Re: barefoot

["Michelle Fink" <michrowe@redwrench.com>]

speed they travel, feed & water they need, whatever. When the riders
> evaluation falls apart at a ride, witnesses start looking where to point
the
> finger. Those fingers usually stop at the vet & ride manager, too.
Consider
> the ride manager who was tarred & feathered in this ridecamp just last
> week--over the behavior of a rider.
> I got into this thread to try to explain why a ride manager might feel the
> need require certain things at their ride, hoof protection being one.

Hi Nancy, Your point is well taken and I understand wanting to protect the
horses that are competing.  However, with all the good shoeing options out
there, people are still riding incorrectly trimmed and shod horses, hot
nailed horses, trying to complete on a horse that's missing a shoe, or has
loose shoes, etc.  To my knowledge, no one blames RM or the vet for these
conditions.

In my experience, the barefooters are extremely conscientious about the well
being of the whole horse and will pull or put hoof protection on if they
suspect any problems.  Maybe a good compromise for RM is requiring
barefooted horse folks to carry hoof protection so they can use it if
needed?  Most of them I know are doing this anyway and it seems like a
reasonable compromise to me.  There may be important things we can learn
from the horses who are able to compete barefooted for the "long run".

Ok, I'm done posting on this topic. Time to go shovel the s#$%. Nancy, I've
read about your rides and I know you do a good job.  Thanks for the
discussion.

Cheers,
Michelle