For people considering transitioning 'metabolic' horses - some survival tips

Transitioning a horse with metabolic issues is rarely easy and I believe undiagnosed, misunderstood or hard to manage metabolic conditions are a key driver for why some horse/owner combinations never quite make it to full barefoot, sound, performance.

These same metabolic issues can cause problems for a shod horse too, but the symptoms can be masked by the shoes only to be revealed when the shoes come off. 

The experienced barefooter may have no major issues in dealing with a metabolic horse, having been through the process before, they know what to expect and how to deal with it.  But relative newcomers can be understandably terrified/dismayed/overwrought when their previously shod/sound horse goes lame shortly after having their shoes removed and without obvious or apparent reason. And for some so starts the journey into the upside down world of metabolic disorders of the horse.

I've transitioned a variety of horses with different metabolic issues including HYPP, EPSM, Insulin Resistance and Laminitis.  Along the way I have learnt a lot, not least some very vital 'Survival Tips'; which have helped me save most of my sanity and some of my bank balance.  In no particular order here are some of the things I wished I knew or had done before I took on my first metabolic horse.

Survival Tips

• Most important of all - take complete ownership/responsibility for your horse's hoof health
• this will enable you to be a more effective manager of the resources you need to restore your horse and their feet to better health
• transition can be a roller coaster ride, taking responsibility will help you feel more in control
• you will be in a better position to understand what works/doesn't work for your horse
• you will be able to minimise the risk of negative outcomes caused by well meaning, but misguided individuals who want to 'help' by interferring with your horse's management
• you will reassure all but the most (!?) of equine professionals, they want to know who is in charge and will be happy it is you
• Educate yourself as thoroughly as possible.  Learn all you can about the management of bare hooves and research your horse's condition.  If you don't know quite what the metabolic issue is, beware of leaping on fashionable bandwagons.  Take a step back and consider all the options, discuss them with your vet, but don't rush headlong into a course of treatment unless a) it is urgently needed for life/health saving purposes or b) you and your vet are certain you have the correct diagnosis. 
• Talk things through with educated individuals who have no agenda.  Listen politely but do not believe most of what the local 'experts' tell you; likewise be wary of internet sites and wild marketing claims, even those endorsed by vets.  Do your own desk research, read books* as well as websites.  Check sources.
• Learn to trust your horse and her feet before all others
• Learn to read your horse and her feet as well as you can read a book, or maybe better
• Cultivate patience; understanding how to manage your metabolic horse successfully can take time, you will make mistakes and have set backs
• Cultivate tolerance - for those who don't understand why you have chosen to go barefoot, for those who feel threatened by anything different, for those who are willing, but slower to understand the challenges and benefits of taking a metabolic horse barefoot
• However difficult, try to keep your vet, yard manager and horsey friends on board.  Largely this involves no preaching to them (wait until they practically beg you for information) and getting very deaf when they start going on........ 
• Find a decent barefoot trimmer - or invest in a proper training programme for yourself.  At the very least know what to look for and expect from a trimmer.
• Learn how to distinguish between a functional trim, a 'pretty' trim and a just plain bad trim
• Take each day as it comes and have no expectations other than that there will be good and bad days with no guarantees
• Be really strict over diet. Yes really strict, no TGI Friday moments, they can really mess with your horse
• Do not believe the big writing on bags of horse food.  Get the detailed analysis; protein, sugar, starch, plus a vitamin/mineral breakdown including percentages/quantities per kg.  If the manufacturer will not tell  you exactly what the product is made of don't buy it.  Many bagged feeds are full of cheap and unhealthy fillers like wheatfeed and the dust is kept down with molasses and/or sugar syrups.
• Take all 'but this worked for my horse' advice with a pinch of salt, all horses are different
• Don't believe anyone who says they know everything about equine diet or nutrition.  They may have a degree in it, but the truth is the science hasn't been done yet and no one really knows.  Most studies that have been completed have been on Thoroughbred racehorses and do not equally apply to different breeds of horses or those with different lifestyles. Some folk are also drawing conclusions about equine diet from studies done on people.  A useful starting point maybe, but a dangerous place to finish
• Celebrate every small success or good day and try to view bad days as a reminder of what you are leaving behind
• Learn deep breathing techniques (so you can walk away from the 'helpful' know-it-alls who want to advise you that you are mad/cruel/blind while their own horse walks around on tin can stilts for feet and colics every few months - and is as fat as butter with all the symptoms of IR)
• Use any time off from ridden/driven work in a productive way - there are lots of useful 'life' lessons you and your horse can practice on the ground.  eg. standing still by the mounting block, standing untied for foot trimming/washing/picking, backing up/moving over, walk by your shoulder (or however you prefer) - I am sure you can think of many more which can either be done in the stable on on a surface which your horse is comfortable on.
• Find out which hedge treats your horse likes best; this can be comforting because you are doing something positive for your horse and it can give you 'health safe' alternatives to the sugary rubbish generally sold as horse treats.  But do be careful and make sure you know what you are picking and that it has not been contaminated in anyway.
• Take lots of photos, whole horse and hooves, and make a photo diary - to look back on in good times and bad. Take video too if you can
• Keep a diary of feed, behaviour, hoof health, gut health, work load, grass, weather
• Learn to take a step back and reflect before panicking (very useful skill in true emergency situations)
• Chat up an independent (of feed companies) equine nutritionist
• Research the equine digestive system (it is truly fascinating - yes really)
• Enlist a barefoot friend for support
• Prepare open, non threatening questions for any professionals whose support or opinion you may need and learn to agree to disagree without falling out, you may need the object of your conflict for something else later
• Try to avoid just managing symptoms and instead tackle the cause whenever possible
• Read this blog and http://danceswithgrace.blogspot.com/ for a warts and all commentary on barefoot and all its ups and downs
• Sell the horse and get a motorbike (ONLY JOKING!)

