Transitioning the Dressage Horse to Barefoot

This post shows the initial transition from shod to barefoot for Beretta, a then-four year old Australian Warmblood. He had been shod for a relatively short time (probably less than 3 months) and has excellent, healthy hooves so the process has been ideal and without any pain or discomfort for Beretta.

Beretta has quite upright front pasterns and shoeing had exacerbated this conformation issue, causing an almost 'clubbed' hoof on one side. Initially, when the shoes were removed, no trimming or other balancing or the hooves was done to allow them to 'release' and the hoof capsule to spread as it bears weight without the restriction of the shoe.

Shod Fronts

Shod Backs

Near front

The photos aren't great! But you get the gist of the upright front pasterns and high heels with toes that are a bit long, and the clubby backs with steep angles.

Off front

Off fore after shoe removed

Near fore after shoe removed

You can see, in the near fore photo above, the toe clip section and how far this has protruded into the white line area. The toe clip is the site of significant pressure as the shoe works against the hoof during movement and has been shown to quickly cause permanent changes to the structure of the hoof, including the tip of the pedal bone. But Beretta has a nice healthy frog and a fairly good shape to his hooves post-shoeing. His heels are a little contracted and high, but not too bad.

Near fore 4 weeks post transition

Near hind 4 weeks post transition

Near hind showing some concavity at 4 weeks

Off hind 4 weeks post transition

The photos above show Beretta's hooves at 4 weeks post removal of shoes. You can see how the hoof wall has grown and the hoof has 'flattened' a little as the hoof capsule adjusts to increased movement and working properly again. The heels have opened a little and the frog is already expanding and callousing. Everything looks great for this stage. This is, of course, pre-trimming.

8 weeks. Trimmed on the right, before trimming on the left

Trimmed and looking great about 8 weeks post-transition

Near fore 8 weeks post-transition

3 months post-transition

This set of photos shows the 'finished' barefoot hoof. Beretta transitioned quickly with a low sugar, high fibre diet, a lot of exercise on hard, dry ground, and frequent trims using correct technique. The results speak for themselves and show a much tighter, smaller hoof capsule, big fat frogs and heels starting to make contact with the ground. Beretta never suffered a sore day, and this is not that unusual with the right preparation and transition plan. He has now developed correct heel-first landing in all four limbs and this will only lengthen his performance life, lessening the chance of concussion-related injuries and lameness.

More photos in another blog of Beretta 9 months on. Stay tuned!

The Muppet Journey Part 1

It's been another long stretch between posts. A lot is happening in the barefoot eventer world - mainly a new long journey I am on with the 'new' horse (though he's been with me for over 9 months now!), Muppet. I have had a post about Muppet's transition from shod to barefoot sitting in 'draft' for ages, and will post it once I re-add the photos. But the new and somewhat more daunting journey has now begun - taking Muppet from a very anxious horse with gut issues and chronic back soreness to the future superstar he will become.

When I bought Muppet, he had pretty significant behavioural issues. Most noticeable was his tension and anxiety. This manifested in the following ways:

• Random and severe head tossing/shaking (this is how Muppet got his name - he would throw himself around at random and I would call him a muppet!)
• Significant tension when first mounted. He was completely unable to stand still when mounted, would rear and paw the ground and often leapt around.
• A real reluctance to go forward, though once going he would run and fight.
• Bucking and pig-rooting.
• A lot of grinding and playing with the bit, pulling and reefing, and very little stop response to rein pressure. He would also be extremely reluctant to take offered rein out and would literally go around with his head curled under and a loop in the reins, like an OTTB.
• Lots of stress and anxiety in new places - pawing and pacing when tied at the float, inability to eat, high reactivity and alertness.
• Diarrhea and poor condition.
• Sore back, particularly the loin area and sacral area over the croup area.
• Marked differences in behaviour depending on location - when tied up he would fidget and stress, when out on the arena (in hand) he is the picture of relaxation.
• Extreme sensitivity to being brushed and touched.

Some of these symptoms have improved or disappeared - he no longer tosses his head or reefs the reins. He rarely leaps around and only occasionally rears - usually when first mounted and asked to remain parked. Bucking and pig-rooting are rarer, though creep in when his back is sore, for obvious reasons. He has filled out beautifully in the spring and now looks a million dollars on a fraction of the feed.

