shoeing

[tina hicks <tina@liveonthenet.com>]

>As far as the wisdom of pulling shoes part of the year...I don't.  For
>one thing, I ride most of the year.  Taking that one set off just >meant
>that a darned good looking foot got busted down to nothing.  I've never
>had any trouble with contracted heels etc.  I did pull shoes for a couple
>of months last winter since I was giving him time off...didn't see any
change except for getting his foot a little chipped up.
============== 
I never have pulled shoes really till this year and the funny thing is
that one horse's feet chipped all up but the other two sets of feet look
just like they are shod - no chipping, nice and smooth, look great.

>Seems strange for a farrier to go around bragging about barefooted
>horses. Not good for business. Maybe his wife sends him off to work >every
>day, but he'd rather stay home.>g<

>Angie and Kaboot (always shod)
======================
yeah that's what I thought too :) except his wife travels with him and
does all his scheduling. 

I  should have put some context to my original message - he has been
researching new ways to treat founder cases and apparently some are
doing it with no shoes - which is a new(er) way of thinking I suppose.
That has gotten him to researching the health of the foot in shoes and
out of shoes. So he doesn't necessarily recommend major riding/competing
barefoot but he does like to see shoes pulled if you have the chance to
or are not doing really heavy riding.

I have noticed a difference in the resiliency of Jose's frog - it's not
so rock hard - it gives some to pressure and the heels have spread some.
However, my guys are going back in shoes in a little while - it was just
my travelling schedule that caused this barefoot time - normally I too
shoe all the time.

Tina and the Barefoot-for-Now Crew