*Good books, all available from Amazon include:

The Natural Horse: Lessons From the Wild (1992)
Horse Owners Guide to Natural Hoof Care (1999)
Founder: Prevention & Cure the Natural Way (2000)
Guide to Booting Horses for Hoof Care Professionals (2002)
Paddock Paradise: A Guide for Natural Horse Boarding (2006)

Does a deviated hoof need shoes?

4th Barefoot trim

Not quite sure how to draft this; I guess it is aimed at people who are thinking about taking the barefoot plunge, but are worried about the consequences.

Re the hoof in the pictures.  I am paraphrasing, but my understanding of the circumstances is this. The carer was advised that the hoof in these photos would be damaged if taken barefoot. It had a deviation and wouldn't be able to cope without a shoe.

The hoof has now had 4 barefoot trims, and typically works over a variety of surfaces 6 days a week, sometimes for several hours.

The hoof does have a deviation, but it is relatively minor and doesn't seem to trouble the horse.  We do take care to make sure the hoof is well balanced post trim.

Q.  Look at the front view and then the solar view.  What would happen if the hoof were trimmed from the top without taking proper reference to the landmarks in the solar view?

4th Barefoot trim - solar view

Recently deshod

Hooves don't lie and the healing angle

Failure to understand the healing angle causes a lot of horses a lot of unnecessary grief*. Although in one sense it is a pretty simple, straight forward guide, because getting it right is so important I am not going to attempt to go into detail about it here. Much better to either get in an AANHCP trimmer or attend a course run by the training arm of the AANHCP.

But in short - hooves will grow at the correct angle within the context of that particular horse, if the horse is allowed to live optimally (this includes the whole DEET).

You can see the angle the hoof wants to grow at, near the top of the hoof, just below the coronary band. If this angle doesn't continue to the ground, something, somewhere is going wrong. And there is no arguing with this, hooves don't lie, they just do what they need to do. No matter how frustrating tracking down the problem is, no matter how 'perfect' the management being offered, if the healing angle can not be maintained then 'Houston we have a problem.'

*I am pretty sure that 'traditional' trimming does not acknowledge the healing angle - hence the fixation with wedges, caulks etc (which totally disrespect the healing angle).

