Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> Karen:
>
> It sounds like your horse goes barefoot.  I have a young barefoot
> mustang who has never been shoed and has great feet.  I'm wondering
> whether I can condition him and compete in endurance barefoot?  Or
> should I consider using boots?  I really don't want to nail
> anything
> onto his feet.
>
> --Dave


Hi Dave -- Yes, I've been keeping my horses barefoot since last ride
season, and using boots for competing in.  My advice is to use hoof
protection and do a few rides successfully before doing any completely
barefoot.  There are certainly rides with footing that are suitable
for riding barefoot -- and there are rides where that would definitely
not be recommended even for the most tough footed horse.  I use
boots because I don't want to risk having a horse get sore when I can
prevent it, and don't feel the need to prove how tough he is, my goal is
rather to get the horse thru the ride in the best shape possible with the
least amount of wear and tear so he can do the next
one.    

Here is a
link to
some articles on the topic.  I'm looking forward to the day that
this won't be such a controversial topic.  I'm sort of in the
middle, I've ridden shod horses a lot of miles and don't believe that
they were damaged in any way by having worn nailed on shoes.  I have
ridden horses barefoot on conditioning rides a lot of miles and also with
boots on over bare feet (and shod feet) in competition.  The reason
why I like doing it the way I am now is because it allows my horses to
live barefoot the rest of the time which has some advantages, and
benefits to the horse.  Some horses aren't living in environments
that this will work for, or their owners are happy with what works
already so they have no reason to change.  I tried it because I
wanted to see if I could find something better, and I think I
have.

If you do decide to compete with boots, check out my blog post about the
EasyCare $10,000

hoof boot contest.  You can look up the results from this year
and talk to some of the riders and see how they are managing their
horses.  Some of the riders ride completely barefoot some of the
time, and others are like myself and use boots for competing in.  As
with anything endurance riding, find somebody who is successful at what
you want to do and see how they do it.     

Good luck. :)

Karen