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Discussion on Pasture turnout and back shoes
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Member:
sross
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Posted on Saturday, Aug 11, 2007 - 8:48 pm:
How do you manage turnout of horses with back shoes?
My horse is at a boarding barn. He is turned out during the day in a pasture with 3 other geldings and one mare (total of 5). There have been no changes to the turnout group for about 6 months, and everyone gets along most of the time. My horse is #2 of 5 (they're all pretty wimpy  ) None of these 5 horses have back shoes. I've always been leery of turning my horse out with other horses with back shoes due to the higher risk of injury from kicks.
We have a new boarder at our barn. Her Thoroughbred event gelding (with back shoes) is currently turned out in a different pasture. She would like to move him to our pasture (for a number of reasons, primarily more stable turnout herd). According to the owner, Zack is usually low horse in the pecking order. To the best of my knowledge, the only time there has been any trouble in his current pasture is when only 2 geldings were turned out with the mares. That would not be the case in our pasture. I have no problem with this horse joining our herd except for the back shoes issue. He is a competition horse, so removing the back shoes is not an option for her. He has recently been diagnosed with ulcers, so she wants to have him turned out as much as possible.
I would be interested to hear about your experiences with pasture turnout and back shoes.
I'm going out to the barn tomorrow morning, and I'm sure this question will arise.
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Member:
mysi
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Posted on Saturday, Aug 11, 2007 - 9:52 pm:
Hi Sandra,
If it were me I would definitely say no. There's just always that chance.
My friend has a very sweet mare (with hind shoes), never kicks, never nasty to other horses unless she is really threatened. The farm owner where we previously boarded got a new boarder in (a gelding)and turned him out in the paddock next to my friends mare so they could get to know each other to see if they could be put together. They were friendly with each other and after a couple of days the barn owner put them together. They were fine the first day, the second day he was trying to play with her and she double barreled him in the chest and fractured his shoulder putting him out for a year (he's fine now). I've never seen her do anything like that again, but it can happen. You just never know.
The general rule at barns here is if they have hind shoes, they are turned out alone, no chances. There are always exceptions like my boy who couldn't get his hind end off the ground to kick if he had to  .
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Member:
wgillmor
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Posted on Saturday, Aug 11, 2007 - 10:15 pm:
Hi Sandra,
What about having the TB's back shoes off for the first couple of weeks as a compromise? At the previous barn I boarded at (dry lot, not pasture) we had three deaths due to broken legs in 10 years. All were when a new horse was being introduced, and all horses had back shoes.
Wiley
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Member:
amara
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Posted on Saturday, Aug 11, 2007 - 10:20 pm:
i'm not nearly so worried about geldings being turned out with back shoes as i am about mares, especially geldings that are low on the pecking order...
Generally speaking, mares are "back ended" and geldings/stallions are "front ended". what i mean is that mares are usually more likely to use their back end to fight, males strike wth front legs and their face. of course, this is only general and fighting stallions will use whatever body part is most appropriate..
any chance of moving the mare out? while a good herd should have both males and females for most functionality, males will fight over the girls... no girl=less reason to fight. of course, if this new guy is as low down in pecking order as she says then he wont be fighting for the girl anyways...and if your horse is number 2 the wimpy new horse wont challenge him anyways...try turning the two of them out together to make sure of that...
how large is the pasture? large enough so that wimpy horses can get away from the tough guys?...
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Member:
paardex
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Posted on Sunday, Aug 12, 2007 - 3:50 am:
This spring [when the mares were away being bred] I had 4 new geldings with my own gelding to keep him company one mare was already with him[she is is always shod front and behind but is a 'slow' horse who likes to eat give her grass and she will not fight] I put the other geldings who arrived one after the other in the adjoining paddock for a few days and then put them all together in a large paddock with lush grass. No accidents happened, BUT they were allStandardbreds who for one reason or another are not so fast when kicking[gelding? type of horse?] My own[showjumper] I would never put with others when wearing shoes, he is dominant and playful and very very fast.
After that a Selle Francais arrived [shod] I was not able to put him in with the others even with a fence in between he kept quarreling with mine and to others, the risk seemed to me to big.
Long story short: ofcourse you take a risk but the type of horse[how does he play bucking and lashing out or running?] and his character [dominant or not] may tell you how big a risk you are taking.
And I would always try to introduce them 'nextdoor' first.
Hope this helps
Jos
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Member:
erika
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Posted on Sunday, Aug 12, 2007 - 1:49 pm:
How 'bout boots over the shoes until they figure out the pecking order?
Like Melissa B. I've not had problems with geldings kicking, but a couple of mares were quick to enforce that way.
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Member:
leilani
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Posted on Sunday, Aug 12, 2007 - 3:59 pm:
I've seen too many accidents due to kicks from horses with rear shoes. I wouldn't take the chance. Leilani
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Member:
lilo
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Posted on Monday, Aug 13, 2007 - 9:31 am:
I just wanted to add a sad experience of my own. I lost a 12 year old gelding presumably due to a kick from my mare, and she was barefoot. They were turned out together (had been together about 2 years, so, it was not as if they were just being introduced to each other). It happened at night, so we don't know exactly what happened. Was he challenging her dominance? Was he trying to mount her? But his front knee was shattered and after consulting 3 veterinarians we decided to put him down.
So - even without shoes, a kick can be dangerous.
Lilo
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Member:
sross
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Posted on Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008 - 11:19 pm:
Followup: In the end, the horse with back shoes remained in a different pasture.
A friend of mine lost her horse this spring due to an injury caused by a kick during turnout from a horse with back shoes. 
I have since moved to another barn where my horse is now turned out in a paddock with his best friend, a beautiful Arabian mare (also barefoot).
It probably would have been ok, but I'm glad I didn't take the chance.
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008 - 11:44 pm:
How awful about your friend's horse.
With horses I'm a firm believer in the old adage "better safe than sorry."
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New Member:
carolynw
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008 - 12:16 am:
Hi Sandra
It's definitely not worth the risk. My two horses have shared pasture on and off for several years with no real problems, but 2 weeks ago my mare kicked my gelding so severely that there is doubt he will recover. He was just coming back into work from a previous injury as well. She is in foal for the first time, so I probably should have separated them anyway. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing! And wouldn't you know it, I found him about one hour before the farrier was coming to remove her shoes!!
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Member:
babychop
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008 - 10:35 am:
I agree with the others, not worth the risk. My ex-father-in-law turned out his mare with her recently weaned filly & the mare shattered the filly's leg without even looking, she just lashed out & pegged her. She was the most beautiful thing you'd ever seen too. Such a terrible shame. Even if this horse is low on the totem pole you don't know what he's going to do or if the others will get stirred up re-establishing their dominance.
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