However, the gut issues and back soreness have remained, and sometimes has been quite bad. Twice I have simply gotten straight off after mounting due to obvious soreness. Muppet has good times when he is just amazing to ride and handle, but this is about 15-20% of the time and has been so intermittent it is more frustrating than anything.

In winter, Muppet had developed loose poo - not diarrhea but not normal manure. I had him assessed by our equine vet, Alison Arnott, who diagnosed hindgut acidosis - not stomach ulcers per se, but definitely issues with the hindgut. She was the one who prescribed Equishure, and it helped, but I'm still feeding it three months later and it's not really designed as a maintenance supplement. We need to treat the underlying issue, not just give him horse Mylanta.

In an effort to control his behaviour, his diet was cut from 1kg of Low GI pellets (KER), 0.5kg lucerne chaff, 1kg soaked speedibeet, 1 cup of Micrbeet and a scoop of Equishure TWICE a day, to 1/2 scoop Low GI pellets and 0.25kg lucerne chaff with a scoop of Equishure. This did improve his over-reacting but not enough. And the back soreness continued.

So, I called in the big guns. I had a long and informative discussion with the local WOW saddle fitter and seller, Mel Earl, where we picked apart the possibility of the saddle contributing. We confidently ruled this out due to the way the WOW works and the Flair panels. It's not that it's impossible, but it just doesn't account for all the other symptoms. Mel suggested I get in touch with a bodyworker/nutritionist. So I called Di Snow, who I have used over the past 18 months but in a fairly limited capacity due to low funds.

Di came out a week ago and put Muppet on a pretty impressive diet with about 8 different supplements, including a pre/probiotic, apple cider vinegar, Magnesium Oxide, Lysine, Vitamin E and some special powders of her own invention. I'm also red-lighting key areas of Muppet's back and pectoral muscles, doing carrot stretches and in-hand exercises and giving him a basic massage every few days. Not much time for riding! But no riding for a couple of weeks, anyway, to give him time to start seeing the benefits of the new regime.

He's supposed to be eating hay at wither height, too, but the little bugger just won't do it at the moment. He just winds himself up and stares around at everyone! Muppet.

Muppet September 2018

The photo above shows Muppet just as spring started to kick in. You can see how week he is in the hindquarters and how developed his pectorals are. He has literally been pulling himself along and trying not to use his hindquarters. He had been very stiff and hard through the back. The photo below was taken the day I bought him:

Muppet January 2018

As you can see from the two photos, something is not right! Though Di is sure the issues we are now treating existed before I bought him, he was clearly not as sore through the body when this photo was taken.

So, for the next few months, I'll be blogging about Muppet and our journey to health!

First HRCAV Comp - January 2018

Well, that didn't go quite as I thought it might. Annie and I headed down to Bulla HRCAV Dressage Comp last Sunday (about a 3 hour drive) and things were very different than the usual dressage comp in many ways. For starters, the whole thing has a very amateur middle-aged woman (MAW) feel about it. Equestrian Australian competitions are awash with women, sure, but most riders are under 30, let's be real. And there are lots of big flashy trucks and goosenecks - all the professionals and more committed middle-class competitiors!

I don't remember seeing one truck and only a couple of goosenecks in the whole place - everything else was a plain old double float. Fancy ones, a lot of them, but just doubles.

That being said, we weren't in banjo country, either. The Adult Riding Clubs competitions I had been to in Canberra were rough and ready affairs with a good smattering of ex-trotters and pretty ordinary riding going on. This was definitely not like that, either.

What I witnessed was what MAWs with a bit of cash and a free rein (pun intended) can do. Lots of nice horses (nothing much flashy like in EA dressage), lots of prim and proper MAWs efficiently running about the place checking gear, looking after judges and making sure things ran to time. And it did.

The draw at HRCAV dressage comps is a little odd at first glance. A 'jackpot' event, as this one was, involves riding in two or more events over a competition. The draw puts the first test only half an hour before the second. The first time this happened, I was pretty annoyed - 30 minutes isn't long enough to hop off and give the horse a break, but too long to just keep riding around. This is something I will need to work on as it worked against me, in the end.

