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RE: [RC] [RC] The Bare Facts - Sue WalzSorry if sharing posts between all my endurance lists is a faux pa. I feel it is of interest to all endurance riders, whether they agree or not. All have the option to delete!Over the years of shod & non shod endurance that I've done, all that I've stated as facts are fact IMHO. I'm not the forerunner of this topic. Darolyn Butler was & is doing barefoot 100's & was my inspiration & mentor. http://horseridingfun.com/barefootin.html My answers below are starred * ~Sue Walz Bare facts are fine--but let's tell the WHOLE truth. > The more miles you ride a barefoot horse the more the hoof growth is stimulated. Certainly. But in our sport, despite excellent conditioning, wear in many cases will still exceed growth. *not in every case... Raven's feet barely change after 50 tough miles! Darolyn has had even more success on more horses at higher mileages. Increased hoof mechanism = increased circulation = increased growth > The terrain a horse is conditioned on soon becomes tolerable to the bare hoof Only up to a point. Some terrain exceeds the severity to which horses can condition. *Not true inless you've studied horses that have been conditioned you cannot say. Raven has gone over terrain this year that he couldn't have a couple years ago. Conditioning without boots worked! > The bare hoof grips rock & pavement better than a shod hoof No argument there--but it also pays a price for doing so. *Properly conditioned the hoof pays no price. It is tough enough! > Conditioned to rock & pavement damage does not occur Simply not true. Conditioning certainly helps to minimize the damage--but does not eliminate it entirely. * Then why aren't Raven's hoofs damaged after the rocky 50's he's done? > Increased sole callous decreases or eliminates the chance of stone bruises Decreases, certainly. Eliminates, no. And sole callus can (and does) also increase in properly conditioned AND PROPERLY SHOD horses that wear shoes. We see huge changes in the amount of sole callus when horses from wetter climates or that have been improperly shod come to live here and live more naturally--and they are ridden with shoes. * And that's why so many end up with stone bruises & pads? Then Raven should've been stone bruised after Prineville, Pacific Crest & Bandit. He flew over lot's of harsh rock on all of those rides & came through sound. > Thrush & white line disease become less of an issue or non-issue I can give a horse thrush or white line disease simply by confining it in unsanitary conditions, bare or not. And I can't remember the last time I've seen a case of thrush in a SHOD horse out on natural ground, either. This "factoid" is a red herring--being barefoot or shod is not the issue here. * It does happen more often with shod horses. I haven't dealt with it once with my horses being bare. Until you've tried it, you can't know "the rest of the story!" This is the sort of oversimplification to which I was referring earlier. (For those of you on Ridecamp, this was a topic on the PNER list which Sue has carried over to ridecamp without asking permission of the posters to whom she was replying--not a huge deal, Sue, but not good netiquette.) All too often, this is the sort of patter that I hear from barefooters trying to convince others to try it--and "the rest of the story" (as Paul Harvey would put it) is not told. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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