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On Jun 16, 2006, at 11:38 PM, Karen Sullivan wrote:
> I have seen very, very good results with my own horses. <snip> The  
> Arab mare
> was a mess, very narrow, forward foot; underun heels, and very long  
> toes...despite farrier
> always taking back toes...she was trippy and jolty.....shoes came  
> off in August <snip> she had 7 years in shoes, and any time we  
> tried before to pull shoes, she was very ouchy.

Here's the thing about most of these barefoot conversions that kept  
me from even considering keeping my mare barefoot permanantly for so  
long: all of them talk about taking a horse out of shoes and keeping  
them barefoot as if that's a big deal. I really don't think that's  
the part that's the big deal for a lightly ridden horse (less than 15  
miles at a time and generally slowly).

I know of lots of horses that are kept barefoot and are ridden --  
until the hoof wear exceeds the growth, and that usually happens  
during ride season. And then they are shod. I know I used to shoe  
just so I could ride faster without making my horse footsore and ride  
over any footing. It also happened to correspond to the 6 months out  
of the year that I was either conditioning or doing distance riding.  
Shoes were  pulled off of my mare and she'd be pain free from the get- 
go. This is also the case for the majority of horses I know. I'm not  
familiar with the "need to be shod year-round" syndrome.

What is ignored is that the trim used by most barefoot trimmers is  
SUCH a departure from traditional farrier trimming with the hoof wall  
in front of the quarters bearing the load, that even a horse like  
mine -- who hasn't had a shoe touch her feet in 6 months, has ample  
turnout on sand and has been ridden 10 - 30 miles per week in that  
time on sand -- can be made excrutiatingly footsore by the trim  
because tissues not accustomed to load bearing are being suddenly  
asked to.

Pete Ramey talks a lot about using boots for the newly unshod horse  
and I'm glad he takes that POV. I intend to attend one of his  
upcoming clinics to learn more and to find out exactly what I can do  
to ease this transition for my mare. Due to my personal experience  
with the E.P. , I'm not keen on the equine podiatry POV. The  
philosophies are in the same zip code I think, but I balk at the  
"need" for the horse to be in pain in order to "heal."

I also don't think keeping a riding horse barefoot year 'round would  
have worked where I used to live -- the footing was clay mud for 6+  
months of the year. Barefoot trimmers seem to ignore that aspect too.

Deanna



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