Monday 22 November 2010

Barefoot experiment

No riding possible at all. We have snow 2ft. deep. Farrier came today and remarked that as Bella is only 3 yrs old and here feet have not yet been ruined by shoes, I should try barefoot. Now I have had many TB's before and know just how tender they are, even on grass, but in spite of my reservations, I have taken the shoes off, had a barefoot trim and she seems to be OK with it.
Apparently, everything else has to change too. In order to transition to barefoot, stabling is out. 24 hour/day turnout onto the arena and a concrete area is in with a field shelter for really bad weather. I have turned her out with 2 rugs on with a Welsh Section D gelding for company and they seem very happy with the arrangement.
In order to transition to the point where Bella can work on stoney tracks without shoes, she needs to be able to move constantly on different surfaces so that the hoof can 'move' and increase the blood supply needed for changes in the hoof to occur.

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