Shoes for young horse

[AmyGrace]

I love this answer!

Personally, I recently switched my unridden mare to barefoot trims instead of traditional trims from her former farrier. She’s mainly not ridden because of severe arthritis and I have noticed that she’s walking better with her new trims. One of the reasons I switched to barefoot was because her OA is more advanced so her cannon bone is starting to angle but her trimmer says he’s seeing an improvement with the angles of her feet with hooves trimmed shorter, and more regularly.

I know my response is more about arthritis, sorry to go off topic but I would hesitate to ever use shoes again. When I rode competitively before, my former TB was injured by a nail being driven into sensitive tissues, causing repeated abscesses. I would never go through that again but I would definitely check out the newer boots available.

[Xanthoria]

@fivestrideline

In fact, shoes hinder foot development and the later you can put a shoe on a young horse the better foot that horse tends to have later in life.

You know, I bought a WB colt and when he was big enough to back (age 3) his feet were still not done growing in size and it was an eye opener for me. Made me realize that the longer they can comfortably stay barefoot (with or without boots) the better. That baby ended up growing a hand by the time he was 7, and wore a size 5 shoe.

Makes you also think about hose breeds that are often started young (QHs, TBs) and shod young and how small their feet sometimes are…

[Fence.Hopper]

Agreed with both of you! I really believe that the issues I have with my now 18yr old OTTB stem from being shod so young, and then staying shod for most of the rest of her life (only barefoot for a year now). The difference between her and the 5yr old OTTB I had that had been shod for a short while and then left barefoot from 2-5 was incredible. The 5 yr old had larger, more robust hooves despite being a smaller horse, highlighting how underdeveloped the older horse’s hooves are.

OP I would not shoe a horse because they are tender on gravel. I agree with the advice of having him trimmed by your farrier and seeing if your farrier will show you how to keep his hooves trimmed between the 6 week visits. Both of my horses need trimmed at the 2-3 week mark - it isn’t all that uncommon. Keeping the walls rasped up isn’t too hard and it is a great skill to have!

[sara78]

Yes, my other horse was shod very early, now hé s 5 and totally crippled(and hé has good xrays)

[FjordBCRF]

I got my boy as a three year, and he had borium shoes on all fours as he had been learning to drive and was out on the road. I pulled the shoes and opted for hoof boots (scoot boots) while out on trails and was also fortunate enough to learn how to trim. That has served us very well going on three years now. He is fine barefoot in arenas, even the grittier sandier type footing, and is fine on for short stints on a gravel driveway to and from the outdoor; ridden or hand walked.

I’ve found it best when there is some kind of abrasive surface, be it a walk down a gravel driveway to the pasture, or ground asphalt around the water trough to help build up and keep a callous of sorts. The barn we just moved from was mud, mud and more mud and he was much more tender on even a lightly abrasive surface.

If there comes a time this approach doesn’t serve us, I will definitely reevaluate but I’d rather keep shoes off his feet if I can, and we are a great fit in the Scoots, no issues with those to date.

[sara78]

My farrier came today to shoe my older horse and looked AT my three Years old. Hé Said hé believes that hé does not need shoes AT thé moment so hé trimmed him. Hé was slight careful After trimming on gravel but sound on Sand and road. Hope i Can keep him unshod this year. I ride him really lightly, 20 minutes 4 Times a week so i Hope hé will Cope with it

[S1969]

Did he think the three year old was overdue for trimming? That obviously makes a big difference especially going from too long to correct in one trimming. It might mean the horse will be a little tender, but still better to be correct than too long (and way easier to fit with occasional boots if the trim is correct).