Barefoot hooves - speed of growth/wear

Hooves are a window to your horse's health. Event lines - as can be clearly seen in the first photo are reminders of 'events'. The two biggest lines, at just below half way down the hoof and the one below were caused by vaccinations - which this horse will probably not have again because they made her very ill.

In the second photo you can see one big event line just above the bottom edge of the hoof. This is the same one which in the first photo is just below half way down. The hoof has grown that much in 8.5 weeks - or just about 2 months. I estimate that this hoof is replacing itself completely roughly every 6 months. Oddly before I checked the history I had always thought this horse grew foot quite slowly.

So it pays to keep records and to realise just how fast hooves can grow - barefoot ones anyway.

And despite being stabled this horse is almost self trimming. She works 3x a day on a variety of surfaces including sand, stones, grass and car park. Extreme metabolic issues mean she is not quite rock crunching at the moment, but she has been in the past and we hope that she will be in the future. But never again will I use a wormer that claims to be effective over a number of weeks. It takes too long to grow out the damage from this horse's feet.

Hind foot - 9 month changes

First photo just deshod, second photo not quite 9 months later.

Event lines and laminitis

The first picture was just after the horse was deshod. A previous laminitis attack is evidenced by the heavy, broad rings in the heel area of the hoof wall. The hoof wall had been severely rasped when the horse was shod to remove the rings from the front portions of the hoof wall.

The second picture is 9 months later. You can see the hoof wall maintains the same angle more or less from coronary band to floor. If you look closedly you can see there are faint event lines. Some of them are from diet, others from wormers and vaccination. By carefully monitoring the appearance of these, it is possible to deduce what does and doesn't work for an individual horse.

This particular horse is an exceptional challenge and it is gratifying to have been able to get a reasonable angle all the way to the ground. Rock crunching comes and goes. A well intentioned but 'unfortunate' wormer is taking a long time to grow out.

EPSM and barefoot with added sugar at livery

If you have an EPSM horse with sugar issues you may find yourself driven to distraction until you find the formula that works for your horse, especially if like me you keep it at livery with no grass free turnout.

My own horse Grace has been up and down like the proverbial yoyo. First it took an educated guess to realise that she may have EPSM. We already knew about the sugar problem. Several weeks on the EPSM diet and we were making progress. Now Grace only ties up when under extreme mental/emotional stress (until the next unexplained episode of course and touching lots of wood).

But her feet ....... they react just as badly as her muscles and take longer to recover. Every millimetre of concavity is hard won and very easily lost. We had a month or so in February when she could crunch rocks. Then a few things happened and we have been struggling. (Wormers, vaccinations, grass, stress, they all impact.) So I have recruited the EasyCare Gloves and only regret that I didn't get a pair sooner.

Look at the pictures below. If you imagine a steady switch between the two on a monthly or more frequent basis you might have some idea of life with an EPSM sugar sensitive ned.

In the first picture (old camera phone) the foot is completely flat and starting to scoot forward at the toe. In the second picture the foot is now wider than long (just) and has some concavity.


It has now come to a bit of a pause at this point. With extra Vitamin E we are holding steady for the moment. I am not planning to change anything until I know this current state is stable.

Of course I'd be so happy if we get a more concave foot, but right now I'd be grateful to hang on to the concavity that we have.

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! :-)

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.

Barefoot - a horse management question

How often do you hear 'I tried barefoot and it didn't work for me.'

The operative word being 'me'. Where barefoot is not working - it is often for the person and not necessarily the horse. Let me explain my thinking.

Barefoot requires some reworking of how we manage our horses. We have to put aside some of our conventions and start looking at life from the horse's point of view. It may take some time and persistence before we get the management mix right (for the horse).

There are a whole chunk of people out there for whom this is not an option, for whatever reason. For these people barefoot might not work (don't get me wrong - given the appropriate care it would most likely work for their horses).

Let's briefly look at the management issues that need addressing and then I'll post about each in more detail separately. For ease of reference I use the acronym DEET - Diet, exercise, environment and Trim

Diet is a big factor - a significant proportion of the horse population is sensitive to sugar. It's really a digestive problem that has side effects on the feet. Modern diets have a tendency to be very high in sugar.

