Can I take my horse barefoot?

Unless you get 'bounced' by circumstance into de-shoeing your horse you need to ask yourself some frank questions before adopting the barefoot horse lifestyle.

A Why do I want to take the shoes off my horse?

1. Shoes are expensive
2. Barefoot seems more natural
3. Horse is lame/tripping/not moving properly
4. I want to be able to be more involved in the management of my horse

B What do I expect to gain from it?

1. Save money
2. A sound horse
3. A happier, healthier horse
4. A more natural horse

C How much time and effort am I prepared to spend managing my horse?

1. Less than I spend now
2. The same as I spend now
3. More than I spend now but not much more
4. No more than I do now

D Do I have support for my choices?

1. None at all
2. My friend who is barefoot
3. My hoof care professional and/or vet
4. I don't need it

E Are you prepared to change the management of your horse if necessary?

1. No
2. Maybe if it doesn't cost anything more or take more time
3. Yes to some extent
4. Yes I will do whatever is needed

F How do you think about your horse?

1. My horses have to have a 'job' and earn their living
2. Horses are happiest left to their own devices and can take care of themselves if turned out
3. My horse is a family member, like any other pet
4. Horses are sentient beings that need to be respected and well cared for

G Who is responsible for your horses hoof health?

1. Hoof care professional
2. Yard manager and staff
3. Both of the above
4. I am

In conclusion

Now tot up your answers.  If you have responded with mostly 3's and 4's you have a good chance of successfully managing a barefoot horse.

Having a barefooted horse very firmly places the responsibility for managing the detail of achieving a healthy hoof in the owner/main care giver's hands.  Be prepared to put aside a myriad of myth and start learning some real wisdom in modern hoof care.

If you have answered mostly 1's and 2's you might struggle to manage your horse barefoot. The responsibility for keeping your horse's hooves in optimum health is firmly in your hands.  It takes time, patience and a lot of myth ditching and learning new techniques.  

If you mess up you have to take the consequences.

On the plus side, there is nothing more rewarding than realising you have the power to transform your horse's well being and then doing just that.

Taking Bookings for 2014

Barefoot South's very own Hoof Fairy is back in harness and taking bookings for 2014

If you want to treat your horse's hooves to the magical touch make sure you reserve your space.

Existing clients can use current contact details.  New clients click Contact Barefoot South.

Robust health really helps - what happens when your horse cuts its frog off

Depth of sole where frog apex missing approx 1cm (0.4 inch)

Detail of where apex of frog missing


























My focus with Grace is maintaining her in good general health; a task complicated by EPSM, a tendancy towards laminitis and a yard which is completely unsuitable for a 'metabolic' horse. Her feet get no special attention beyond a daily scrub with salt water and walking over a variety of surfaces.

Her basically ok general health is currently standing her feet in good stead. We have had to battle an onslaught of crab apples in her field and the quarter horse part of her brain has decided to practice sliding stops. Fine in a sand arena, not so much in a sloping field with thick mud dotted with large (4x4) chunks of tarmac (black top).

She has twice sliced her right hind frog, this time removing the apex entirely. Although there are large bits missing, what is left is solid, leathery and dense. The only bit I am a bit concerned about is the apex where the damage is greatest.

These feet are a good example of how the hooves are a window to health. The sensitivity to sugar is showing in the slight white line stretch and the solar ridge. But her high quality forage based diet has given her the nutrition she needs to build good horn and frog. Even if she does try to destroy it with her adventures.

I am going to carry on as usual, but I will pay special attention to looking out for any infections/thrush because her frog is temporarily more vulnerable.

Self trimming - here is how I do it with a horse at livery

Prompted by Wolfie (thanks hon) - how do we get our horses self trimming?

Let's put aside those blessed with superb turnout for their horses, a track or paddock paradise system - that's just making it too easy!

