foot sore

Hey everyone! My horse has had shoes for the past yr due to an abscess last summer, but I recently switched barns and the owner said I didnt need them anymore. A few days ago he got his feet done (and got shoes off like before the abscess) and now he is REALLY tender footed. If he walks on rocks he limps super bad, and I couldnt even free lunge him b/c there were some rocks kicked up in the round pen. As soon as he was on grass he was back to his usual walk. Do you think this will get better over time? He was never this tender footed when he didnt have shoes before, so I think it will...
I am now putting hoof heal on him to harden his feet and trying to avoid rocks, but that's kinda hard to do b/c the whole walk from the pasture to the barn is almost completely rock. Thanks in adv!

More than likely when he had shoes the farrier was trimming sole. Trimming sole does not help barefoot soundness. Give it a little time and be sure the trimmer is not removing sole. I suggest hoof boots if you need them for riding.

^^ Ditto, just give him some time. Use boots when you need to but if he doens't show at least some improvement in the next few months, you may want to have a vet take a look.

Ditto, too. Many farriers are used to trimming a lot of sole, and that can make a barefoot horse sore in an instant.

Ditto on what everyone said, but I want to add not to harden the feet yourself. Hardening them too fast will actually make him more foot sore. Leave them be, don't soak them, nothing. They will harden on their own. Soaking for soreness will make them too soft and wont help either. If you insist on anything, use epsom poltice and wrap them. It will draw out soreness

I agree with everyone on giving him time. It takes a while to build up a callus again. The shoes made his feet soft from lack of ground contact. I would not use a hardener either. Keep walking him on the gravel a bit every day. It will help. I wouldn't ride him on hard ground / gravel until he is comfortable with just his own weight and balance though. Hoof boots are a good idea for that during the transition stage.

Why in the world did they put shoes on him because of an abscess? Hmm.. well, it's over now anyway. Give him time. He'll be back to his old self in short order.

i was wondering the same

Thx for the advice guys! I will stop putting the hardener on for now, and they put shoes on him after the abscess b/c they think the abscess was caused from uneven ground and stepping on crap...i don't know if that answers your question but I think that was the reason. Who knows =]

Dreamrider -- it still doesn't make sense about the abscess, but what matters now is that he will be fine again in a few weeks. You should already be noticing an improvement in him.

Yeah I suppose...but anyways I should be going to the barn today and I will watch him closely, hopefully we will see improvment =]