Re: barefoot/reply to Dot Wiggins

[Abigail Aiyagari <abby1@itsa.ucsf.edu>]

One thing you didn't mention in your description of how to condition a
horse for long or rocky rides is a proper trim.  For some horses, lots of
turnout and riding over rocky ground gives them a good enough trim...but
for those with really hard feet, they would need an amount of movement
which is unreasonable for most of us to attain in our horsekeeping
situations.  Therefore, they need to be trimmed--and not just a touch up
once in a while, they need to be monitored carefully, maintained at a very
consistent length and balance, and most importantly (for comfort over
rocks, etc.) excess sole, frog, and bar material MUST be removed.  It's
the pinching of the sole corium by lumps on the bottom of the horse's
foot, NOT rocks, that causes most bruising.  If the hoof has proper
mechanism, the horse can feel the rocks and avoid stepping on them hard
enough to cause damage (this is often mistaken for a pain reaction).  But
the other factor that most people seem unwilling to accept is the
time...you can't just give a horse a proper trim and expect him to
complete a rocky 50 the following week.  Because the hoof spent X amount
of time with a less-than-ideal trim, you have to wait until all of that
hoof material grows out and you're working with hoof that has only grown
with a proper trim.  A horse without problems may be fine right away--but
a horse that has been shod for any length of time will have some problems
that need to be corrected before the horse can work comfortably over
rocks.  The bottom line is, it may take a year or two, the horse may spend
some time sore before he gets better, and most owners don't want to deal
with it.

I personally am keeping my horse barefoot because I feel that it's the
best thing for him, not because it's cheaper and I can't get a good
farrier out.  If you do it right, it doesn't really work out to be that
much cheaper--what with tools, time spent, ibuprofen (for the sore back),
and the professional help that everyone who is really serious about it
should get, I probably spend nearly as much as I would to get my horse
shod every 6 weeks.  There is a VERY BIG difference between just pulling
off the shoes and hoping for the best and good barefoot management.

I hope that as more people start wanting to compete barefoot it will
be considered less of a "wacky fad" and will be more accepted.  Hopefully
people will be intelligent about it, and will wait until their horses are
ready to try rides with rougher footing; it'll only help future
barefooters!  I haven't started competing yet, but I hope that when I do I
will not be turned away from rides because of my barefoot horse (but you
can bet that I'll start out with rides with excellent footing, then move
on to rockier things later--I'll have enough to worry about my first few
rides, without having to worry about my horse's feet!).

Just as an aside, I have trotted my horse for 5 miles or so over the type
of ground you describe: large, sharp gravel like that around railroad
tracks.  Not even a gimp, and I didn't find any bruising in later trims.
And my trim and his feet are still not as good as they will be.  But it
also wasn't 25 miles, or 50, so we'll see.  :)


Abby (this was WAY longer than it was supposed to be...)
& Cola (What rocks?)