Before I knew anything about anything I did, at various non injured times, have my old Grey Mare self trimming.  We did this by doing hours and hours and hours of roadwork.  For those who believe that barefooters can only work on soft surfaces and have to restrict roadwork - that is a myth.  The biggest problem I have with clients is them not doing enough work with their horses.  But like any exercise - you have to build it up, not go mad on day one and wonder why day two is ouchy.

Now Grace is self trimming too.  To be honest I have been so wrapped up in managing her laminitis and EPSM I haven't been focused on self trimming as a goal.  It has been a by-product of the consistency of management/exercise that her metabolic conditions require.  (Every cloud has a silver lining if you look hard enough.)

Grace is kept at livery, with many hours in her stable on rubber mats with whatever supplementary bedding has caught my fancy.  When permanently stabled (a necessary evil at times) because of the dairy grass round here, Grace is exercised at least twice a day, sometimes more.  With the colder weather she has been turning out and I have cut her exercise right down (to be honest this isn't working too well because of the EPSM.)

The surfaces we have here are very average for the UK.  Farm tracks of whatever hardcore was cheapest/to hand at the time of building.  Concrete yarding and sand/rubber menage. Whether working or not I try and give Grace a 20 minute walk in hand every day over as many different surfaces as possible.  Depending on how well we have managed her sugar/starch intake she is sometimes rock crunching and at others finds stones over a hard surface a little difficult (and at these times we can boot if we need).

So to get your horse self trimming - feed them right, work them hard, mix and match your surfaces.  Simples! :-)

Oh and 'technically' she has 'cr*p' feet, but you know she doesn't let it bother her, she just gets on with being a horse.

You can't necessarily judge a book by its cover

And a 'pretty' hoof won't necessarily perform better than one which is less photogenic. This foot has become rock crunching against the odds. It might only last for a few days, the horse is so metabolically challenged I plan to celebrate while I can :-)



Photos can be misleading. So let me describe what I see 'hands on'. The sole is really very flat and has been for months. Every time we get a smidge of concavity we have a metabolic event of some sort and it splats.

The white line is stretched and doing something rather nasty at the toe. We have also had a bit of thrush in the frog. But the horse is sound over some pretty nasty rocks. Bouncingly sound. Long may it last. We can work on better form, but healthy, active, function will go a long way to helping that happen.

Cross your rasps for this one. :-)

Do horseshoes hurt horses?

This post was inspired by something I read on a forum today. Someone was having difficulties with a horse that didn't want to be shod. This post attempts to illustrate why some horses might object to being shod.

The shoe below was nailed onto a cadaver under veterinary supervision to illustrate the 'ideal' positioning of a horseshoe nail. You can see the nail penetrates the water line (unpigmented inner hoof wall) before exiting via the outer hoof wall. You can also see how close that nail gets to the white line or laminae. As you know this is an incredibly sensitive area - just like your own nail bed. To hold the shoe on effectively the nail must go through the water line - it is the tough part of the hoof wall. The outer wall is relatively soft by comparison.

In this example (p1) the water line appears to be in good condition.

But for many shod horses the water line is in much poorer condition. Look at the foot below. You can see the white line is stretched - so the foot is already compromised and probably painful (p2). And if you squint (try clicking on the picture to enlarge it) you can see how emaciated the water line is, especially in the left area of the toe.

The water line is patchy and in places virtually non existant (p3 and p4). Where would a farrier put a nail on this foot?

In the fifth photo (p5) you can see a couple of nail holes in the left hand quarter. You can see how close they are to the white line - the equivalent of your own nail bed. I'll let you figure out if that hurt or not.

This is my own horse - shod before I got her. She hates being shod and hates farriers. I wonder why?

Fortunately after a bit of TLC her white line has reasserted itself - it took about 16 weeks to get a water line around the whole foot (p6). This is a terrible picture, just before a much needed trim, but check out the toe area - much tighter white line and the water line is getting fatter. I will see if I can get a better picture in the next few days.

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! :-)

Barefoot horse case study hinds - day one

This is a continuation of yesterday's post which looked at the fronts.

We will be able to tell more when the shoes come off. For now I have bulleted initial observations.

