Pulled shoe question

[DawgLady]

Hi all. New member here! Glad to be part of this online community. Wanting to get some objective opinions on a current specific challenge.

Pretend you have a high strung greenie who pulls a hind shoe on a Monday. Farrier cannot come back until Saturday. Do you:
A. Keep horse on stall rest to protect the foot
B. Tape the foot and keep him on his regular turnout schedule
C. None of the above

A little more info:

• The horse does not have the strongest feet
• He is mostly calm in turnout. They play a bit, but they don’t run around like idiots.
• He’s usually turned out overnight with two other geldings on about two acres. It is a bit muddy and rocky right now.

Thanks for your input.

Oh! And I’m thinking of ordering an Easy Boot so this is a non-issue in the future. But I’d still like others’ input on this question.

[Obsidian_Fire]

I’d get a boot, ASAP. In the meantime, I would wrap the heck out of that foot and throw him out.

[theresak]

Hind shoe - regular turnout and I probably wouldn’t even tape the foot.

Generally, I don’t worry if my horse pulls a hind shoe. If it’s more than a few days before the farrier can come out, I’ll actually pull the other hind shoe so he’s even. Fronts are a different matter because he’s got therapeutic shoes - if he pulls a front shoe he wears an Easy Boot Trail on the naked foot.

[DawgLady]

@Obsidian Fire

I’d get a boot, ASAP. In the meantime, I would wrap the heck out of that foot and throw him out.

Dumb question…would you do a diaper plus vet wrap under the tape? It’s more padding, but with the mud…

[S1969]

@DawgLady

Dumb question…would you do a diaper plus vet wrap under the tape? It’s more padding, but with the mud…

No.

If anything I’d use something like firm styrofoam or possibly a leather or plastic hoof pad if you can get your hands on one.

I probably wouldn’t wrap the hind foot unless that particular foot had an issue you were trying to resolve.

[SonnysMom]

One farrier I had preferred they horse stay in until he reset the shoe. Current farrier- for one horse he gets chucked out with no wrapping since he does not need to a long gravel driveway and goes out on very soft footing so no risk of chipping.
Other horse either stays in or goes out in round pen so he doesn’t need to cross long gravel driveway. The BM there also uses the farrier the prefers the horse to stay in until he resets the shoe so that plays into it.
I find that wraps don’t stay on well in our particular turn-out situations due to mud.

ETA- both of my horses rub easily so I have never bought a turn-out boot. I figure they will just get rubs from it and being in a stall for a few days is the lesser of 2 evils.

[DawgLady]

@S1969

No.

If anything I’d use something like firm styrofoam or possibly a leather or plastic hoof pad if you can get your hands on one.

I probably wouldn’t wrap the hind foot unless that particular foot had an issue you were trying to resolve.

I probably wouldn’t either, except it pretty torn up from him ripping that shoe off.

[cnd8]

If it is a hind, I wouldn’t change anything or wrap. Let him out. Now, if it was a tender horse and a front shoe, I’d wrap or stall until then. Not with all the mud though and it being a hind.

[Haylter]

ya just chuck him out. if it was dry ground a wrap would help, but on wet ground/mud it does not.

[DawgLady]

@Haylter

ya just chuck him out. if it was dry ground a wrap would help, but on wet ground/mud it does not.

Does it change your opinion to know that he ripped his foot up a bit when he pulled that shoe off? I don’t know if this is unreasonable, but I’m worried that he’ll jack up that foot past the point of shoe-ability. Then we’ll really be up a creek. But truth be told, my knowledge of hooves and farrier capabilities is pretty limited.

[merrygoround]

There is such a thing, as hoof cast material,. It’s pretty sturdy, is not easy to apply, at least not for me. As an alternative I use a diaper, or cut a sanitary napkin and using strips hold it in place with gorilla tape.

That way you can with luck, prevent further chipping.

[RainWeasley]

Is he off on that foot? What is the ground like? If it’s like insanely torn up and he would be going out on rocks, then I’d leave him up. But honestly, unless the horse is obviously off on it, most barns I know will just let the horse go out. My current one does, but our farrier comes at least once a week anyways and will stop by to reshoe within a couple days if needed so it’s usually not a big deal.

