Re: Barefoot

["Gene Recor" <gene@dreamsoft.com>]

In your observation of horses that slide their feet and horses that don't
slide their feet I am not clear in your meaning of "slide". My mare is
barefoot and we condition on mostly hills, she slides down hills on her back
feet and has never been sore, lame or any other problems. I am only doing
NATRC at this point and have had her shod when I thought she was wearing to
low even though she wasn't sore. IF I was to do alot of 50 milers or more I
probably would have her shod. I don't avoid shoes other than she doesn't
need them.I have her feet trimmed every 6 weeks so I am not trying to save
money either. I think if the type of riding allows your horse to be barefoot
it is better for the horse, but if you are riding balls to the wall all the
time then you should think about shoeing you horse.































----- Original Message -----
From: <guest@endurance.net>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 11:09 AM
Subject: RC: Barefoot


> K S SWIGART   katswig@earthlink.net
>
> Abby said:
>
> > The other point is that a lot of people are citing shoe wear as a reason
> a
> > horse couldn't possibly go barefoot over such-and-such terrain-
>
> I cited the fact that my horses couldn't go barefoot not because of shoe
> wear but because of HOOF wear.  My barefoot horses, after many miles of
> training and endurance competition, just plain old get too short in the
> foot.  No chipping, no cracking, no sole bruising...just short.
>
> And when they get short in the foot, they get "ouchy" which has nothing to
> do with carefully picking their way through the rocks, when they have
> enough foot, they don't care about the rocks :).  When they are short in
> the foot, every little pebble would cause them to flinch, shorten their
> strides, not freely swing their shoulders or hips in their movement, etc.
>
> > -someone
> > already mentioned this in passing, but horses slide their feet when
> > they're wearing shoes in an effort to dissipate some of the shock.  A
> > barefoot horse does NOT slide his feet.
>
> Some horses slide their back feet, and some don't.  Some horses slide
> their feet on some terrain and not other terrain, and others don't.  In my
> observation (which, as I have mentioned spanns 10 years of watching and
> working with barefoot horses of all varieties over all kinds of terrain),
> if a horse slides its foot when shod, but doesn't when barefoot, it is
> because the horse would prefer to slides its feet, but doesn't when
> barefoot, because it is trying to protect its bare feet from the excess
> abrasion caused by slding it (i.e. the horses is afraid to slide its feet
> because it knows its gonna hurt)--which is what causes it to become short
> strided and to "stab" the ground instead of swinging its leg freely
> forward.
>
> And this is not a function of whether the horse has shoes or not, but a
> function of whether the horse has sufficient hoof protection or not, and
> my barefoot horses consider "plenty of bare foot" to be sufficient hoof
> protection.  But when a barefoot horse gets too short in the foot it DOES
> alter its gait to accommodate its discomfort (and shod horses can be
> "ouchy" too, like if a farrier cuts them too short, at which time they
> will exhibit the same alterations in gait).  It isn't a function of the
> shoes, it's function of the confidence with which the horse swings its
> legs and moves its feet.
>
> And over the years I have become very in tune to the way that my horses
> swing their legs and move their feet, since there will start to be some
> very subtle changes before they become obviously "ouchy," and the outset
> of these subtle changes is the time to be putting hoof protection on.
> Don't wait until the horse has altered its gait too much and is obviously
> sore, because altering the gait can have consequences that transmit to the
> rest of the body.
>
> kat
> Orange County, Calif.
>
> p.s.  Historically speaking, man did not start shoing horses because they
> thought shoes would look nice.  Man started shoing horses because their
> unshod horses started getting tenderfooted...just like me.
>
> Yes, there are new materials that weren't available to the early shoers
> that I am interested in experimenting with, but I am starting to come to
> the conclusion that the reason that man has been shoing horses with steel
> for centuries is because they have tried everything else and everything
> else has proved inadequate :) if you intend to use your horse a lot.
>
>
>
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