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[RC] The Bare Facts - k s swigartDebbie Kirchner said: Debbie, I don't know very many people (except in show barns) that shoe horses until they reach that point.You are kidding right??? most people automatically shoe a horse as a 2 year old, certainly by 3... the feet are not done growing till 5 or 6, and they shoe them... yikes... While I have heard of some people who "automatically" shoe a horse before they start riding it, but I don't know any personally. I don't know of anybody who "automatically" shoes a horse as a 2 year old. Most people I know try to put it off as long as possible and don't put shoes on the horse until either a) they notice that the hoof starts breaking apart or b) the horse starts to get foot sore, and many of them wait too long after getting to b. There have been enough now that I have stopped counting the number of "problem" horses I have fixed (e.g. horses that spin, balk, rear, refuse to go first, refuse to go out alone, etc.) by taking the horse for one ride, have it tippy-toe along, and then telling the owner that the horse has sore feet and needs some kind of hoof protection. As often as not, they don't believe me. So I bring out a set of the many protective boots I have and it takes about 1 ½ rides for the horse to figure out that it no longer has to worry about stepping on a rock and moves forward willingly. I am not contending that providing hoof protection is the solution to all horse training problems; however, I have found that it is a solution to quite a few of them. It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who ride barefoot horses who don't know how to tell when their horse has sore feet. The problem is, horses that are foot sore don't limp (assuming all the feet are sore), so their owners think that just because their horses' feet don't have chipped hoof walls that there can't be anything wrong with the feet. However, it is AFTER the hoof has worn down to the point where there isn't any excess hoof wall left to chip that hoof wear has outpaced hoof growth and the horse no longer has enough foot to go barefoot. My horse's feet don't chip is a poor indicator as to whether the horse has enough foot to remain comfortable barefoot. There ARE some horses with good enough feet and are used sparingly enough or on forgiving enough terrain for the amount of foot that they have, that hoof wear never does outpace hoof growth. These horses can, indeed, spend their entire lives barefoot. However, as soon as hoof wear outpaces hoof growth, they need some kind of hoof protection to remain comfortable, and it is cruel not to provide it. There are several alternatives to steel shoes for providing this protection (and there is getting to be more and more) and all of them have advantages and disadvantages which vary depending on, among other things, the horse, the owner, and where you live (since not all of the alternatives are equally available in all locations). Personally, I have seen way more barefoot horses that would benefit from some kind of hoof protection than I have seen shod horses that don't need it. And most of the barefoot ones that I have seen that would benefit from shoes have been barefoot their whole lives so the "their feet just need to adapt to going barefoot" argument just doesn't hold water. kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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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