Exercise - the horse is designed to move, more or less constantly, and can easily cover 20 miles a day routinely. Current methods of horse care tend to restrict movement which has lots of side effects, one of which is poor foot health/growth.

Environment - Hooves adapt to the surface they work/live most on. The current trend towards soft sand arenas, grassy paddocks and protection against wear on hard surfaces contributes to poor, weak and crumbly hooves.

Trim - Hooves will self trim to their own optimum when given sufficient exercise over the right sort of terrain. Current management practices tend not allow this to happen. An effective barefoot trim will mimic the natural wear pattern and only remove what nature would have removed given the chance.

Test your horse management skills - every day

Keeping a horse barefoot is really a horse management test. However unlike SATS everyone gets to sit a different paper, sometimes you get examined daily and the course work is relentless and never ending.

So why do we bother? Because some of us have seen a successful end result and want what we feel is better for our horses. Others are driven by desperation as they have run out of conventional methods and their horse is still lame.

The end result of the soul searching and effort is worth it. When you have a particular horse and its situation figured out the results are very rewarding in so many ways. Whether you just want to ride without worrying about the state of the horse's shoes, or if your aim is to prolong your horse's working life, or you have experienced the joy of riding a barefoot horse.

And where does the daily testing come in? You may have read the 'Heartbreak' post which showed how a bit of well-intentioned, but inappropriate feeding damaged a foot very quickly. Well the photos above taken just 6.5 weeks apart show how if you stick to your guns and get the diet right the foot will heal quickly too.

You can see in the first picture how the foot has lost concavity, the white line is stretched and the sole is one big bruise. That is one rather sore and very miserable horse.

In the second picture concavity is returning, the white line is tightening up and bar one bit of damage the sole is back to its healthy colour. Fungal infections are a challenge where this horse is kept, but the owner does a good job of keeping them at bay. I don't have a picture, but trust me, that horse is positively beaming with happiness now. It is so good to see.

Now you see it, now not so much

Left hand pictures taken 4th September, Grace deshod the day before.

Right hand pictures taken today, 29th November - that's just over 12 weeks apart.

If you look at the left solar view you can see the blood spot in the toe as well as the huge hole at the quarter. In the right solar view the blood spot has completely disappeared and there is just a tiny trace of the hole in the quarter.

The bars which were overlaid are still growing strongly and insisting on being big and beefy.

The side view shows the hole in all its glory (left) and grown out (right). The toe on the left is too long and has a 'bull' nose, the toe on the right is a good length and the bull nose has gone. The coronary band is at a better angle (right) and the the quarter is no longer pushing it up.

No tricks, gadgets or special conditions. Just a better diet, some anti fungal treatment and regular trimming.

Stop Press!

Madam has achieved rock crunching. Way to go girl! Pictures to follow on Thursday. All credit to the dedication and care of her 'Mum'.

About time - heels decontracting at last

Near fore, off fore, near hind, off hind - in order.

At last the heels in front are starting to decontract. It isn't something that should be forced, you have to listen to the foot, follow the live sole plane and let the foot take the time it needs to heal.

Forcing a foot can make the horse lame or take it in the wrong direction - trust the hoof to know what is needed. But of course, look after the gut to prevent laminitis and treat any foot infections as required. The aim with the trim is to only remove what natural wear would have taken off if the horse were living in an optimal environment with optimal exercise.

The heels on the fronts are arguably too long, but taking them any shorter would mean invading the live sole plane which is unacceptable. The owner has been briefed to look out for the sole turning chalky in the seat of corn area.

Madam has been an interesting case - because if you just looked at the outer hoof wall you'd think her feet were fabulous (and in many respects they are). But it has taken an age to get her feet to this stage and if you look at the undersides with a 'barefooters' perspective you can see that her feet can be better still. And we are not being totally aesthetic here - we are looking for function over form.

I suspect Madam's heel contraction is linked to her sugar intake. We had got them to partly decontract last winter, only to have them close right up again in the summer when she had an overload of sugar. It's something to keep an eye on.

