Barefoot - Week 1

We're coming up to the end of the first week now, so a Barefoot progress report is warranted.

Best of the three horses is Flurry.  He's walking fine on level concrete and soft ground, he's just a bit tender on rough or stony ground.  I rode him today for the first time, he was pretty good.  His usual stiffness to the left and perhaps just a tiny bit tentative in trot.  I gave him a brief canter on each rein, too (couldn't resist!), he felt fairly normal.

GiGi initially looked good and then worried Anne quite a bit on day three by looking rather sore in trot. Anne backed off immediately and then just walked her the next day, and by day 5 she looked a bit better.  Lazy to lead but walked and trotted on well on the lunge!

Aero is the one I expect to benefit from "barefoot"the most, but he's the one who is suffering the most at the moment.  Within two days of his trim he was looking very sorry for himself and was quite reluctant to move around the field, let alone walk onto the hard standing area.  I moved him into a drier area where there is a good pick of grass for him, and thankfully within a day he had perked up a bit.  He has had some heat and slight swelling in his left hind fetlock, probably due to the sudden change in the angle of his joints when he had the trim last week.

He has been quite sore while doing his daily walk work in the arena, but by day 5 we were beginning to see an improvement - he's walking carefully and not striding out like he normally does, but he is looking less sore than before.

He's now asking to be let back into the very muddy paddock with his buddies again, by standing at the gate looking hopeful!  We'll keep him where he is for another few days, though, it's done him good.

In case anyone is wondering, my arena is not covered in gravel!  That's rubber chip, made from old tyres and with the metal bits removed.