Page 127 - February 2017
P. 127

                                 It takes some time for the foot to adjust to being barefoot after having shoes on because the foot needs time to toughen up again after being protected from wear.
 rest, if you take the shoes off and leave him in there for 30 days, he will grow more foot. He may actually end up with the foot that you are looking for. There will be more hoof growth than if he was out walking around outside barefoot,” he explains.
“The foot will always tell you where a horse has been. You’ll be able tell whether he’s been in the stall versus if he’s been out of the stall. If he’s been in the stall, that foot may be soft and starting to stink, but it may also have the extra hoof growth you needed,” Norman explains. A hoof on a stalled horse may not be as tough and calloused as you’d like to see and you may have to trim and smooth the hoof up a little, but the horse will definitely have more foot. You have to be careful when you bring the horse out and smooth up the foot so that it doesn’t break.
“You want the extra growth, and then you want to rebalance that foot. You can’t take
as much foot off as you’d like, so the foot may be out of balance for longer than you’d like - to leave that horse barefoot - because you have to leave some dead foot so the horse won’t be tender walking on outdoor terrain,” he explains.
There needs to be a little extra hoof wall to act as a buffer between the sensitive part of the foot and the ground. “And usually when you leave some extra wall, the heels start to
collapse a little and the foot moves forward. You could halt this collapse and movement
if you put a shoe on, but we are trying to get the horse out of shoes. It may take six to eight months or maybe even a year of rounding/ smoothing and slowly trimming that bare foot to where it will be balanced again the way it needs to be for a healthy bare foot.” You just keep smoothing it the right direction, taking off very little at a time.
“I would truly love to see every racehorse have to stay barefoot for at least six months when they start racing. This would really bring out the horsemanship in a lot of trainers if they had to all race barefoot. People would start pay- ing more attention to the feet!” says Norman.
Some owners and trainers always started their youngsters racing barefoot, while others are quick to put shoes on before they race. “When I was in Tucson, Arizona, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s riding a lot of year- lings, it was in sand and those horses were
all barefoot. This was when they were in the first 30 days of breaking and with the average youngster, you might not have been able to get a shoe on at that stage. Most trainers didn’t attempt to have those horses shod until after they were broke and settled in.” Some people didn’t handle feet until after they were broke.
“In those situations, they needed to break the horse before they could consider doing
anything with his feet. Here in the East, most horses are handled at a younger age and are inside more and growing up indoors. They may be more accustomed to having their feet handled, but they also don’t grow as good a foot if they are kept in a stall. A lot of people do try to get them outdoors more since exercise is healthier for the growing horse and for his feet,” he explains.
The foot needs concussion and the continual expansion/contraction that occurs with bearing weight and exercise to increase blood circulation in their feet. “The foot needs good blood flow to grow a healthy, strong hoof that functions properly. We also want to see good balance so the hoof wall won’t distort from uneven pressure and cre- ate a dish or a lateral flare, or too much heel or too little heel,” says Norman.
“We try to rebalance that foot every 30 days as we trim it. A lot of people go 45 or even 60 days between trims and in some instances the foot gets so out of whack that you have a challenge trying to rebalance it without soring the horse. This can be difficult, especially if these young horses are being ridden because
if the horse shows any kind of short stride or tenderness, the first thing the trainer wants to do is put shoes on that horse. They jump on that too quickly sometimes, whereas if they would maybe back off a little on the training
  The outer layer of the horse’s hoof can become brittle and cracked when the conditions alternate between wet and dry. The frequent bathing of racehorses can cause the outer layer of the hoof to become brittle and cracked, which can cause feet to fall apart. When nails are not introduced to the weakened hoof wall, allowing the horse to stay barefoot will relieve the stress on a cracked hoof.
A horse’s foot needs concussion and continual expansion/contraction that occurs with exercise and bearing weight in order to increase blood circulation. Better circulation helps grow a healthy, strong hoof that functions properly.
124 SPEEDHORSE, February 2017
 equine health















































































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