Re: RC: RE: Darolyn and Barefootin'

[Lynn Kinsky <lkinsky@silcom.com>]

  I get no bruising at all on my horse
>no matter what speed or what size rocks he's working on.  He doesn't avoid
>them, either.  Given the choice of where he likes to run, it's right down
>the middle of the wheel tracks on a logging road, not the soft shoulder or
>the soft middle.  When I pulled shoes on this horse his soles were
>horribly bruised and continued to show bruising until we got the trim
>proper so that his hoof worked like it is suppose to work.   Now we get no
>bruising and in the case that he steps on a rock that is harsher than what
>he planned, he can feel it and not commit full weight so that it doesn't
>hurt him.  Following behind my horse on a rocky ride in the Cascades one
>would think he has eyes in his feet.  He looks like a rock climber
>(finding the obvious places to put his hooves for maximum traction) when
>traversing highly technical rock face trails.  He has always been good at
>working in rocks, but the change to barefoot makes an uncanny difference
>and I feel as if I'm riding a mountain goat.
>
>Karen


I think the key is not that your horse is barefoot, but that you finally
got a balanced trim on him.

I've been fortunate to always have farriers who were very careful to
balance the hoof, doing the same trim (balanced to the horse's
conformation) on the horses who were going to stay barefoot as on the
distance horses who were getting shod.  My shod and unshod horses show the
same care in placing their feet that you report on your barefoot horse, and
I've never had to deal with a bruise or an abscess (20 years of horse
ownership).


Lynn Kinsky (Santa Ynez, CA)
http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky