Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

To shoe or not to shoe?  Two of the saddest things are seeing a 
horse with overgrown feet (especially with shoes on) and seeing a 
horse beeing asked to work with ouchy feet. Barefoot movement is 
great if it gets some overgrown feet people to pull shoes and pull 
out a rasp or get the farrier out; its awful if some mis-guided 
owners get the impression that a sore-footed gait is normal, or 
better than their horses previous way of going.

Shoes)
Advantage -rider convenience, full time protection when riding in 
rocks, and its easier to keep e-boot on over a shoe for very rocky 
conditions

myth ) does not allow hoof to expand - If your farrier puts on a 
shoe such that the heels of your horses hoof cant expand find a 
better one!  I believe that many great endurance horses wore shoes 
for many many miles and were able to do endurance into their 
twenties, and retired sound.

Barefoot) advantage -if the horse travels decent and gets enough 
exercise on somewhat abrasive surfaces they will wear their feet to 
a good shape for them.

myth) hoof should be hot --they say warm and warm is ok, but I think 
the cheering for warmth leaves some less experienced horse owners 
cheering heat instead of taking the action they should when there is 
heat. - Can anyone say 'road founder'?, There is some research from 
Australia that icing horses feet can prevent laminitis -They were 
looking at the too much spring grass type deals but I'm sure icing 
would be good anytime there was excessive heat in a hoof, just as 
its good for heat in a tendon or ligament

Boots)  I find myself wondering if easyboots applied tightly enough 
to stay on a bare hoof may actually impede the hoof expansion at the 
heels -- not stating this as fact 'I' just wonder.

I also wonder about rubbing on the leg above the hoof with the other 
boots such as the old Macs- having put 1200 'official' miles on a 
very thin skinned gelding (even when he was younger he would get 
girth rubs if the neoprene girth was starting to crack, and no way 
could I just use the velcro girth strap to secure a HRM electrode) I 
am perhaps overly cautious, but I'll put socks on my horses if I 
ever try them.

Teresa and Grey and Shade --barefoot in winter when we just hack on 
nice sand roads and steel shod in the summer when we get into the 
rocky mountains fairly often -they are not misnamed<g> -and 
easyboots for occasional rocky rides in winter or over shoes for 
very rocky rides.

ps. I believe -and I think I have the company of many good horse 
people that going barefoot when in lighter work, and non rocky 
conditions is great for horses AND that having a good farrier put on 
shoes when warranted by amount of work and/or rockier conditions 
than a horse is used to or comfortable on does not hurt the horses 
feet one bit.

pps. Last year I googled many barefoot pages, interesting note was 
that the majority of the folks seeing better results after 
converting to  barefoot had either been doing their own shoeing; or 
had been in situation of having shoes put on show horses starting at 
age 2 or younger for no particular reason.


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