Ridecamp: [RC] no shoes

This summer, we took Matt with no shoes on 3 25 mile rides.  He has been
barefoot for the last 5 years.  The farrier sees him about every 6 weeks.
His feet held up just fine for training and the rides.  What we did notice
was that Matt was ouchy on hard packed sand with gravel roads, and if we had
to travel over a section of rocks, he was ouchy.  We were careful on the
training rides as to where he went.  Kept him on soft ground as much as
possible.  Matt is not ridden with shoes since when he is tired or disgusted
that he doesn't get to go at the speed he wants to go, he tends to wing in
front and clip himself.  Shoes would only make this worse.  He does have
degenerative arthritis in his right front so no shoes help with that too.
He did his 25s just fine this year.  Rowdy has been ridden with shoes on the
front and no shoes on the back for the whole season.  He did just fine even
on hard packed sand with gravel roads.  I did get to observe horses with no
shoes on the Shore to Shore.  Some had trouble because as one crosses
Michigan, one does go thru suburbs and around towns.  So there was some birm
riding and hard packed sand roads with gravel.  Some of the horses were sore
with no shoes.  I don't have a problem with no shoes, but I do have a
problem with where a horse with no shoes is ridden.  Sometimes shoes are a
necessary evil.  Even with shoes, I pulled Maggie at 44 miles on Friday on
the Shore to Shore because she was foot sore after 6 - 7 miles of birm
riding.  Her shoes had just been put on the Tuesday before I left for the
Shore to Shore.  I don't fault the Shore to Shore either.  When one is
crossing the state from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan, one has got to figure
there is going to be some road riding somewhere along the way.  The amazing
thing is that there is so little.  Jeanie


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