barefoot - long

[Toni Jones <tjones@coinet.com>]

This is long, possibly boring and most likely, controversial.... I just
wanted to pose a few questions I've been thinking about and let people
think for themselves....

Why is it that endurance riders have no problems with the theories
behind Long Slow Distance? We are told, and generally accept, that it
takes 2 to 3 years to build our horses up physically in order to race at
these rides. We start slowly, training, being careful not to do too much
too soon so as not to risk injury. The horse needs this 2 or 3 years to
build the tendons, ligaments, muscles and bone. Continuously being
stressed ever so slightly, time to repair and then come back again to
stress the
systems some more. Little by little, the horse's various systems improve
and you can notice the results. The hill he use to have to stop two or
three times on to get his air back he can now trot up. Other results is
that he can trot or canter longer and seems to enjoy doing it.

Very few people in endurance would disagree with the above theories,
ideas or whatever you want to call them. But why is it that when someone
thinks they can do the same thing with the horses feet.... well, that,
they are told, is simply not possible. Why is it that we can and do feel
it's the responsible thing to do to condition all the horses' other
systems, but just slap a set of iron shoes on the horse with the idea
that they just can't make the trip with their original equipment? Why do
we expect all other "original equipment" (bone, tendons, etc.) to adapt
to our conditioning regimen to fulfill our wishes, but not their
feet????

Why aren't people conditioning the hooves along with the bone and
tendons and ligaments?

Why does there seem to be a problem with comparing the feral horses on
our rangelands with our domestic horses? Few would disagree that the
feral horses have absolutely amazing feet. I've seen some in person
through the years. I remember seeing a mustang fresh off the range that
my friend acquired through the Adopt-A-Horse program years ago and
marveling at those uniformly
shaped hooves. I could hardly believe that horse could have feet like
that and had never worn shoes.

Do most people REALLY know what an adult feral horse's feet look like
RIGHT off the range? A horse that has never had a human touch him in his
life? I will admit that the overall physical condition of some of these
horses can make some of us cringe. Some are thin, obviously wormy, and
can be scraggly looking, which some say is from inadequate nutrition....
but despite these things did you notice their feet? Did you notice the
LOW heels, the passive frog, the scoops at the quarters, the concavity,
the rounded short toes and edges?? No place for rocks to get stuck,
excellent traction on any surface the horse might find himself on.
Whether the horse is big or little, large boned or small, their feet are
very similar to each others with all the above characteristics. I have
noticed these things on my own through the years without knowing what I
was seeing so I  was pleased to discover that Jaime Jackson had studied
this in depth and wrote a book about it.

These horses aren't getting biotin supplement, or vitamins or minerals
provided to them by humans. So why are their feet so vastly superior to
our domestic horse's feet? Are these feral horses genetically superior?
It does not seem so since once the mustangs are kept, as our domestic
horses are (stalls, small paddocks etc.), they all seem to end up with
the same  problems. Long toes, high heels, chipping, thrush, and the
like usually resulting from poor/sporadic hoof care.

The argument is that the feral horses are only going a few miles a day,
10 to 20, and at a slow pace at that, with no rider, so there is little
hoof wear compared to the distances our endurance horses go. So, let's
see, at 10 miles a day, that's 70 miles a week, or possibly more...

Why are the feral horses going 10 to 20 miles every day? Is it all they
CAN go? Obviously, to me, is that this is all they NEED to go. In these
distances they manage to get all the food and water they need, so why go
farther or faster? Their hooves do just fine at these distances day in
and out, week after week, because this is what they are conditioned to
do. Push them out of their element, or what they are conditioned to do
i.e. all of a sudden, and you will end up with lameness or other issues.
Much like our endurance horses, push the young or inexperienced horse
too much in distance or speed, and you will end up with lameness or
other issues, also, even with shoes.

So what would happen if we take our herd of feral horses, and we were
able to "manage" them and get a couple more miles out of them daily or
almost daily for a period of time? Would their feet fall apart because
10 to 20 miles is their genetic capacity or potential and 2 more miles
added on would be their undoing? Probably not. They would adapt. And
then after they were covering the 2 more miles regularly with ease, we
could continue to manage them further and add another 2 or so miles to
their daily distance. Again, they would adapt. At least to me, it would
follow that using the same logic and training/conditioning we use on our
endurance horses to gain stronger bone, tendons and ligaments, would
also apply to our "managed" herd of feral horses, feet and all. Perhaps,
during this managing, we could also add a bit of faster work to their
daily "workout". Just a little to start, then a bit more, etc. Would
they handle that OK? Or have they  reached their genetic capacity yet?
Probably not. And let's say, for the sake of this theory, that we could
actually get some riders on a few of them. Just a couple miles to start,
go slow, easy, and give their hooves time to adapt. The horses would
still be in their "natural" environment and covering their territory.

Obviously, this isn't going to happen in the real world, we'd all get
bucked off! But, why can't a domestic horse's hooves be expected to
adapt in the same way? We've already decided (at least I have) that the
feral horses are NOT genetically superior to our domestic horses. Our
domestic horses have better nutrition, supplements, etc. and care. Why
is it just not accepted that a managed barefoot horse, following natural
trim principles that work for that individual horse, can't also have his
feet conditioned, over a period of time, in the way our feral horses
are. Why are we willing to take 2 to 3 years to condition all of the
horse except his hooves? The horse's system, regardless of discipline,
seems to adapt to the task at hand if introduced in a slow, incremental
way, riding or driving.

