Ridecamp: Re: [RC] shoeing/barefoot/traction question

> I'm glad you broached that subject, Heidi, because I have a few
> questions.  I take it this is the Ride Manager's decision?  I'm sure
> it's a good one, but, for us Barefoot radicals who might actually think
> we don't need our horses shod for the ride, can this be protested?  Can
> it even be discussed?

The RM has the right to make rules more strict than AERC rules, provided
those rules are available pre-ride for all to see.  And the RM is the
person who knows the course.  At the risk of offending a few, yes, there
ARE courses which to put it simply, would be cruel to ride without some
sort of foot protection.  If you are a "barefoot radical" you may
certainly use Easyboots or some mode of protection other than shoes, but
when as a manager, I'm running a ride over a course like the Stephen Meek
trail, where the diaries of the pioneers describe the "bloody feet" of
their livestock, I think I have every right to require that you have hoof
protection, so that I don't have to helivac your horse out of somewhere
that I can't get a trailer, just because you've worn his feet to bloody
stubs.  (BTW, the pioneer stock that had bloody feet were about as
conditioned to barefoot as one could get, having been barefoot their
entire lives, and having just crossed the entire Great Plains before
getting out here to the West.)

> I only ask because I don't feel it's right for anyone, including the
> Ride Manager, to make this call as one that is mandatory, just like it
> isn't right (well, maybe, it is) to force every endurance rider to wear
> a riding helmet, even if they should.  Suggested, recommended,
> certainly, but mandatory? If AERC doesn't make it mandatory, why on
> earth would the Ride Manager make it an absolute for a horse to be shod
> at their particular ride?

Ride managers who require hoof protection aren't forcing you to do
anything.  You have every right to stay home.  As to helmets, we DO
require them for Juniors, and rides with cross-entries into FEI rides also
require them.  Again, you have every right to stay home, if it truly
bothers you to wear one.

As to the reason why AERC doesn't make it mandatory--AERC understands that
it sanctions rides that occur under a lot of different conditions, and
that rules that apply in one sort of terrain might be unnecessary in
another.  Ditto why they don't legislate certain veterinary criteria--what
is appropriate at 90 degrees and 80 percent humidity where you live might
not be appropriate at 25 degrees in a snowstorm at a November ride in the
Oregon high desert.  Shoeing, likewise, is something that is necessary on
trails with sections of abrasive lava rock, but not on soft dirt forest
trails in some other part of the country.  Not all trails are created
equal.

Heidi



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