You did say, though, that the farrier isn’t coming until Saturday. In that case, if you or anyone you know has the tools or know-how to just take the other shoe off, that would be ideal I would think, and then let him go out unless he is off on it. I would be more worried about them walking with one foot higher than the other than the foot becoming unshoeable, depending on how extreme it is.

[candyappy]

How far along in the shoeing cycle was he? How did he get a back shoe off? I had one huge/ big bodied gelding who would just seem to twist them off on his back feet. I think we went to clips and that helped to keep them on.

If he is long in the shoeing cycle and due soon he may have enough foot to nail a shoe onto after the farrier cleans it up.

[DawgLady]

@candyappy, as of tomorrow, he’s 3 weeks into the shoeing cycle. I don’t know how he managed to get that back shoe off. It happened in turnout and we couldn’t find the shoe.

@RainWeasley, he’s not off (thank goodness). The ground here is rocky and muddy currently. I’d say his turnout is more muddy than anything else. It just won’t stop raining!

Good news…farrier is coming tomorrow. But this has been an educational conversation for me nonetheless!

[ryansgirl]

Do you have a rasp/trimmer on hand? If not, it’s not a bad idea to get some - your farrier may have some older ones he could give to you (or sell). I always clean up the hoof if there is a chip, etc. until the farrier can make it out. It helps prevent further chipping for the time being.

[walktrot]

Did you look at it to figure out why it might have pulled off? A farrier new to the area did a horse at our barn and sort of forgot the part where you make the clinches. So he lost both fronts, no hind shoes. There was another one who put the nails in very low which didn’t work well. Some of them have hoof walls that crumble around the nail holes from prior shoes. If there is a lot of mud it slows their feet down and they can pull a front off, or bend it, when the hind takes a step. My farrier puts an extra nail on the inside. He has been on biotin for a couple of years so there isn’t a problem with the nail holes. If you can eliminate some of the causes you and the farrier can look at other possibilities.

My horse rarely loses a shoe and the farrier gave me a rasp she had retired. He lost a shoe one day and I looked around for a while but had no luck. When I got close to the gate my foot hit something hard, and there it was in some mud they created hanging around the gate in wet weather. Lucky. I leave him out and the farrier usually comes within a couple of days. The last time he was in a stall overnight he was nuts so that is not a realistic option unless we drug him.

[Haylter]

@DawgLady

Does it change your opinion to know that he ripped his foot up a bit when he pulled that shoe off? I don’t know if this is unreasonable, but I’m worried that he’ll jack up that foot past the point of shoe-ability. Then we’ll really be up a creek. But truth be told, my knowledge of hooves and farrier capabilities is pretty limited.

Nope chuck him out. There a putties and all manner of things farriers can use to repair a hoof and the damage was done when the shoe came off it should not get that much worse by being out and if he is in I am sure he will be moving around a lot any way. Wrapping the hoof holds moisture so it softens it which is not good.

[Cat_Tap]

What I have done in the past is rasp any rough edges and make a boot out of duct tape. A vet showed me how to do that when I was poulticing with animalintex for an abscess.

[gertie06]

Looks like you got this advice already, but TURN HIM OUT. I just learned this the hard way. My greenie was stallbound for three days and went bananas.

[J-Lu]

Story of my horse’s life!

My horse is a horse who routinely pulled FRONT shoes until we tried bell boots in turnout, which work. Most of the time.

He has occasionally pulled hind shoes. This doesn’t make him sore and I often ride but don’t do much above the walk, maybe trot.

With front shoe loss, he is sometimes sore to ride (and I usually don’t) but not always, sometimes he’s fine. He lives outside in his own pasture. He stays out. He’s never been lame with a hind shoe pull, he stays outside. The feet will often harden up with a couple of days of wear in normal situations (not necessarily if it broke a bunch of hoof when pulling that shoe and the horse is lame, but a good farrier can shoe a horse with a bunch of foot missing and make the horse feel good enough to ride by filling in the gaps with polymer, ask me how I know), and mentally, they’re much happier with their regular schedule. If anything, don’t ride with a pulled shoe. But I agree with others - turn him out if he’s used to being turned out. And work him in hand to carry on with discipline and mental focus in the mean time if you don’t ride him. Don’t be tempted to simply not work him until the farrier comes, there’s a lot you can do with a 5 year old that doesn’t require riding if he’s sound.