Re: RC: RE: barefoot on the WRRT

["Tiffany D'Virgilio" <dvirgilio@mindspring.com>]

on 9/23/01 7:19 AM, Tracey Ritter at Tracey_Ritter@yahoo.com wrote:

> 
> Since not all riders are this dedicated to proper conditioning for gravel
> road rides, I think it's important to insist that they bring along hoof
> protection, as they probobly don't realize what their horses are in for
> after so many miles of gravel.

Horses are individuals as has already been stated. One mare that I have
needs shoes. I have tried her barefoot and even though she has great feet
she gets sore pretty quick. The other mare has never worn shoes or
easyboots, though I just bought her two as I want to really start
conditioning her. The ground here in the So Cal mountains is rocks, gravel
and more rocks with very few soft trails. I believe that if I started really
riding mare #2, she would need protection of some kind. Even with hard
hooves the constant pavement and rocks and gravel just wears the darn foot
down too much. Never had shoes on in her life and I am going to try to keep
her unshod and just easybooted.
In six weeks on this ground riding three times a week shoes are worn thin.
Pretty amazing.
Tiffany