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Hoofcare & Information for Barefoot Soundness

Linda Cowles Hoof Care - Serving the greater SF Bay Area and Northern California

Chickapea

October 21, 2008

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November 6, 2008
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January 17, 2009
February 3, 2009
February 20, 2009

I met Chick's owner, Penny, through a very dear client who is an avid Parelli enthusiast.

Penny is relatively new to horses, had leased Chick for lessons, fell in love with her, and eventually managed to buy her. She knew Chick had "issues", but love is love... Chick was destined to be Penny's horse.

Chick, a working cow horse and ex-clinician's horse, had been shod as a long yearling or 2 year old and had remained shod ever since. She was diagnosed as Navicular at the age or 8 or 9. By the time I met her, she was in 3 degree aluminum wedge shoes and 3 degree wedged pads, for a total of 6 degrees of wedging.

Penny paid a small fortune to have the mare shod each month, but what bothered her the most was the feeling that Chick didn't like the shoes, and that the shoes were potentially causing a lot of her foot problems. When my client explained her experience taking her five Quarterhorses barefoot, Penny began researching barefoot for Chick.

When Penny discussed Chick going barefoot with other boarders at her barn, she met with stiff resistance. Her trainer had heard horror stories about invasive barefoot, and was concerned that Chick would founder or colic. Several other people expressed the opinion that, because Chick's feet were so horrible, it would kill her.

I was hesitant to take the mare on initially, not because I felt she was a long shot, but because I knew that Penny would be under a significant and persistent amount of pressure to re shoe her, particularly because she is a relative newcomer to horses and because her trainer believes shoes are necessary for most horses and particularly for Chick.

Chick was not sound starting out. Her feet were, frankly, horrible. Her heel's were extremely under run, her walls were paper-thin, her soles were flat and her frogs were hard and atrophied. She had medial-lateral imbalance in all four feet that had been severe for years resulting in extensive coffin bone remodeling. And on top of that, according to two vets, she had navicular. Her body was sore and she needed chiropractic and the services of an expert body-worker.

I let Penny know that it could be a year before we had her to the point where she was truly sound, and that while my goal was to have her be lightly ridable in boots in a month or two, it may be a year before she could really ride her a lot.

I invest a lot of time and emotion into these sort of transitions, I put my professional reputation on the line in that my failing in a situation like this is not only bad for me, it makes barefoot look over-ambitious and risky.

I asked Penny for a commitment, explained the costs (relatively cheap) and time-lines and let her know that if she had any doubts, I couldn't work with her now... she could think about it and we could try it later.

Penny took a few days to consider it, and called me back saying that she didn't care if she couldn't ride or a year, she wanted Chick to be healthier.