 |
Re: [RC] HEIDI'S BAREFOOT POST - heidiPlease Reply to: MELANIE SCHALLOCK MLS3003@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== Our horses were not bred to be pasture ornaments. And if they had to remain barefoot, that is essentially what they would be. Oh, sure, they could be lightly ridden, or ridden in arena disciplines. But they could not be ridden for long in our mountains and rocks. We think more of our horses than to leave them standing idle or to not allow them to develop their athletic potential. All of our horses grow up barefoot here in the rocks and hills, and most are blessed with exceptional feet. None of them are shod until the work exceeds the wear. When that happens, we shoe them BECAUSE WE CARE ABOUT THEM! ********************************* Heidi, Thank you for suggesting I reread your post. I did that, as I was incredulous that I could have misunderstood what you said. Could you point out where I misunderstood? Be glad to, Melanie. You misread (or misunderstood) the part about the terrain where we live. Several of our horses have really awesome feet (some better than others, which is true of any large herd, if one is honest about it)--but living and running in the natural rocks, they keep them pretty well "trimmed" naturally. So when we ride, and add the ridden miles to what they travel in our "hill pasture" behind the house, the wear begins to exceed the growth rate. And because we care about their feet, we choose to protect them from the terrain that we ask them to traverse under saddle. (In many cases, it is far more severe than what they run in.) Our stallions (and the occasional youngsters who are kept up) exhibit the fact that our horses tend to have better-than-average hoof growth--those of them that are up in small pens grow like crazy and need frequent trimming. Yet one of the best-footed ones still wore his feet down to the point that one could NOT have shod them (and to the point of being tender) simply running the fenceline in a five-acre pasture. He certainly illustrated the fact that conditioning barefoot feet stimulates better growth--once confined, his feet grew out at an amazing rate. But he also illustrated the fact that on our terrain, even the best of feet are only up to a little more than maintenance--which, of course, is the rate at which equine feet evolved to grow. If you want to use your horse at a level beyond maintenance, you have to provide hoof protection to do so. Many horses who do performance events barefoot do not have the wear and tear at home that ours do just running out. So some folks have the luxury of "spending" that hoof growth under saddle. We do not. In our terrain, if we did not provide hoof protection, our horses would sure be pretty running around out there on the hillside... I hope that clears up your misunderstanding--along with perhaps adding that my definition of "light" use would probably cover most folks doing LD-level riding or CTR. (It certainly covers arena disciplines--I've yet to shoe a horse just to go to an arena event.) Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|