I assumed the 30 minutes is designed to give a buffer to arenas that run late but allowing riders to just get on with their tests without waiting around all day between tests. EA comps can involve a test at 9:00am and the next at 3pm, if you're unlucky. Not HRCAV!

I actually thought Annie did two pretty good tests. Certainly we would have done well in an eventing context, I feel. The second test was not as polished, for sure - Annie was pretty over it by then as we'd been going for an hour by that stage. There's only so much dressage Annie is likely to cooperate with, especially when trying to operate in a paddock full of cross country jumps! But, alas, the judges weren't with us. We only scored a 61.7% for the first and a disappointing 58% for the second. I didn't bother waiting around for the class to finish and pick up my tests - I found the marks breakdown online anyway and they were as I thought. Not sure why, but we just couldn't get much beyond a 6.

Annie is just a delight to take out and about, though. I am appreciating her more and more now I have baby Beretta to deal with. Everything scares him, he's difficult and complicated to ride as his natural talent is undone by his weakness and baby attitude. But Annie just gets on with it like an old hand. Stands at the float eating hay, warms up like we're at home. Does the test and goes back to stand at the float like a pro. Self-loads and eats hay all the way home. Love it.

Beretta's shoes come off in 12 days. Not like I'm counting down! I can't wait for them to come off - I find horses with shoes on inherently worrying but a young horse prone to leaping sideways when scared is really nerve-wracking! I value my feet and toes a lot! Other than that, I feel Beretta's shoes are interfering with his way of going. With heels too high and landing toe-first, he is not balanced and is struggling to lock his 'landing-gear' as he strides out. He often stumbles on the hard ground. We'll see if the transition to barefoot helps him, but I firmly believe it will.

Welcome to Baretta

The dressage queen journey is now begun. The rather handsome Baretta (by 00 Seven) is now ensconced at Pine Hill after what feels like a whirlwind romance and a marathon 8 hour drive in near-40 degree heat!

Silver Hills Skyfall (Baretta)

 Baretta is just a baby - 4 years old - and is literally at the start of his ridden career. I had my first ride this morning and it really felt like I was on a toddler! I established a good stop response with some ground work and I'm glad of it because he was all over the place, bless him! It's amazing the difference riding a well put-together horse with natural ability compared to the average horse, especially at this stage. Baretta carries me relatively easily and is balanced for his age, lack of strength and lack of suppleness.

And another plus is Baretta will need to be transitioned from shod to barefoot (well, I consider that a plus!). I will blog about this transition over the coming months, starting in just under 3 weeks when a new trimmer will arrive to take off his shoes and start the process. His feet are in good condition, though he has a little 'high-low' going on with his front hooves (the near fore heel is higher than the off fore) and it will be interesting to see how barefoot management assists in achieving symmetry.

Baretta was used to being in a private paddock and its been fun watching him make some friends with his paddock-mates. The current BFF, understandably, is the only other gelding on the property belonging to Pine Hill, Fui. Fui is a lovely old soul and he and Baretta are already mates. 

 Fui on the left, Baretta on the right. Koko the dog in the background

 

Baretta

 It will be interesting to see how Baretta transitions to barefoot. Given his age and comparatively short time in shoes (no more than a year, off and on), as well as his overall health and diet, and what appear to be strong, functional hooves, I don't anticipate major problems. I have started feeding him Hygain Ice, lucerne chaff and hay, and a little Hygain Balanced. He also has a tube of Succeed digestive paste to keep his gut healthy.

Baretta having a little play with Fui.

Annie and I head off to the Bulla HRCAV Dressage comp this Sunday and I'm looking forward to it. Let you know how I go when I get back :)

A new year dawns

Happy New Year! Like everyone, it seems, I am quite glad to see the back of 2017 and pretty excited about 2018. Lots of exciting new projects!

Well, first things first, the gorgeous Annie is up for sale and it's been quite a wrench. I absolutely detest selling horses - not because its a sad parting (though it often is) but because I have to deal with buyers. Very rarely are buyers serious about buying. Even more rarely are they genuinely interested in paying what you're asking. Now, fair enough, a horse is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it, but if you're not even in the ballpark, budget-wise, it's pretty pointless ringing up, going out to try the horse, then starting to haggle from a point significantly below what the sticker price is. Just frustrates everyone...

