Shoes, blood flow, and endurance

[tina hicks <tina@liveonthenet.com>]

Since the subject of shoes and what do or don't do the foot has come up,
I have a Q for all you - do any of you ride in endurance rides with
barefoot horses or have you ever heard of it?

My new shoer is a real advocate of barefooted-ness if possible; if you
can't do that then he says the Natural Balance Shoes are the next best
thing and in fact one of my horse's feet has improved measurably in just
one shoeing with the NB shoes.

Anyway, he apparently went to a seminar some years ago by a
vet/endurance rider who advocates going barefoot. He remembers her
mentioning that horses have done some major rides in past years like the
Tevis barefoot (???)

Anyway, I don't have any aspirations of endurance riding with my horses
barefoot but it is kind of intriguing to think maybe someone has or does currently.

Tina
tina@liveonthenet.com