Tetley

He was shod at 4 years old, but in 2004 his owner decided to try going barefoot.

She was concerned that although he was sound in shoes, he was pointing a foot almost continually. In addition, his feet were flat and asymmetric, had underrun heels and were gradually deteriorating.

You can see photos of the state of his feet here, along with photos of how they improved.

He stayed in work, and within 3 months was capable of 3 x 50 minutes roadwork per week. He also competed at SJ and dressage, with improved movement and a better, more even topline. He was careful but capable on stony ground.

His crack started to heal immediately and was gone within a couple of weeks. His feet changed shape radically as you can see from the photos linked above.

He unfortunately developed 2 abscesses in his heels early in 2005, which we believe were caused by infection getting into old damage at his bars.

These healed rapidly, and by April 2005 he was sounder than ever.

Photos of Tetley doing what he does best, earlier this season, and a report below!

“Dear old Tetley has just flown round our nearest course, Henbury Hall, clear all the way. It was a very big course, but technically not difficult so I just went for it and jumped pretty much everything without slowing down at all. He made it seem very small! ...I heard a rider with 2 studs in each shoe say "it's VERY slippery out there" to another rider. There had been a steady drizzle all morning and people were very afraid of the going. We didn't slip once!”