Grace's feet

I've decided to post progress on Grace's feet here and keep her blog for news of her rehabilitation and training. We had the vet on Wednesday and I subjected the poor man to a short photo album of the changes in her feet.



The block of 4 photos above are of Grace's off (right) hind. Top two pictures are immediately after she was deshod, the second two pictures are some 8/9 weeks later.

This set of 4 shows Grace's near (left) fore. Again the top two are immediately after deshoeing, the second pair are 8/9 weeks later.

The vet appeared impressed with her feet which I have to take as a good thing. But the cynical parrot on my shoulder keeps squawking in my ear, that the average vet wouldn't know a good barefoot if it hit them. Very rude parrot! Tempered by the fact that the vet introduced an associate as a 'vet' (maybe a student?) and the associate didn't know which were the good feet and which were the bad and they couldn't spot the contraction. So rude parrot, but maybe she has a point.

Grace's heels are decontracting nicely and practically of their own accord. All I have done is to facilitate the process. Grace's bucket feed is the 'barefoot diet'. Now it is winter she is in at night and out at grass during the day. She is potentially 'metabolic' - certainly her feet are full of rings and she has other signs too. But we will wait and see how we get on.

She had terrible corns, but these have now gone and she is developing a reasonable heel first landing when led out in walk. However the yard we are currently at has no facilities at all - I would have to do all her training and rehab on the road. So we will shortly be moving. The yard we will move to is still 'traditional' but it has 3 schools and a variety of surfaces and enough off road hacking to get Grace established.

That is of course if she proves rideable at all.

Tough choices

I have to be honest. I'd rather turn Madam out if we could. But our temporary accomodation has no grass free turnout, in fact the grazing is some of the lushest in the area. But although it must be a bit stressful for her, there is no denying she is doing well. The first two pictures show her today - I swear she knows just how good she looks :-)

The four sole pictures show the off fore on 24/01, 01/02, 15/02 and 15/06 this year.

From the end of January until some time in March our trimmer was out of action. You can see how the foot is flaring out and a thumping great thrush infection is taking hold. Although we CleanTraxed her feet, we did in the end have to trim out a fair bit of rotting tissue. The daily use of Sudocream seems to have done the trick.

In today's foot picture you may be able to see the development of some decent concavity, the flare is under control, the frog is bulking up and the heels are starting to decontract. My thumb is holding back the tip of the frog to show where it is starting to shed. Unless there is infection developing underneath we will let this shed naturally, as the frog underneath is immature and will need protecting. This foot needs a trim and I will post before and after pictures when it is done.

Sleeping is an important part of getting fit

The girls aren't working particularly hard, but they are being very careful to make sure they get enough sleep. The first two pictures show them having a post breakfast snooze - note how Madam is posing for the camera as usual. The last picture shows them just after an exercise session. Madam appears to be asleep on her feet!

They are currently working 5 days a week and are racking up about 25 miles a week, our target is to average 50-70 miles a week, so we have a way to go yet.

Does my bum look big in this?

I wasn't sure it was wise to take the girls out today. They had yesterday off and were feeling quite fresh. It was raining and quite windy but even so they were actually very well behaved. We passed a pub today - the first picture is them admiring themselves in the windows.

Before I caught them they both did their best to demonstrate how well they are feeling. Madam kicked so high she hit the tree branches (above her head in the second picture) with her hind legs. The third picture shows the 'lame' Grey giving Madam a run for her money. And yes they have trashed the grazing in that part of the paddock. This is the electric fence that Madam climbs through whenever the electric is off or the batteries run low.

Are you feeling footy?

The grass is growing faster than the girls can scoff it, even though we have really restricted their grazing area. As yet it is too wet to fully implement their summer track, but it won't be long.

We were concerned the sugar in the grass might start to show as footiness, especially in Madam. But so far, judging by performance they are ok.

I took them out ride and lead today and headed for a bit of gravel track. Madam kept offering trot even on the really horrible bits. Then she jumped a line of bricks set into the ground. I guess her feet are feeling ok.

We were worried that they would bicker during the ride and lead, but bar a bit of 'competitive trotting' so far its been ok. They seem to realise that it is really important that they behave and they rise to the challenge beautifully.