Wet wet wet..........

Just back from soggy land, otherwise more usually known as Inverness.  It was wet.  Very wet.  Knee deep in slush.  Slush and assorted animal droppings. But cold enough that my water bottle froze completely solid and refused to defrost, even after a several hours inside.

Thought you might like to know how the hooves were doing?

Well this time I only saw hooves that were on a low sugar, well balanced, organic, no junk diet. And putting aside the mud fever and a bit of thrush they were great.  Forage was hay and oat straw.

Nice hard hooves and very solid soles.  No white line infections, soggy soles or other dramas.

I would have taken photos, but trust me, there was no way I was taking my gloves off :-)

Sudocrem Balls

Do you sometimes like to play the five year old and get a little messy while having fun?

Well if your horse has thrush you can try treating it with Sudocrem balls.

First clean your horse's foot and if you wish flush/spray with something completely innocuous like dilute cider vinegar. Then stuff any cracks/crevices with the Sudocrem balls. Pictures below.

First get your 'ingredients' :-) Sudocrem or equivalent and clean cotton wool.

Pull off a small amount of cotton wool - about the size of a 10 pence piece or small gum ball (remember my hands are quite small)


Roll it around in the Sudocream. Make sure your hands are clean. You can make loads in advance and either store them in the tub or in a clean plastic bag.


I did say it gets messy.


Take one clean foot with thrush (see grotty central sulcus).

Stuff Sudocrem ball in the crevice and you are done. Plug all the holes/crevices and leave in situ.

Repeat daily if possible until the thrush has cleared. This may take a long time. But at least you know with the crevice plugged it will stop any more dirt and painful stones wedging in there.

Environment - does it matter to barefooters?

Most definitely yes! Environment is part of the the DEETT© acronym for two main reasons. Firstly environment can affect what goes into your horses stomach and secondly a dirty and/or wet environment can infect and/or soften hooves.

This post as are all others is largely based on my own personal experience. I deal with horses in the UK; an environment declared by some vets as unsuitable for barefoot horses because it is so wet and has such a high proportion of overly sugary grazing. Fortunately all the successful barefoot performance horses working in the UK don't understand english or they might be insulted.

I am sure if you have read the rest of this blog you won't need reminding how important diet is. So if your environment grows plants which are disadvantageous for your horse to eat then you will need to take appropriate measures. Either to remove the plants or restrict access to them.

This is slightly controversial but based on my own personal experience I have little hesitation in saying that dirty and/or wet environments can predispose a horse to thrush. Some people are dismissive of thrush, but I would never advise this. Thrush can cause intense pain in the back of the foot which then prevents the horse from using its feet properly. This over time will have significant impacts on the rest of the horse. Just imagine if your own foot was rotting. How would you feel?

A wet environment can also predispose your horse to soft hooves - just like how your nails go when you have soaked them in water for some time, and like your nails hooves will harden up again if allowed to dry properly. Soft hooves are not a problem if you are only working your horse on grass or in the arena. But if you want to exercise your horse over more abrasive terrain then you will need to consider using boots. Personally I would recommend finding some way of letting your horse dry its feet out for several hours of each day.

Taking my own horse as an example. Theoretically Grace has very little chance of being successful barefoot. Grace is:-

1. Living in the UK on wet clay
2. A warmblood X - a breed often disparaged for its bad feet
3. Laminitic and is suspected of having EPSM
4. Kept at livery
5. Very sensitive to vaccinations and wormers

Now to be honest I can't say she is a 'performance' horse - yet. But she is sound over a variety of surfaces and works every day. If anything restricts her from performing it won't be her bare feet, it will be the injuries she sustained before we met.

On arrival her feet were in very poor condition. Now they are like granite; when being trimmed her hooves break tools which cut through other horses hooves like butter. She is not special, but she does come in overnight (winter) into a dry stable with a very clean bed and I feed a 'barefoot diet'; which is equally suitable for shod horses and is great for laminitics. Grace is also exercised daily, even if only a little and thrush is not allowed.

So environment can provide challenges but for most of us, with some thought and much determination, the worst of them can be overcome. Good luck! :-)