Barefoot Performance Horses

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K S SWIGART   swigart@bigbear.com


I competed in 50 mile endurance rides on my Arabian Stallion 
barefoot. But when i moved up to 100s and multidays he simply did not have enough
foot to keep from getting short in the foot and footsore.  I would
sometimes do competitions with Easyboots (for multidays)...and FOAM them
on.  ANd  last year he threw two easyboots on the last day of the Summer
XP so I just rode the last 30 or so miles with him barefoot...he was fine.

I do not use the 4-point trim.

What I do with my horses is let them go barefoot and wear themselves
into the OWN natural foot (not the natural foot of some mustang that
somebody has observed).  For most of my horses (which are of
Thoroughbred breeding of some sort) these feet are quite round, and they
certainly done stub off their toes.  And look almost nothing like the
"natural four point trim" that I have seen in publications, etc.

Then, when I need to shoe them for competition (because the mileage has
gotten too great for them to grow enough replacement foot), I just nail
shoes on their bare feet...or if I need to reset shoes without letting
them go barefoot between shoings, then I (and my shoer) have made a note
of what THAT horse's natural foot is, and trim accordingly.

You have to do this for each horse.

My three year old colt (not yet started under saddle--but runs around on
1/2 acre 24 hrs a day) has NEVER in his life had a trim.  He has a
perfect "keg" foot (nothing like the "four point" that many are aware
of) and have had some "natural balance horse shoers" tell me that my
farrier has trimmed his feet all wrong, that he is too long in the toe,
and that his feet are too round and proceed to tell me all the things
necessary to make my horse's foot more "natural."

Don't they feel absolutely stupid when I tell them that this is EXACTLY
what THIS horse has worn his foot into, and any farrier that tried to
form it to some other pre-conceived notion would be grossly irresponsible.

All horses do not have one "natural" shape of foot any more than all
people do.

Let you horse tell you what its natural foot is.

kat
Orange County, Calif.