Tulsa is Sharon's own 19 year old Anglo-Trakehner mare. Sharon purchased Tulsa in 1993 as a 4 year old barely steering dressage prospect. She was shod in front at the time of purchase and soon thereafter was shod behind as well. Tulsa came with a slight club foot on the right fore. The foot was x-ray'd at the pre-purchase exam and deemed not to be a deal breaker per the vet.
Tulsa remained shod until her shoes were removed in early 2003. Over the years Sharon asked many farriers if there was anything that could be done about the club foot. There wasn't and the foot stayed the same. Since Tulsa was (apparently) sound Sharon didn't think much about it.
Sharon admits that when she started the barefoot journey it was with grand hopes of seeing that club foot miraculously disappear. That of course isn't the way it went. Tulsa has been barefoot now for 5 years and living "naturally" at Lauren's for the last 2 years. For some reason, which honestly still isn't entirely clear, even with a great trim, 24x7 movement, and a great diet Tulsa's body has insisted on hanging on to the excessively high heel. Presumably it knows what it needs. However, when you see a horse every day you don't always perceive the changes are thare happening. Here are two photos of her clubby right front foot. One was taken immediately after the shoes were removed and the second five years later. The high heels have gone hand in hand with contracted heels in Tulsa's case. While her heels are still still 'too high' (very deep collateral grooves) the photos show that de-contraction has occurred.
Tulsa is a horse who internalizes her pain. Rather than limp or buck you off she would just hold
herself tight. As of February 2009 looking back perhaps her resistance to early training may well have been her way of saying that her feet hurt. She also used to be extremely sensitive about any touch, no matter how light, to her chest letting you know she didn't like it with nasty faces and threats to bite. That is gone. Over the last year she has started to walk with a solid heel first landing which is the kind of change you don't appreciate until you think about how different that is from before. So, change is slow but change is happening!
Case 4: Founder (Zippidy)
Zippity is a great little QH that Lauren rescued from a therapeutic riding facility while still living in Florida. He had been donated (as a tax write off) due to lameness which turned out to be founder with rotation. He was on the verge of being put down due to the expense of caring for him. Lauren brought him home and immediately lowered his heels and addressed the lamalar wedge and flares. He seemed more comfortable on hard surfaces than sound. This was April 2006.
At the end of May 2006 Lauren and her family and herd of 8 moved to East Tennessee. The move was very hard on
him and he began to deteriorate. Over the next year his hooves did not improve and he lost weight. Even though he was on 12 lbs of concentrate per day plus all the grass/hay he could eat he was still 200 lbs underweight. Obviously he was stressed. He was depressed, in pain, laid down a lot and the other horses were very mean to him. We began to wonder if it was fair to ask him to carry on.
About May 2007 Lauren discovers Equipride, a high quality vitamin/mineral supplement with gut support. As an experiment she begins feeding it to Zip and sees nearly immediate improvement. Little be little he began standing more, then walking more without boots, and within a couple of months was being ridden. Back with the herd he behaved like a regular horse and turned out to be a super horse for helping out with fence repair or weed control.
In January 2009, although dramatically improved we are still not satisfied with his overall health. The fact that his hooves do not really improve to the extent that others do leads us to think there is still something Not Right with his general health. We're experimenting with herbs, detoxing liver and kidney, and addressing ulcers.
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