This exact thing happened to me this year. For the last 7 years my pony has lived inside but with long turnout hours. I’ve never had to worry about her feet, every time a new farrier trimmed her they ALWAYS made a point to say “this pony has great feet” haha. On June 1 I moved her to a new barn where she now lives outside… 6 weeks later her feet are destroyed . So chipped I can’t even lunge her in the ring, she’s too uncomfortable. I assume this is due to how dry its been paired with stomping at flies constantly. I use hoof oil as often as I can but it hasn’t been enough. I have no advice, just can relate!
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My mare gets chipping like that on her hinds if we do alot of trail riding. I’m not concerned, it’s cosmetic. She’s shod on front. She is fine barefoot on grass and sand, but there is no amount of transition period in the world that will have her comfortable on gravel/rocks without front shoes.
There’s nothing stopping you doing a little tidy up between trims to prevent minor chips turning into something worse. I’ll do that on my half shod mare. I trim the other one who thus far is ok barefoot every 3 weeks myself to keep her flares under control (and the farrier runs his eyes over it to check I’m getting it right!)
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The feet aren’t being trimmed well enough each time. The upward curving around the quarters means there’s either overgrown bar, underrun heels, or generally long walls, or all 3, which is creating flaring at the quarters and causing the chipping. 3 weeks in, feet shouldn’t look like this, and it’s obvious they haven’t been trimmed well enough, for a good while.
The white hind feet looks the best, other than the quarter flaring. Hinds are generally in better shape than fronts, when the trimmer/farrier isn’t doing a good enough job.
The white fronts have had long toes and underrun heels for a while
The black feet don’t look TOO bad from a trim perspective, but the heels are still underrun, and I suspect the toes are longer than they appear.
In short, I think you have a trimming issue, exacerbated by the environment
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Entirely unrelated to this thread but I see it and I twitch…
Please hang your shovel in the other direction, with the “blade” against the wall. God forbid a horse freaks out in the aisle and comes in contact with that shovel hanging that way, it would be an UGLY accident.
Just a simple thing that’s a good habit to get into.
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