Right Hind Front, Left Hind Front

• Both hinds show stress lines
• The divergence in angle is clearly seen at the top of each foot

Right Hind Side, Left Hind Side

• Bull noses on both hinds
• Cracks around nail holes, especially on left hind, these appear infected
• Heel is contracted

Right Hind Heel, Left Hind Heel

• I can't find the right words to describe what I see, so please compare these heels with those of a robust, healthy barefooter

Right Hind Sole, Left Hind Sole

• Heels are somewhat contracted
• Frogs look weak and thrushy
• Shoes are impinging on frogs
• Both toes are crumbling, there is a deep cavity under the shoe which is full of black, smelly gunk

Barefoot hoof - building concavity

04 Sept 09 (photos 1 and 2)



07 Sept 09 (left photo - 3) 10 Oct 09 (right photo - 4)



29 Nov 09 (left photo - 5) 23 Dec 09 (right photo - 6)



12 Feb 10


All photos are of the same foot

This foot is an ongoing case study about building concavity.

In photos 1 and 2 you can see that if the walls were trimmed to remove the flare the horse would be walking on her convex sole. But if the flare is not removed there will be a leverage action on the already stretched white line which can be incredibly painful.

The sole is flaking and ready to shed; and we don't really know what is underneath. I prefer in these circumstances to let the horse self exfoliate, but there may be times when this is not possible.

Exfoliating the sole by hand is a highly skilled job. It is important to remove what nature would take, given the chance – but avoid cutting into the hard or live sole underneath.

Excessive thinning of the sole – often associated with preparing a foot for a shoe - can lead some people to think their horse will not be suitable for barefoot. At other times an attempt is made to carve concavity into the sole.

Both of these practices will just make the horse foot sore over rough/hard ground and vulnerable to injury. However if the horse is subsequently shod, the reduction in blood supply means the horse can not feel its feet properly so is unaware of the problem.

However some horses both shod and bare will develop a tin can foot – with a deeply compacted false sole. This should be removed, but it is entirely different from paring or carving the sole. Done correctly the sole will ‘pop’ out in several large chunks.

Photo 3 - three days later the sole has exfoliated quite substantially, but there is still some way to go. You can see the sole is very flat and there is very little depth in the collateral grooves.

Photo four - one month on; there is a little more depth in the collateral grooves and the sole has cleaned up a little more.

Photos 5 and 6 – another 7 and then 4 weeks. The foot has got ‘stuck’. Even though it is winter we do not have enough control of the sugar in this horse’s diet. We start to teach her to accept soaked hay. This is unusually difficult; a) she initially hates it and b) we have weeks of snow, frozen taps and no spare water for soaking. So what should be fairly easy takes several weeks.

Photo 7 – the horse has been on properly soaked hay for one week. If you scan across the sole you can see how it is building a ‘rim’ just inside the hoof wall. Often when building concavity an early step is the hoof putting in a rim of sole that often resembles a pretend shoe.

Provided the foot/horse is correctly managed this rim should build and grow and change until we end up with a neatly concave foot. Only time will tell if I can successfully manage this horse to the next step. But I know we are on the right track because the horse has gone from being footy over stones to quite comfortable.

Bruised and flat soles

If you read the last post you will probably realise we have had a lot of problems with flat feet and bruised soles (because of too much sugar in the diet.

The trouble with the bruises is that depending on the thickness of the sole they will show up long after the damage is already done.

So if the foot has pancaked we have a couple of options. Most horses are very good at choosing the going they are comfy on - so for training purposes, we let them go on the verge if they need to. But at a competition or on a longer ride this might not be adequate.

It took a while to find boots that worked for us. They needed to be a doddle to put on, suitable for sensitive skin and stay on through deep mud. The Gloves do this for us, although we had to experiment with fit.

