Re: barefoot

[Abigail Aiyagari <abby1@itsa.ucsf.edu>]

Thanks, Truman--that's all I'm looking for, anyway, is not being booted
out of a ride because my horse doesn't have shoes on!  Or being forced to
put boots on him, which are SO FAR from being perfected that they are
bound to cause problems with interference, rubbing, or change the horse's
stride enough to make him sore.

I saw two things in different people's posts that I just want to comment
on briefly, though: 

First, someone mentioned that she acquired a new horse and had to shoe her
to "get some heel on her."  I think that this may be the root of at least
some of the disparity between what "barefooters" and "shoers" are saying.
Horses with shoes tend to have much higher heels than horses without
shoes, so I think that there is a difference here in what people are used
to seeing from looking at shod horses.  I think that the reason a lot of
horses wear their heels down is because they are SUPPOSED to have low
heels.  We artificially jack up their heels with shoes, and also
artificially leave the feet way too long (when barefoot, they would chip
off to shorten them, and this chipping is another reason people often
think a horse needs shoes). So people are used to seeing feet that may in
fact be too long, so when the horse wears his feet or gets trimmed short,
it looks really scary to people used to seeing shod horses or barefoot
"pasture ornaments".  

The other point is that a lot of people are citing shoe wear as a reason a
horse couldn't possibly go barefoot over such-and-such terrain--someone
already mentioned this in passing, but horses slide their feet when
they're wearing shoes in an effort to dissipate some of the shock.  A
barefoot horse does NOT slide his feet.  The difference in the amount of
wearing that happens on a sliding foot vs. one that lands flat is HUGE!

I'm not telling anyone not to shoe their horses.  I think that everyone
should make that decision based on their individual situation.  By the
same token, I don't want anyone telling me TO shoe, when I've made the
decision not to based on my knowledge of my horse.  If things change, my
plan might change.  I agree that there's no ideal solution out there, we
all just have to pick what works best for us, and try really hard not to
haze others for what they have chosen as the best method for them.

Happy trails all,
Abby (so much for brevity...)