RE: Barefoot living environements

["Bob Morris" <bobmorris@rmci.net>]

I believe it is time to back off a bit and look at what we
are discussing.

Consider this; most horses are kept in less than ideal
conditions to be ridden bare footed. They are kept in small
enclosures (to me, anything less than ten acres per horse is
to small) virtually force fed (grain and hay twice or at
best three times a day) and vastly under-exercised (less
than 10 miles per day. Then you want to ride them 25 plus
miles on the weekend.

But you have to continually trim the feet because of the
growth, but if you up the exercise you can have a foot sore
horse. Where is the compromise?

To my mind, it would take the best part of a year to
condition a horses feet to handle the exercise we anticipate
as endurance riders. Here-in lays a very serious problem;
every ride has differing conditions. This weekend a ride
with soft ground, next ride in a couple of weeks has rocks.
Your home training ground is packed gravel. i.e. no
consistency in footing, no chance for hoof adaptation.

Now one participant is riding and training in the Pacific
Northwest with its inherent wet conditions and having no
problems. What happens when that rider and horse come here
to the Owyhees in the dry summer along with the ever present
rocks. Problems? I would assume so.

Then you have conditioned the horse barefooted for over a
year and have done a few fall rides successfully. Over the
winter the climate has changed from dry to wet and the hoofs
soften. (a natural occurrence in these parts) Work must be
reduced as the hoof will not stand up to the wear when soft.
Then come spring and you want to go back to competition?
Well it would have to be deferred until the hoofs get into
dry time condition again.

Yes, It can be done on a restricted basis. I would venture
however, any SERIOUS endurance competitor would run into
problems in short order. Middle of the pack and on back
might do it but a REAL COMPETITOR would have to think twice.

I am sure I will get the argument that other hoof protection
could be used such as easy boots or old Mac's or the like.
But that is not a bare footed horse! That is a horse with
hoof protection as is a shod horse.

The philosophy being portended for our horses feet was not
formulated for how we use them. It was initially postulated
for horses kept in much different conditions, usually with
serious foot problems and certainly not being used in
competition. The concept was to alleviate the serious foot
problems by therapeutic treatment. i.e. radical hoof
trimming, particular footing during treatment, proper
nourishment and increased turnout and exercise. Conditions
that were in contravention to how the horses had been
previously kept.

Now we are trying to adapt that modality to horses that some
consider to be over exercised. Horses that have very close
oversight of their nourishment. Horses that have regular
attention for their feet (albeit, not of the school of bare
foot philosophy) Horses that have proven, through millions
of miles of competition, that they can perform well and live
long fruitful lives.

Think about that!

Bob Morris

-----Original Message-----
From: Karen [mailto:karen@storallnv.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 12:05 PM
To: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: Barefoot living environements


At 09:54 AM 12/18/2001 -0800, guest@endurance.net wrote:
>The argument
>that "our trails are so rocky, the hooves wear down too
much" is thus made
>invalid, since it is not the hoof, but the living
conditions of the horse
>that cause the problem.

....and so there goes the argument.  How many people have
living conditions
for their horses that are suitable for them being kept
barefoot year
around?  Not very many that I know.  I would have to move to
a completely
different climate because I can't afford to buy enough land
to give them
the proper barefoot environment.  (don't I wish)

Karen
in NV


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