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[RC] Trying barefoot - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: Erick paradigm@xxxxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== Interesting! I live in Bedford county in middle Tennessee, having moved here from No. California last May. This area is indeed "a pile of rocks". For what reason I still haven't figured out, I decided to have the "boys" go barefoot when we got here. Perhaps because I've seem some outrageous pieces of steel strapped, bolted, or nailed to horses feet around here! One line in your post stood out to me: "Sherry has been barefoot for a couple of months now and her horses hooves look great." For my boys it took from May to October to adjust to being barefoot. We started slow. We stayed in the pasture with the good dirt and very little rocks. Slowly over time, we started introducing harder ground and started walking over gravel. We are now trotting over gravel with no problems. Recently we started riding what passes for trails this way. I prefer to call them giant piles of rock held together with mud, lots and lots of mud. At first I thought I needed to have our EasyBoot Gaiters strapped on to stay safe and sound. I lost one in the mud the first ride, never did find it! More importantly, the horse was slipping and sliding all over the rocks. Next time out I was riding the trails at Lake Normandy with some local riders. Wow did I feel out of place. These guys were not quite sure how to react to the CA boy in his black tights, endurance saddle and helmet. Then they saw my horse. No shoes, no bit, no 12 pak of ..... (well that's another story) I quickly noticed that these little spotted saddle horses they ride around here are tough as nails. These men were were no small frys, but these little 800 lb horses carried them like mountain goats straight up some really hairy trails. They were all shod and had borium welded to the shoes for extra traction. Needless to say I was more than a little worried. I should not have been. My horse never missed a step. We scrambled up and over rocks all day and never came up gimpy or fell. He had never been that sure-footed with metal shoes. Some subtle observations made that day: Those little spotted saddle horses have amazing heart. Some of the shod horses were definately off on the front legs at the end of the day. Most of the other riders were overweight for the size horse they were riding. Never ride to close to a TN mountain man chewing tobacco! Since that time I regularly ride barefoot with no regard to terrain. It remains to be seen, however, if my horse can maintain sound for 50 miles during competition. Right now in training we are doing 30 miles on dirt track. A recap of my long winded response to your question: A properly prepared barefoot horse should be at least as sure-footed if not more so than the same horse with metal shoes. EasyBoots and muddy trails don't mix. There is no substitute for time and conditioning for the barefoot equine. This is my decidedly un-expert opinion based on my limited recent experience. I would really look forward to hearing from others who have competed barefoot. -Erick- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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