Wednesday 22 December 2010

Farrier's initial opinion on the barefoot experiment with Bella

The farrier came today to trim Bella and her companion Max.
He noted that her feet had improved without shoes and I must say that I can also see that her previously flat soles are developing a 'concave' profile, particularly at the front at the toe. He says that this will extend to all round the foot as the months go on. It is also quite evident that the weight is now being taken on the outer edge of the sole, not the wall or the rest of the sole. Apparently, this is excellent and how it should be for a wild horse.
He kept the trim to a minimum and remarked that she must have grown a lot of foot during the last 5 weeks as the nailholes were almost grown out! No doubt the ice and rock hard ground have worn the walls away - just as well or I would have needed to rasp the edges off them every week.
I am so impressed by her feet's improvement that I have taken Max's shoes off as well. Max is 20 years old and has had shoes on front all his life, so we will see how he gets on without them.
I am going to take photos of their feet so that you can see the differences month by month and post them on the site.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Spamming is not allowed. Only horse related comments will be posted.