasture.  The two 
other horses were older, and not arabs, and probably didn't move out of 
their own shadows, let alone keep move an arab around much. And he's 
not a spastic, fence pacing arab anyway.

But here's the real story......

I had my shoer come out right after I brought Tai home.  He was shocked 
that anyone would have given this horse away on account of his feet.  
Tai has a bit of a club foot in the front, which had a crack in the 
toe, and some funky looking white line changes as well.  One hind foot, 
same side, had a couple rotten looking spots in it too.

His feet were very flat, and his angles were a little low, but not bad. 
 We put shoes on him, and I started riding him.  And he went out on 9 
acres of hill (7% grade... Thanks again Mike) with two other horses, 
one a running little fool.

Now this horse has awesome feet!  They grow up and up and up, with 
wonderful heels,  his angles are perfect, his sole very cuppy, there is 
NO crack in his front, and NO signs of "white line disease" anywhere.

I didn't do anything special for him at all, ever.  Flat shoes, an 
occasional dose of "special sauce" to get rid of thrush and help 
toughen his sole, the horses are in pasture 24/7, fed whole oats, grass 
hay, and vitamins, biotin, probiotics, and fat (Was oil, now flax and 
sunflower seed) Tai is a harder keep than the other horses (now three 
others) so I give him extra oats, and half a flake of alfalfa every 
day, but that's been his only "special treatment"

I have been totally amazed at how much better his feet are, and 
attribute it mostly to his activities in the pasture.  The people who 
had him weren't riding him at all, and I really haven't ridden him 
much, and they were feeding him pretty much the same diet, less 
pasture, so I attribute most of his improvement to his pasture living, 
running up and down that wonderful hill.

He's kind of a pussy foot still.... a lot different from two of the 
others, but I'm pretty sure he'd get better about that if I used the 
"sauce" on him more, and got him out on harder surfaces more.  Our 
pasture is dry and hard as rock in summer, but it's not rocky at all.  
And with his hoof shape, he'd be really easy to boot.  Gotta love tall 
heels!

Hang in there..... it'll take a while, but hooves can be greatly 
improved.  I've rescued dozens of horses and ponies with horrible feet, 
and at least 90% of them went on to have decent, if not great feet.  
(The only exceptions were a few who had severe rotation due to founder)

Julie the long-winded (Its hailing, raining, and blowing!)

============================================================
Prudence and focus will carry you a long way on a horse. 
~  Frank Solano

ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/

============================================================