If I take my horse and ride him only on sandy trails with few hills and
very few rocks, and then on one long ride with lots of rocks, hard
ground and lots of hills. I'm going to probably have one tired, sore,
ouchy footed grumpy horse who is going to be layed off for some
recuperation time. And this would be with or without shoes. He's not use
to it. If I take my busy horse that has been in a hard packed paddock
for weeks and then I put him in a rocky paddock,  yes, he will wear his
feet down in no time and he will be sore. And he was. He wasn't as
active for awhile, stood still for a day or so, but he was back out
there again and this time he was trotting and cantering on the rocks. If
we take the well conditioned shod ranch horse with rider and then go out
and chase the feral horses to round them up it's obvious that the ranch
horse should "win" this round. The feral horses aren't conditioned to
the speed of the chase for that day. They ARE conditioned for their
allotted 10 to 20 miles a day, taking ALL day to do it, just moseying
along and eating and doing whatever they normally do. They are NOT
conditioned to go on a 3 or 4 mile or whatever speed race with panic as
the motivator, so, naturally they will "lose". But if you were able to
go chase them, i.e. condition them, on a regular, incremental basis,
well, I think the stakes would be turned in time.

Perhaps this is too simplistic. And I do realize that not all horse
hooves are created equal, especially when it comes to endurance. But why
are people who are interested and willing to take the time to condition
the WHOLE horse ridiculed for this? The Natural Horse Care movement
doesn't mean we all move into caves and eat raw meat for dinner. It
simply means trying to emulate in your horse's home environment
something similar to what the wild horses have, rather than being cooped
up in little stalls day in and out with little or no activity. You try
to emulate how the wild horses eat, i.e. on the ground, or in a feeder
low to the ground, letting them get their feet wet almost daily by
overflowing their water trough, room to roam and various terrain to roam
over. Provide some rocks if you expect them to carry you over rocks.

Some people are willing to take a "time out" of their riding and
endurance agendas and are trying to provide what they feel is a better
environment for their horses. In return they are being rewarded with
happier horses, better movement, and overall healthier critters than
before. They see with their eyes and feel it when they ride, you will
not convince them otherwise. They now know more about their horse than
they did before, and this is one of the hallmarks of endurance... KNOW
your horse!

Undertaking the conditioning process of your horse going barefoot is not
easy. It's far easier to just call the farrier and have him/her come out
and slap those iron shoes on so you can forget about them for the next 6
to 8 weeks, unless some issue arises and you must call him/her again.
Traveling the barefoot road is not simple if you undertake it, learning
to trim, learning what your horse's feet should look like, studying
angles, checking on them almost daily, changing their home environment,
seeing
that they get adequate exercise, using hoof boots during the transition
period if need be. So why, for all this work that some are going to for
their horses, are they meeting up with so much ridicule from fellow
endurance people and being dismissed as stupid or ignorant?

Certainly there will always be the idiot that just pulls the shoes and
races in their next ride, but we already have those riding horses WITH
shoes. Why is it a big deal when a few "pioneers" attempt an LD or 50
barefoot (or even with hoof boots) and end up pulling? Can't fellow
riders just say, "hey, good try, better luck next time!" instead of
being criticized for being "cruel" to their horse. I don't see anyone
out there trying to stop the feral horses from covering 70+ miles a
week, gasp! barefoot. It will take time for many to "get all the kinks"
worked out and attempting to get the trims right for their horse,
allowing for hoof mechanism, conditioning etc. Just like trying to get
the right saddle or bit or stirrups. Careful trial and error.

For some reason the name "Strasser" invokes a lot of opinions, good and
bad. Few realize she is a lady vet in Germany who has spent the last 20
years of her life helping "end of the road" lame horses that all would
have given up on. I would think she understands a lot of the horse's
hoof and how it works after all this time considering the thousands of
horses she has helped back to soundness. There are also Americans on the
Natural Horse Care and Trim movement that use to be farriers, and some
still are, such as Jaime Jackson and Bergy. Their methods probably deal
more with starting with a sound horse with no lameness issues.
Regardless, some will have good ideas or "points" that will work well on
a given horse, some will not. It's up to the owner to look at all the
available information and make the decision for themselves and their
horse, or find someone, farrier or otherwise, who can do it for them
that will carry out their wishes. This is much like training or the
infamous saddle searches.

This long one sided discussion is not to try to "convert" people to the
so called "barefoot movement".... it's just really to hopefully provide
some questions to think about. As a side note, the so called "Natural
Trim Movement" actually is nothing new. We are just relearning it yet
again in the vastness of time. I was showing my dad (age 75) some photos
of the hooves in Jaime Jackson's books about the mustang study he did
and my dad said, "oh yes, that is how our horses feet looked in
Oklahoma. Nobody's horses wore shoes there (where he lived), we couldn't
afford them and there wasn't a blacksmith for over a 100 miles anyway,
so we just used a rasp to smooth them off, round the toe and touch them
up now and again and thought nothing of it." These were riding horses,
driving horses and mules and also used for plowing, during the 1930's.
And his grandparents and friends did much the same thing.

Someone will probably zero in on one phrase from above and shoot it to
smithereens, thereby supposedly justifying their position and nullifying
the entire barefoot movement. This is just my 50 cents worth.... :) I'm
not  an expert or can say I've done anything with it, i.e. ridden any
rides barefoot or with boots.... yet. The ideas put forth I find
interesting and just thought I'd share them. So by shooting down these
ideas, you are just flaming me and nothing else. Have fun with your
target practice! And have a happy 4th!

Toni Jones
Central Oregon