Not that I'm having that much trouble with Annie. Just a lot of tyrekickers and normally this isn't a drama for me, but Annie is special. I don't like random people just inserting themselves into Annie's life if they're not serious about being her new partner. Weird, maybe.

Annie is up for sale because I have made the decision to pull back from eventing and focus on dressage. I am a competitive person - I have written about this before - and I don't ride for 'fun.' Riding is fun, don't get me wrong, but I will never be a bush-bashing, trail-riding kind of rider. If I'm riding, it's because I want to be the best at it. And eventing is not an option at that level for me. I don't have the ticker for it.

However, I have developed a strong ambition to take a horse to FEI level dressage. Go figure. I'm now a boring dressage bitch! I'll keep eventing a bit - just low level to keep the dressage pony on its toes, but it's going to be more about dressage now. Not sure if I can change my blog name!!

Going to look at a very promising pony tomorrow. Keep you posted. :)

So, I've been trimming the two colts' feet for a bit now. It's so damn dry and hot all the horses have very hard hooves (which is theoretically great but bloody hard work!). I have a couple of pics of Jack (2yo ASH colt) below.

Little Jack hooves

Jack

Some interesting wall separation on the right

You can see the small size of his hooves after a trim. Barefoot horses have comparatively tiny hooves compared to shod horses. The hoof capsule is tight, strong and correctly angled. You can see, in the last pic, the lack of symmetry in Jack's hoof, though. Some of this is due to me leaving the hooves too long between trims, allowing flare to get a bit out of control, particularly in that right side. This places stress on the hoof wall, pulling it away from the laminae and causing problems.

This is about a week after the trim, but you can see the bars of the hoof haven't been trimmed back enough. It was so bloody hard that was literally the best I could do! Have to sharpen my hoof knives!

Our web page is up and running! If you haven't had a look, please take 5 minutes to have a browse. The pics are definitely a work in progress, and I really appreciate feedback.

The addy is www.pinehillequestrian.com.au

See you out there!

Summer!

Merry Christmas! The summer has been a bit all over the place, so far. We've had a couple of very hot days followed by torrential rain and a week of single-digit overnights, which has been disconcerting, to say the least! It has been abscess weather but luckily (or by fantastic good management!) only one of the Pine Hill horses appears to have had an abscess. Phew.

It has been a frustrating couple of months with Annie's feet. About September, Annie started to become sensitive in her hooves - something she only exhibited for the first two weeks after her shoes came off. At first, I assumed it was the spring grass, or a change in feed. I had changed her from KER Low GI Cube to Hygain Balance as she was in with the young horses and they were all being fed Balance. Annie has not been particularly sensitive to feed in the past - certainly not in her hooves.

It got to the point where I simply couldn't ride her on anything but grass. The one comp we managed to go to was our first HRCAV dressage day and, after warming up beautifully on the grass, she could barely manage to get around the first test on the sand and I retired her. So disappointing. And not a great day to exhibit a lovely big barefoot horse. Reckon I was in with a chance to win the damn thing, too!

This went on for two months until I got Di Snow, a local bodyworker and equine nutritionist, out to give Annie a treatment. While chatting during the treatment, and whingeing about Annie's newfound hoof sensitivity, Di asked what I was feeding her. I said, "The usual - Hygain Balance, lucerne chaff...oh, and Rose-Hip Vital for her joints." Di said, "Ah. Rose-Hip Vital is just sugar, basically. It's made from fruit sugar. Could be your problem."

And it was. I took Annie off it and within a few days there was a marked improvement. A month later, Annie is back to walking on gravel and working comfortably on our hard, dry arena. Just goes to show how even a couple of tablespoons of sugar a day can dramatically affect a horse's hooves.

These are Annie's hooves now:

Fronts

Hinds

Front near. Note the big frog but also the wall separation.

Annie's hooves are now about 80%. There was some hoof wall separation and no doubt getting back to true rock-crunching will take a little longer. I'm pretty annoyed at myself! But you live and learn, don't you?

