Re: Darolyn & Barefootin'

[guest@endurance.net]

Karen Standefer hrschk@yahoo.com
THAT is exactly the point of taking the time to condition the hooves.
Those mustangs move a relatively static number of miles in a day.  If
pushed past that point, without gradually building up to it, they will
wear down their hooves just the same as any other horse.  When, you
initially remove shoes, the hoof horn is usually very poor quality
(relative to a year later after being barefoot) and the horse cannot move
many miles at all without wearing the hooves down.  My own horse wore down
3/4" of hoof after 20 miles and was beginning to get tender.  After many
months (and a new hoof wall later), he is more than capable of going 30
miles on crushed rock (which is used by us barefooters to naturally trim
the hoof) without wearing the hoof down enough to become tender.  The hoof
will grow at a rate that it needs to grow in order to maintain the daily
workload.  Roy is about 1/2 way through growing a second hoof wall since
pulling shoes and it is even more dense and hard than the first!  Even in
this soggy NW climate his hooves are hard enough to work comfortably  on
any surface and at any speed he chooses.  The hoof and sole gets harder
with more concussion just like the bones do.


REFERENCED POST:
Title: Re: Darolyn & Barefootin'
The problem with the mustang analogy is that they are not carrying riders
(as you pointed out), they only travel a fraction of 50 miles in a day,
they can pick their own pace at any given time (and hence will slow down
if they hurt), they can alter course at any time to select better footing
if it hurts, etc.  One of the main ways that old-time mustangers caught
them was to haze them for a few days, riding shod horses, pushing them
past their usual daily mileage, until they became too sore to outrun the
horses that were carrying riders.  Didn't take very many days at all,
according to the old-timers I've talked to.

Heidi