Abu is a twelve year old advance, endurance Arabian owned and ridden by Terry Madden. Here he tells the story of his first season riding Abu, barefoot, in Endurance competitions
Abu’s lifestyle change!!!
Some of you may be aware that Abu and I only managed a few rides last
season due to an unexplained lameness Abu had. The season began well
with a fourth place in the 80 km FEI ride at Haywood Oaks, unfortunately things deteriorated from this with Abu being intermittently one tenth lame.
Being based on the Wirral I was in a fortunate position of having the Royal Liverpool Veterinary College, Leahurst only three miles away. Abu was a regular visitor during this period, having a succession of tests and examinations and totalling a very hefty bill! Ultimately he was never diagnosed with a specific cause of the lameness, but after 8 weeks total box rest showed signs of improvement. During a follow up discharge appointment at Leahurst one of the vets made comment that he felt Abu may be experiencing some discomfort from his feet, although he was non-specific and recommended some drug therapy from Belgium?
It was at this time that a very good friend of mine Sarah Braithwaite was very much involved in barefoot trimming. She had listened sympathetically to me over the previous months biting her tongue as she felt that a large part of Abu’s problem was his feet.
As time went on and through curiosity I began to read about barefoot practitioners and engage in some deep and meaningful discussions with Sarah via e-mail and over the odd bottle of wine! I came to the conclusion that I had nothing to lose in removing Abu’s shoes during the winter to see how he would go, much to the disapproval of my farrier who had always maintained Abu would not manage barefoot.
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