Things are ticking along at Pine Hill. We are now taking a limited number of agistees, and have started our ambitious water project. We will be linking our three dams and pumping stock water up to a header tank at the top of the property. Water will then be gravity-fed to troughs around the property. Once again, an Equicentral design is our template but, since we are also setting up a working stud with resident stallions, there are ergonomic factors that need to come in that aren't really addressed in Jane Myers books.

So, we have a mare and foal paddock right out the front of the house, and another paddock that adjoins it. These two back onto the very large 'Back Country' paddock with its spring-fed creek and rocks and wildlife where the youngstock and broodmares are spending their summer. It's lovely. We also have a more Equicentral 'cell' of three paddocks that use a central 'loafing' area.

The next four months will be spent on the water and fencing more paddocks up the top end of the property. We will create another 'cell' of three or four paddocks around a central 'loafing' area. These areas are like big yards with shelter and the only water source. They are surfaced (we are using plumbers grit) and the idea is that horses are only every in one paddock at a time and use the loafing area for all the standing around they do under trees or around water. This saves the paddocks and minimises those horrible bare dust/mud areas created by this behaviour.

Pinehill Ellen

And here is our little filly, born mid-November to one of our Stock Horse mares. This girl is just a bit gorgeous and loves a scratch!

Merry Christmas and have a safe and happy New Year. Lots more to come at Pine Hill next year, no doubt!

We now have a website so feel free to have a browse - www.pinehillequestrian.com.au

Two weeks in and our first comp in over a year looms

Well, it's been nearly two weeks since hubby and I started the Blood Sugar Diet. It's definitely been a challenge! But, we have both lost a significant amount of weight and, more importantly, centimetres off our waistlines. We are eating a shitload more vegies and zero bread and pasta. We are both very energetic now - it's actually the best part of the whole thing - and I'm riding more, gardening more, just doing lots more. Hubby has fenced a whole paddock!

Downsides are not to be sneezed at. This is a huge change and it's been a massive challenge to avoid foods I would normally just shovel in without thinking about it. Bread and toast are things I miss a lot on some days but not at all on others. Buying lunch is an absolute nightmare - we can't have bread or rolls, or rice or whatever. So, no sandwiches, wraps, rolls or sushi. What's left, I hear you ask? Sashimi. Soup. Green salad with tuna or chicken. Eggs. That kind of caper.

Last night, we had a blowout and had takeaway with the kids. Burgers, chips and beers. It was pleasant, but not really fantastic. Both of us were so full afterwards, and the glow had worn off by this morning. But, neither of us feel at all bad about it, which is also a big change. We needed to let the leash loosen for a night and now we're back on track. It's quite a lovely, forgiving way of going.

Mindfulness and exercise are a big part of the diet. I have started brief mindfulness sessions using an app I downloaded and I think it's helping quite a lot with anxiety, hunger, generally getting through the day. It's an interesting journey.

Horse-wise, things are getting busy. I've been out judging all last weekend and now have my two sit-ins ticked off for upgrading. So close now. I have to admit, I have not developed a love for dressage judges through my time judging. I find them, on the whole, pretty condescending, unforgiving old women with very inflated senses of their own importance. No wonder riders dislike them. I am determined not to be like that, especially when I get more senior.

Annie and I will be off to our first dressage comp in Wagga next weekend. I had entered a Novice and Elementary test (eek!) but then the opportunity to do my last shadow judging arose and now we're just doing a Novice test at the end of the day. Luckily, we have a clinic with Manu Mclean next Mon/Tue so that should set us up nicely.

The grass is absolutely amazing at our property now. We put down lime and dolomite in Autumn and wow is it paying off. The mares are out in the driveway every day eating down the long grass and everyone is looking fat and shiny. I am a little concerned about the sugar content, though, and Annie showed a little tenderness walking on the gravel this morning, after only one day eating the lush grass. It's amazing how quickly they can react to a change in diet!

Cleo's baby is due in the next three weeks or so. She's looking so fat and shiny, still very athletic, despite starting to waddle. She's like that woman at work who runs marathons then gets pregnant and just keeps running every day until she pops the baby out. I wasn't one of those women. ;P