In the end we fitted Power straps (not shown) and on the off (right) hind, which is a peculiar shape, we put a square of carpet tape on the hoof wall. This works perfectly, a bit like athletic tape, it is grippy but it also 'fills out' the hoof wall. Because this horse's skin is very fine we also line the inside of the gaiter cuff. A bit of bed sock is perfect! :-)

We only use the boots some of the time and at the moment, with no sugar in her diet, this horse doesn't need them at all. They are a useful option for when we have made a mistake and the horse is paying the price. Much better than shoeing because when the horse is not working her feet are free to contract/expand and wear as nature intended.

This horse is not particularly easy to fit with boots, as her feet are all slightly different and change so much, so fast, but the Gloves have worked well. I would recommend using a fit kit.

If you have a very short term or an acute situation with flat feet or similar you can make an effective, temporary 'boot' with wadding, something tough like canvas and carpet tape.

Flat foot to concavity and some of the challenges

Taking your horse barefoot is both challenging and rewarding (when you get it right). It can also be very frustrating when you make a mistake. But trust me, even the most successful barefooter will have made mistakes. This is especially true in the more difficult environments where the ground is often wet and muddy and the grass grows fast and lush.

This post shows that you can make mistakes and recover and end up with a very sound, very happy horse.

The mare is working hard, on a very low sugar, high forage diet and over the summer successfully completes two novice endurance competitions.

In the last post the first three pictures showed a really tiny Western Pleasure QH foot (as well as others).

This is a hind foot from the same horse as it 'arrived' April '08 - you can still see the nail holes from when the shoes were pulled the previous Autumn(ish)./div>

Slightly bull nosed, stress rings and bruising are signs that all is not well.

An injured sacro illiac, some dodgy trimming, too much sugar and an abcess later the front foot looks like this in August '08.

The sole is on the point of bulging (now why didn't the farrier or the vet point this out?) There is flare, there is virtually no depth of collateral groove (so no depth of sole) and the wall is really thin. When the foot was cleaned you could also see blood in the white line. But I was very inexperienced at documenting things then so didn't know enough to clean the foot before taking the photo!

After 12 weeks of box rest for the sacro injury the horse is still lame. So we move her to a mini PP track and within two weeks she goes sound and shortly after that she is rideable.

Feet are still terrible though and being trimmed in ski tip fashion. See Dec '08 below.

The mare spends a month completely off grass and on gravel instead and has one 'proper' barefoot trim. Jan' 09 left below.

Back on grass PP track. The improvement in concavity continues - you can see the sole getting ready to flake and the back of the foot is looking better. But if you look at the heel bulbs (2nd picture) you can see some odd marks/damage. This was little abcesses blowing out of the back of the heel. It went on for some time and then just stopped.

Then we had a foreseeable disaster; which we only saw with hindsight! The grass grew (bad bad grass), the sole splatted and the mare got horribly bruised.

Then because of circumstances other than feet, the mare spent much of the summer stabled, being exercised 3 times a day and her feet started to heal. In the picture below you can see new concavity spreading out from the centre of the foot. The outer rim of sole is still pancake flat at this stage.

At this stage the mare is working hard, on a very low sugar, high forage diet and over the summer successfully completes two novice endurance competitions.

The left hand picture is of a freshly trimmed foot. You can see the thick wall, tight white line and the wear in the heel area. This foot is on the way!

In the right hand picture you can see here how the sole is naturally exfoliating and exposing new concavity. There is a dirty great hole in her frog where an abcess blew out. You can also see how much thicker the hoof walls is, even with a big roll.

Unfortunately it is possible to make the same mistake over and over again. In the Autumn the mare turns out again which is much better for her socially. There is a struggle with grass management and quite inadvertantly a high sugar product is added to her feed.

Once again the feet splat and she bruises her soles. You think we'd get the message by now :-) This mare can't handle sugar.

The results are felt not just in her feet, which lose concavity again, but also in temperament - the mare looks sad and tired even though she is not working so hard.

Her owner though is both fantastic and dedicated. The source of sugar is found and eliminated. The feet start to improve again.

But as the nights draw in and with a saddle problem the amount of exercise is cut drastically.

