Bare foot horses

[whistlepig]

I'm not the horse person the family. The wife is. She doesn't believe in shoeing horses. Says it causes hoof problems. I'm not the one to argue this point one way or the other. She started doing a natural trim on the hooves on our horse 3 months ago and kept a photo log of these trims. Tonight was the first time I have looked at this photo log.The photos are pretty remarkable. In three months she has drastically changed the shape of the hooves just by trimming. It is a much healthier looking hoof. She tells me about these things and I don't pay much attention. I was thoroughly impressed by the effects on hooves just by trimming technique.

[MIKE R]

Yes. Don't put shoes on the horses. We don't either. The natural way is the way to go. Trimming horses hooves properly is a art in its own. Any one can chop of a bit of hoof, file it and make it look good but it takes knowledgeable person to do it right. Trim them wrong you can have a lame horse for months to come.

[cmbertrand]

Same here. I do all grass trimming and wife trims horse footsies. No shoes here either but our horse are not worked in an extreme way and when they have to travel any significant distance on road she puts some boots on.

[whistlepig]

Our horse has boots on when she rides on rocky trails. Most of the folks she trail rides with still ride shod horses. Shod hooves may be easier. Shoes do keep the hoof from chipping/splitting. I am the one that has to repair the horse boots when they break. The horse boots are a bit of a pain. All in all after seeing how much healthier the hooves are on her horse it makes repairing the horse boots a little more worthwhile.

[Soundguy]

only time we shoed ours was when walking on pavement.

we never do anymore...

[bullbreaker]

http://www.horseforum.com/endurance-...-shoes-152040/

Boone

[whistlepig]

http://www.horseforum.com/endurance-...-shoes-152040/

Boone

A good read. Are your horses shod?

[MotorSeven]

No shoes here ever on my Clydes....they are 5 years old.

Boots? I ride on rocky trails all the time no problems so far.

[Ken45101]

Some horses need shoes, some need it on rocky trails, some horses don't need shoes at all (we have all three categories). I feel that it is best to use shoes only when necessary.

We have also brought back a foundered horse by proper natural trimming.

There are some good books on natural trims (Jamie Jackson comes to mind) plus some yahoo groups devoted to it.

One advantage of barefoot is you can easily touch up the trims every few weeks rather than waiting until the shoes are reset.

only time we shoed ours was when walking on pavement.

we never do anymore...

I believe it is the Houston PD Mounted Patrol, about half their horses go barefoot.

I believe barefoot has better traction on pavement. Our group had a bad wreck when a shod horse slipped on a road, the rider came off but his foot was caught in the stirrup and he was drug several hundred feet.

[bullbreaker]

A good read. Are your horses shod?

Yes but the farrier has been warned not to touch mother in laws's feet !

Been enjoying thread

Boone