Endurance, Barefoot - style!

[Tracey Ritter <tracey_ritter@yahoo.com>]

Just thought I would contribute my experience on this topic, as I 
feel it is too valuable to remain silent:

I have been slowly conditioning my 5 y.o. Peruvian Paso gelding for 
next year's endurance rides, and we've been doing *all* training 
barefoot.  This includes a recent 12-15 mile poker ride which included 
riding over lots of gravelled forest logging roads and naturally rocky 
areas closer to the river that we rode by.  No, it's not *quite* the 
same as a 25 or 50 miler (much less a 100), but that's what we are 
conditioning for and we seek out the rockiest routes we can find to 
train on so that by next year, he will not even think twice about 
powering forward over whatever the trail throws his way.

He is a HORSE.  How many centuries have horses survived without man's 
intervention?  Now that we have done them the favor of domesticating 
them, we need to take responsibility for subjecting them to live in 
conditions that Mother Nature never would have dreamed of, such as 
living in climate controlled barns, cooped up for hours on end - for 
Heaven's sake!  When horses began displaying pathologies in their 
hooves, man's answer was to put a quarter inch on metal onto their hoof's 
wall.  Does a horse "feel" in the hoof wall?  If they do, it's not 
even a fraction of what they feel in the sole and frog area, yet those 
areas remain defenseless against the rocks and bumps that come their 
way, even with shoes on.  Shoeing never did make much sense to me in 
that respect, even as a kid.  

Anyway, the reason horses can handle the rockiest of roads with a 
mere 1/4" of metal along the hoof wall is because the process of nailing 
them on, along with the concussions their legs experience when the 
steel shoes hit something hard, begins to interfere with the 
circulation in their hooves and legs, and lack of circulation after a while 
translates into *lack of feeling* in their lower legs.  I'm not saying 
that they can't feel a darn thing, but being shod has been 
scientifically proven to interfere with circulation and feeling in their feet.  
Thermographic images taken of a horse's legs (one hoof shod, the 
other three without shoes) do a great job at illustrating this.  Also, a 
shod hoof can't expand out on weight-bearing ground contact like they 
are supposed to without shoes on, and that can (although not always) 
eventually lead to contracted heels. (I'll provide research resources 
shortly.)

The best thing we can do for our horses is to provide them with more 
concussive ground (without shoes!) to stimulate their overall hoof 
mechanism.  Not everyone can have the ideal situation;  many people 
board their horses, but you can still do little things like add rock 
around their water troughs and feeding areas and hand-walk them over 
gravel roads (a little at a time at first) so that they can slowly adapt 
back to this type of terrain.  Keeping them out in pasture (with 
additional rock added if needed)  24/7 will improve their circulation by 
allowing them to wander around as much as they would during a typical 
day out in the wild.  Provide them with nothing fancier than a 
three-sided shelter so that they can make use of it should they decide they 
need it.  Our horses often know what's best for them, regardless of 
how much it might pain us to hear it!

This is a lifestyle change, not a fad.  I have personally seen horses 
who have foundered or who have been so navicular that they were 
declared unusable that are now running around their pasture and being 
ridden, just from a slow, steady progression of doing the right trimming, 
providing the right environment, and providing the necessary 
*patience* that is needed to overcome our urges for immediate gratification 
so that these horses can have years of soundness and use ahead of 
them.  I will be happy to provide you with one gal's name and e-mail 
address who had these horses so that she can share with you her 
experiences herself. 

If you would like to do additional research, I highly recommend going 
to the following website to access their links and extensive database 
of information:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturalhorsetrim


I have been researching these methods and techniques for about six 
months now, and attended a three-day Strasser clinic given by Sabine 
Kells this past weekend at which we were able to trim cadaver feet and 
disect a few hooves (a rough cross-section!) and it was quite amazing 
to see how splendidly everything in the hoof is *supposed* to work 
before we go screw everything up by trying to "help" our horses!  We 
learned trimming techniques, husbandry techniques, etc. that will help 
our horses keep their hooves in optimum shape naturally without the 
need for feed additives, lotions, cremes, sprays, etc.  Quite a few 
folks who attended this came in thinking they knew everything there is 
to know about horses (including a cocky "know-it-all" farrier), but 
everyone who left on Monday came back home with a lot more knowledge 
than they walked in with.  Educating yourself and being open to giving 
these techniques an honest try is the best thing anyone can ever do.  

Best of luck to you few "pioneers" out there who are conditioning 
your horses for endurance, barefoot-style!  By having more and more 
barefoot horses complete these rides happy and healthy, we can slowly 
convince the masses that it is indeed possible.  

Kindest Regards,

Tracey Ritter, Portland OR

"We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves."

-Locke, Essay on Human Understanding

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