Now, I often hear how people are worried they will wear their horses feet to the bone. Well actually, if you manage your horse well the problem is actually the reverse. This horse's feet have been stimulated to the extent that they grow so fast the owner can't wear them out fast enough. And then when the exercise reduces you can get the problem as seen in the next picture.

This foot looks like it's trying to emulate the 'tin cans' I worked on in the States. Just because it's gone short of some wear. The sole is in reasonable nick, although the heels are getting long.

We trim the foot and as it adjusts to less wear the growth slows. By the next trim, we have lost the tin can effect, but the heels are on their way to the moon. The horse has developed thrush and the foot is starting to contract again.

You can see the stress rings from the sugar the mare had in the Autumn. The wall is really thick and I've put on a fat roll to enable her to break over properly without suffering mechanical leverage on the flare.

The owner has strict instructions to work the horse much harder, on a variety of surfaces, where ever she is comfortable. I know the owner has the dedication to put in the work.

But there is the rub - unless you are keeping your horse on a PP track with a variety of surfaces it takes a lot of exercise to give the horse hoof the stimulation it needs. Most people don't actually ride enough :-) So far from restricting the amount of exercise you can give your horse, you will probably need to give it more.

You will also need to manage your horse's diet and environment really carefully, with attention to detail and a consistant approach.

A few people have horses or conditions that make it really easy. But that kind of luck is as rare as hen's teeth in the UK.

As you can see from this video - the mare is very sound on gravel and if you can slo mo it you will see she has a solid heel first landing.

Hooves are barometers

Hooves are barometers, with a time lag. The last time Grace had a jab she had an allergic reaction and it has shown up as a significant event line on her hooves.

I wonder if her tying up yesterday will present itself as another event line in the weeks to come?

This is one of my issues with horse shoes. They don't just cause damage in themselves, they mask the symptoms of other health issues which need addressing, but because the horse is wearing shoes the problems go unrecognised.

With Grace being barefoot I know that if I don't manage her diet properly she will get footy. I can address this quickly and she will recover quickly. Depending on how deliquent her diet was and for how long she might not even get an event line.

But I see horses with countless event lines; indicating a more severe problem, which have not shown any lameness; probably because they are wearing shoes. As the shoes restrict the circulation to the foot, the horse can't feel them properly, so vital feedback is denied.

Which of course is why we shoe horses. It allows us to work animals that are sick and to ignore the consequences.

Do you know a foot like this?

I went to Dallas to improve my trimming skills and hopeful that I would see a wider variety of feet with more issues than the feet I usually see at home. You can see by earlier posts that I certainly achieved the latter, the former is still being tested.

But then it occurred to me that actually it would be interesting to examine a foot which is often seen in pastured/retired horses in the UK. A foot which is often accepted as 'normal' but which in truth while it might be common, it is certainly not normal for a healthy foot.

This type of foot (see photos below) is a product of hoof management and is neither genetic nor inevitable. If you click on the photos they will enlarge.

As the horse to which this hoof belongs is already dead, we can't discover how long it would have taken to bring this foot back to the healthy model. But I am 99.99% certain that with correct management of the live horse it could have been and probably within months.

With each pair of photos the first picture is the 'before' photo and the second is the 'after' photo.


Notice flare, hoof rings and chips. These are still evident after the trim, but the improvement can be seen and the hoof is starting to look better already.

The sole looks a scary mess - but its actually relatively superficial and just one trim is a significant improvement. Good management could sort this easily.

The heel is running under and the capsule is long. It will take time to fix these, but a good mustang roll (would have) made the horse more comfortable.

It looks better from this side!

Whether shod or barefoot please don't accept a foot which looks like the foot in the 'before' pictures above. And please understand that the foot is the 'after' pictures is a work in progress. To be tolerated while the damage is grown out, but not the end product. :-)

It is not natural, its not healthy and it needn't be.

You might just find that the pasture ornament you know of with feet like this might even come sound if the feet are brought back to health.

And it doesn't take heaps of money or shoes. Just good management, a bit of patience and persistance.