I
do wish I had a for-sale sign on my oceanfront property here in
central Idaho....
That said, if you truly want to listen to an
"enlightened" vet, you should listen to Dr. Olin Balch, whose presentation
on hoof care at the recent PNER convention was superb. Like most of
us, he does not "knock" having horses go barefoot--but unlike the
above-cited web site, he has an open mind. He is honest and
frank--you CAN ride barefoot, provided you first choose a horse that has
extremely superb feet, and second, you spend a considerable amount of time
conditioning (think years), and third, you carefully choose your venues and
the frequency with which you ride. Unless those and a few other parameters
are met, you are apt to damage your horse by not providing hoof
protection. (Certainly, you can boot instead of shoeing--but if you
do, you also run other risks, such as putting stress on tissues by only
introducing the weight and increased toe length added by the boots at the
time of riding, without allowing the horse to acclimate, etc.)
If
you do not do the above, your horse's hoof wear will exceed his
growth rate, and damage will result.
Dr. Balch showed some great
pictures of successful barefoot horses--and also showed the damage that
occurred to their feet on LD rides on ideal footing. He also showed
hoof problems that could not be corrected by trimming alone, but that could
be corrected with good shoeing.
In general, enlightenment does NOT lead
to the sort of extreme position stated on the above web site. The
site does make some very valid points--but sure draws some far-fetched
conclusions.
Bottom line--there is a lot of bad shoeing out there, but
that is not cause to try to claim that all shoeing is bad. It
behooves people to REALLY educate themselves--not to just follow some of
these self-professed hoof gurus
unquestioningly.
