Natural Hoofcare and Trimming Services
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My name is Bruce Armstrong. I'm a barefoot horse owner in the Grampian Region. Contact Me
This is a new site, and over the next few months I will be providing more content, pictures, case studies, helpful information and links.
I hope you enjoy the site and find the information and stories useful and thought provoking.
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The Barefoot Horse
Many horse owners are discovering that our horses and ponies do not need to wear shoes and that there are significant health, behavioural and performance benefits to be gained by going barefoot. Most horses can happily make the transition to running barefoot, and can do everything barefoot that they did iron shod, do it better and more safely.
We all want long life, and lifelong soundness for our much loved horses and ponies – so it’s time to rethink the use of metal shoes.
Barefoot horses are generally happy, healthy and more relaxed horses. A barefoot horse will more likely enjoy a longer working life than a shod horse. He will slip less than a shod horse, be less fatiged after long hacks, will be more evenly muscled and will probably be more relaxed in temperament. As a rider, thanks to the reduced concussion, you will notice that you feel less tired and have fewer aches and pains after long rides too!
Every horse or pony can enjoy the benefits of naturally bare feet regardless of their age, or whether they have worn shoes all their lives or only for the past year. Big horses and litle ponies, horses with black, white and striped feet can all go barefoot successfully.
Barefoot must not be seen as a low cost or effort free alternative to shoeing. Barefoot does not just equal shoe-less.
Going barefoot requires committment on the part of the horse owner. As a horse owner wanting to going barefoot, you have to consider the changes that you may have to make to your horse's diet, it is possible you may have to adjust his workload during transition, and you may have to make changes in the way that you keep your horses. A barefoot horse requires regular trimming and foot care, just as a shod horse requires regular shoeing.
Shoes can often mask underlying hoof problems and soundness issues, and often these become apparent when the shoes come off and the horse is allowed to walk as nature intended him to walk. However these issues are usually short lived and will resolve as a new hoof grows.
So if you find yourself saying “my horse can never go barefoot, his feet are awful” then maybe your horse really does need to go barefoot, to be free of shoes, and allowed to grow a new hoof that is of a far higher quality, and more functional, than the shod hoof he has today.
Announcements
Trimming
So sorry - if you have come here looking for trimming services. I am not trimming at present, and will update this site when I can trim again. Please browse and enjoy the rest of the site and I hope you find the information useful! I recommend that you contact Anni Stonebridge. Her contact details are on the Useful Links page.
NEWS - NEWS - NEWS- NEWS - NEWS - NEWS - NEWS - NEWS - NEWS
Meet our new arrival McKelvey the Cob!
Click on McKelvey to see him.
New videos of Bramble pulling logs
We built some rustic jumps using Bramble as our very own ATV! What a versatile pony. There is life after laminitis.
Spring is definitely here!
Now is the time to keep very close eye out for all of the danger signs of laminitis. Catching it early can mean the difference between the possibilty of successful containment, and a full blown attack.
Things that I look out for include:
- Warm feet
- Pulses
- Horses shuffling from foot to foot, or sometimes simply swaying slightly
- Irritability - with noises, fussing, grooming.
- Uncharacteristic behaviour, grumps or moodiness
- Unhappiness about lifting a foot - snatching it back, leaning
- Short striding or mincing
- Skin issues - itching is a classic early sign of a pony who is possibly pre-laminitic
- Introversion and unresponsiveness - an appearance of being preoccupied
- Standing away from the herd
- Crest filling up
- Breathing rate up
If a horse is starting to get low grade discomfort in the feet, or has some of the metabolic disturbances preceding laminitis then you might see the changes mentioned above before you actually get any lameness, gimping, hot feet or pulses.
Pre-occupation or irritability is one of the earliest signs - you know what it can be like when you have toothache and people fuss over you! It's kind of the same for ponies in the pre-laminitic stage - they can start to become introverted.
New barefoot book - written by UK authors for UK horse owners!
Nic Barker and Sarah Braithwaite are to publish their first book "Feet First" in July this year. They will also be riding from North Wales to Exmoor to publicise the release.
This book challenges the notion that shoeing is essential and demonstrates that horses’ hooves are capable of high levels of performance on all surfaces without shoes.
Practical, measured and research based, the book discusses how diet, environment, exercise and
trimming affect the hooves, and shows that going barefoot can often improve hoof performance dramatically. This book will appeal to anyone who wishes to improve the performance of their horse’s hooves as well as to professionals involved in equine hoof care.
Click on this link for a full size PDF of the cover.
Reserve and buy it here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feet-Firs...ks&qid=1242991544&sr=8-13