Re: Barefootin' To Sylvia

["Cheryl Newbanks" <canewbanks@earthlink.net>]

I just picked up on this thread as I was deleting the zillions of RC
messages I don't want to read.  My good friend and trainer has all her
horses barefoot, they've been barefoot all their lives and not because she
is an advocate of barefoot but because for all her kids and herself and
spouse to have horses to ride and compete on she can't afford shoes on all
of them.   The gymkhana barrel horses are still barefoot but not so for her
endurance horses.  Before shoes their feet looked good  and she has finished
ONE 50 miler barefoot that wasn't that rocky, Old Pueblo 2001(I missed the
Barney post but Barney actually vetted her through at Old Pueblo 2001 too).
She trains barefoot over our rocky AZ terrain and at least half the time she
ends up with bruising of some sort without shoes on.  After riding in the
top 5 at MAH and getting pulled this year for extreme bruising behind she
got sick of spending her ride money and chancing not completing.  So for her
horse that's been barefoot for it's whole 10 years of life and the other
that's been barefoot for it's whole 6 years of life they wear shoes now for
endurance.  In my opinion I don't care what horse you have or how long their
feet have been conditioned for barefoot whether it's 2 years or all their
lives you are always chancing a pull riding and conditioning for 50's on a
barefoot horse.  I've watched my barefoot friend for 3 years now and she
wears shoes now always for endurance.  And no Sylvia she has never done a
series of 50's bare foot.  Heck most of the time we didn't get through more
then 2 months of conditioning without one of her horses being bruised, much
less a series of competitions.  The same goes for my other friend I ride
with too, her horse is almost always foot sore and he's been barefoot for 3
years now!  So I totally agree with you on this one Sylvia.

My horses have shoes and I took the pads off a couple years ago, they've
NEVER had a bruise that sored them up and we live on a rock pile.  Even when
I am training and competing we ride on rocks and they don't bruise.  When my
coming 4 year old starts being ridden seriously he'll get shoes too.  It's
just not worth chancing laming a horse up to keep them barefoot.  Of course
a bad shoer can screw a horse up just as much a bare feet but if you're
lucky and have a good shoer it's not worth chancing barefoot for endurance.
It must be heart breaking to get a horse ready for a ride, spend all that
time and money to get there and then end up pulling because you didn't put
shoes on.

My buddy who is an equine vet just gets crazy when we bring up the barefoot
theories on our training rides. Mainly it's because she has our shoer out
fixing Strasser butchered feet at least 10 times a year.  We really hate the
statement I heard over and over and over again when I researched Strasser
methods. "They get worse before they get better!"  That statement makes me
ballistic, ANYTHING that you do to make your horse worse to get it better is
abuse as far as I'm concerned and at best case just plain stupid.  Why would
anyone want to hurt their horse like that or think it's improving them?
Jeez!  And then the other thing about the barefoot only theory is we all
know there isn't ONE PERFECT THING that works on all horses.  NO WAY NO HOW,
and if anyone thinks that then they haven't been around horses long enough
to figure it out!   Just when you think you found the perfect idea it rarely
works on another horse, they are all so individual with their own unique set
of problems and fixes.

So yeah ok barefoot works in some instances, easy riding, arena stuff, etc..
But no way, no how will it CONSISTENTLY work for an Endurance Horse.

That's my &.02 on the thing:-)



                                   Cheryl Newbanks
 ~~~          ~~  ^ ^        SW Region
 ~~~\      _~~/  /\ /        Litchfield Park, AZ
        (   ) _ _   ) ' '        canewbanks@earthlink.net
        / /          \ \
       / /            \ \
      * *             * *











>
> REFERENCED POST:
> What kind of endurance mileage have you got on this horse?  I think
> there's a big difference between riding a barefoot horse on rocks who is
> going slowly and picking his way through for maybe 20 or 25 miles and one
> who is going at a bit faster rate of speed for 50 or 100 miles.  I also
> don't think this debate will ever get settled -- the barefoot people are
> pretty set in their opinions.  I just think its hard to argue with what
> most of us actually SEE out on the trail with our endurance horses.  If
> any of you have ever heard of a horse who has competed a series of rocky
> 50s (say 3 of them) completely barefoot, without hoof protection, please
> have that rider post to the list.  The rides have to be ROCKY though --
> like Silver State, or some such.
>
> Sylvia (anybody want to see a copy of Barney's letter regarding
> barefoot -- again?)
>
>
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