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Re: [RC] to shoe, redeux... - Karen Sullivan

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Paus
 
um, I don't have a special barefoot trimmer and my mare doesn't live in any special conditions. At age 5, she's never worn shoes and is ridden a lot on rocky terrain and gravel roads. Her soles are tough and her hoof walls the thickest my farrier has ever seen, and he's seen a lot of horses.
 
He's not a big barefoot advocate, but says it would be a crime to shoe this horse,, so I'm going to ride her as long as I can barefoot and see what happens. But if she needs hoof protection, she's going to get it.
 
***Hi Chris,
 
Not arguing with you at all; agree with a lot of it...
 
But when someone is adamant about saying "this horse will never need shoes" or something like "this horse has
terrific feet, shoes will ruin them"., I really take it with a grain of salt......
 
I have seen so many come into our county that fit that category......they maybe make a month and half later we are calling the shoer..An Anglo Arab with "the best hoof wall" my shoer has ever seen, my mustang mare, also with almost perfect feet, the mule I bought (barefoot until I bought him), and another Arab a friend bought.....well, the LSD miles on our trails and roads wore down hoof faster than it grew.....and the metal shoes are worn down to paper thin each time...and we are not, by any means, even doing the conditioning these days to be doing 50's!
 
I don't mean to imply that some sort of hoof protection (easy boot, Boa boot) would not also have worked......but plain barefoot, carrying a rider on our terrain??  Nope.
 
Karen

Replies
Re: [RC] to shoe, redeux..., Chris Paus