When I bought my horse 2-1/2 years ago, he came from eastern Montana where
the footing was relatively sandy, and he had not been shod in all his six years
of life. He had, and still has, beautiful feet, but a short time of riding
in our shale hills and mountains and he became sore. He's been in shoes ever
since. It would have been nice if I didn't have to have him shod, but he
(and other horses we've had or have) cannot ride sound in this country without
shoes. It's not like granite, which is hard and abrasive, it's flat plates
of shale, which exfoliate from the base rock. These pieces of shale are somewhat
sharp. We don't need pads, but we do need shoes. I remember back about 40
years ago on one of our packtrips into the Sierras, when a ranger came
down the trail from behind us, and her horse was bare-footed on all that harsh,
abrasive granite. I was impressed.
