Bare foot horses

[bullbreaker]

Here's a ton more info on subject : HGS Horse Forum

Boone

 

[sseelhoff]

We have one that we have had since 1.5 years old. Never had shoes. Never had a problem with his hooves. Our older horse (now 10), wore shoes. He was constantly lame from hot nails, over reaching, even an abscess from shoeing. Hooves were always cracking, even using hoof oil daily. We finally took the shoes off, and now, after about 6 months, have his feet in great shape.

Like others have mentioned, we put boots on them when we ride on rocky trails or pavement.

 

[Ken45101]

Another advantage of barefoot: you don't have to worry about losing a shoe on the trail We tend to have "shoe sucking mud" on many of the trails around here. I don't worry about my horse losing a shoe!

 

[tallyho8]

The only time my horses are shod now is when I ride in a Mardi Gras parade or go trail riding in the Ozark mountains on very rocky terrain.

The few farriers we have in our area are now charging over $100 a horse to shoe so I am glad we don't shoe more often.

 

[k0ua]

Well I have never pretended to know much about horses (except the kind that reside under a hood), but I have learned a thing or two here on this thread. I just assumed that all horses owned by man were shod with steel Horseshoes. Now I know that is not true. Thanks.

James K0UA

 

[3930dave]

The only time my horses are shod now is when I ride in a Mardi Gras parade or go trail riding in the Ozark mountains on very rocky terrain.

The few farriers we have in our area are now charging over $100 a horse to shoe so I am glad we don't shoe more often.

Back when, my Dad's brother's kept their draft horses shod, for working in the bush. Like all their stock, the horses were well cared for - I don't remember seeing any problems, but as a kid , I was only around now and then.

While I don't have personal experience with trimming/shoeing, I've had a few good chats with a local farrier, present day. He's mentioned often seeing really good race horses that have been over-trimmed at the track, so bad they get retired from racing - to a very out of the way place. After the over-trimming stops, nobody wants to have to explain to the Rich Guy that owned the horse why it can later, once again, run like the wind.

As has been said, trimming is an art. Whether the over-trimming in this case (racing) is caused by ignorance, or just greed, hard to say.

Rgds, D.

 

[Ken45101]

While I don't have personal experience with trimming/shoeing, I've had a few good chats with a local farrier, present day. He's mentioned often seeing really good race horses that have been over-trimmed at the track, so bad they get retired from racing - to a very out of the way place. After the over-trimming stops, nobody wants to have to explain to the Rich Guy that owned the horse why it can later, once again, run like the wind.

As has been said, trimming is an art. Whether the over-trimming in this case (racing) is caused by ignorance, or just greed, hard to say.

Rgds, D.

^^^ Yes. And there are a lot of incompetent "professionals" out there. It helps if you at least know something about trimming.

We had one horse, that when we bought him, I thought he had excessively long toes. I tried to get several farriers to shorten the toes but they never made any significant progress. We even had one fellow, who taught at the Kentucky Farrier School, tell me that the horse "just had naturally long toes". Who am I to disagree?

While on one campout, I asked an experienced fellow, who had done some farrier work himself, to look at the horse. His first comment was "boy, he has long toes, I'll be he trips a lot." Rick was absolutely right. Now having confirmation that I was right, I started trimming them back myself more aggressively. The horse quit tripping and did fine after that. So much for so many of the "professional experts".

I strongly recommend the books by Pete Ramey and Jaime Jackson. Even if you don't do your own trimming, they at least give you an education on what proper trims look like. Just because someone calls themselves a farrier and charge for their work doesn't mean that they are doing a good job.

 

[300UGUY]

We didn't shoe ours, just trimmed them. Did that for 20 years.

 

[bullbreaker]

Thanks for info Ken will look into it.
Which brings a thought to mind . How do wild horses trim their hooves/feet ?

Horses in the wild travel *very* long distances over various terrain daily in search of food and water and to avoid predators. This slowly wears their hooves off- just enough to offset the growth and keep them at an acceptable length and angle.
Of course, there are other causes of lameness, and those can not be fixed by walking. If a wild horse does go lame because of strain, break, abscess, etc. it would more than likely die or get picked off by a predator and therefore remove it's genes (and with it's genes, any genetic predisposition to lameness) from the population. Over time this strengthens the overall health of the herd.Captive horses are kept in a pasture/barn etc, on grass or sand or shavings(occasionally gravel or tar) all the time, only ridden a couple hours at most a day, fed grains and supplements to help their hooves grow and made to do all manner of "un-natural" things, like carry the weight of a rider, pull a cart, wear metal shoes and move in a certain way for work. These activities put different stresses on a hoof. Therefore, captive horses need different care than a horse in the wild. All domesticated horses need their hooves trimmed . Some can go longer between trimmings than others due to the strength and rate of growth of their hooves. Some require shoes and some do not, but all require trimmings. Maybe 8 weeks between on average.

Boone

 

[Ken45101]

Which brings a thought to mind . How do wild horses trim their hooves/feet ?

Horses in the wild travel *very* long distances over various terrain daily in search of food and water and to avoid predators. This slowly wears their hooves off- just enough to offset the growth and keep them at an acceptable length and angle.

Right. Of course they travel more miles per day than our domestic horses and take care of their own hooves. Jaime Jackson developed his models for natural horse trimming by studying the hooves of wild mustangs.

Ken