Transitioning out of bar shoes after injury

[one1horse]

Yay! Another hoof care thread!

So some backstory… some of you may remember my threads about my horse’s injury in June of 2016. He injured his impar ligament, did IRAP, put him in bar shoes w/ 2 degree wedge, and gave him a full 6.5 months off. Brought him back into work slooowly over the winter with long lining and under saddle work. We are probably just about reaching our previous level of work (without jumping) right now. All things considered, I am really pleased with him, he’s doing very well and feels great (knock on wood).

Now for the question. Horse has been pulling shoes like crazy. He hasn’t been able to go a full 5 week cycle without ripping one off since March. This past cycle he pulled one off each foot within 3 weeks of each other. Farrier has been fantastic about troubleshooting and trying different things… she added additional clips, did partial glue-ons, changed his breakover a smidge. She is very talented and I don’t feel that it has anything to do with her work. That said, after he pulled another shoe last night, she said she felt we needed to be considering removing the bar shoes. She said she was concerned because pulling the shoes off constantly isn’t good for his legs and she honestly doesn’t know what else to try to keep the shoes on. She proposes keeping his wedge pad on, but going back to a regular shoe. Is this a reasonable option?

I’ve contacted my vet to discuss this, but I’m still waiting to her back. I was always under the impression that he would need bar shoes for a considerable length of time, so while I understand and am not against my farrier’s proposition, I’m nervous at the same time. Does it seem too soon to be transitioning from the bar shoe? After all the rehab work we’ve done, I don’t want to do anything that will jeopardize his recovery, or put him at greater risk for reinjury. Is there a typical time frame or “process” for transitioning out of bar shoes after an injury? Am I overreacting? Is the sky blue?

Thanks guys!

[Dressagelvr]

In most cases, bar shoes should be a temporary, therapeutic option because they are very hard on the heels.

So, the question really is: How temporary? And, of course, the answer is…it depends.

This is a three way conversation that should be had among you, your vet, and your farrier.

It would probably be a good idea to get some x-rays (to see angles within the foot) and possibly an ultrasound for the ligament.

Any changes should be made slowly. Keeping the wedge is probably a good idea.

I would also wonder what has changed to cause him to pull the shoes now, but that’s another discussion…

[one1horse]

Thanks for responding.

He was xrayed and ultrasounded in May and the vet was very happy with how things looked. When I spoke with him yesterday he suggested a wedge/frog support pad with the regular shoe. Farrier didn’t think it would do much to help support his foot since his feet are “good”, just unable to hold the shoe.

When we initially talked about the long term plan for shoeing, it would be to gradually de-wedge and then take him out of the bar shoe so I don’t love that we’re doing it the other way around. Vet agreed it was more important to keep shoes on the horse, but didn’t really give me a straight answer when I asked if it would be better to try a different farrier to see if they could keep the bars on him.

The only major thing that has changed is that he’s now “in work” where previously when he had the bar shoes on he was just hanging around on tiny turnout layup. Now he’s working, and has slowly worked back up to regular group turnout in a grass field.

[IPEsq]

That looks like a reasonable setup to try out.

[SaratogaTB]

OP, I am in the same position. My OTTB gelding has needed egg bar shoes and while it was working in the beginning, we just cannot keep them on anymore. He gets keratex and wears bell boots and still manages to take each off mid cycle every time. My farrier and vet and I are thinking normal shoes with slight wedge and pads next. We are also considering glue ons. Someone else told me about Epona shoes, which I haven’t researched yet. You said something above that might be key to all this: my OTTB is also in large field turn out. I can’t help but think that all that wonderful movement with his buddies isn’t causing this to happen over and over. It’s so easy to catch the back of a bar shoe. But I don’t want to limit his turnout either. I actually hired a local guy from a metal detector club to come comb my field and find each shoe when I couldn’t! Thought of a bar shoe in the field keeps me awake at night. Good luck and I look forward to hearing your updates.