Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

[RC] Barefoot "trimming" - k s swigart

Jen said:


I'm wondering just WHY you guys need to trim your barefoot endurance horses? 


I have always wondered the same thing.  If any of my barefoot horses starts to 
get a bit long in the foot (which never happened when they lived on 100 acres 
of dg, even those that were doing no work under saddle or in hand at all), then 
I just take them out for a walk on the road.  Pavement does an excellent job 
(better even than DG) of wearing off hoof wall.

I actually found it quite funny when a "Natural Hoof Care Specialist" took a 
look at my horses' feet and told me about how wrongly they had been trimmed 
(and pointed out all the things my trimmer should have done differently to 
mimick the "natural" foot).  When I explained that they had NEVER been trimmed 
(and at the time, some of them had never been shod either, they were born on 
the dg rock pile), this person went on to explain how much more natural my 
horses' feet would be if I were to trim them regularly rather than just letting 
the foot wear.

Any attempt at explaining how idiotic that was was met with more insistance 
that my horses't bare feet would be more natural if I were just to trim them 
and that the reason they were so unnaturally worn was that I didn't use the 
right trim :).

I gave up...and I have given up reading anything by any "Natural Hoof Care 
Specialist" as well, and I have YET to meet one that doesn't think it is more 
"natural" to trim a horse's feet than to just let them wear them off.

Go figure?

kat
Orange County, Calif.

p.s.  The fact that I never had to take even the non-working horses for a "walk 
on the road" when they were out on 100 acres of DG is one of the reasons I shoe 
my horses.  They live in a place where NOT doing any work at all wears of 
enough (or for some of them too much, so even the non-working horses get shod) 
hoof such that any work at all, and hoof wear out paces hoof growth.  People 
who live in a sand pit or grassy fields (or keep their horses in stalls) may 
have different experiences...but they can still take their horse for a walk on 
the road to get a true "natural" trim.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=