Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I find that decomposed granite is rather abrasive.  You might not get too much bruising because of rocks, but that's a case for wearing down to nubbies.  If I do a training ride at Quicksilver my horses tend to wear there hooves out more than at Calero a few miles away because the footing is that much more abrasive.   When I did a lot of conditioning at Quicksilver, my horses were shod.

 

I put shoes on Beau for the first time one winter at Lightfoot.  I wasn't riding much, but the act of sliding down the gritty, muddy hillside seemed to wear his hooves out anyway.  He was totally good barefoot at the pasture in Palo Alto because the soils there were rather silty and finer.

 

Again, barefoot is so multifactorial....  I'm just glad that increasingly better hoofboots are giving me other options.

 

K.

On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 11:32 AM, Lynne Glazer <lynne@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 I remember a couple at one of my rides who barely passed the final vet, most of the ride was sandy and/or decomposed granite, few rocks.  They were riding barefoot, and proud of themselves for completing the LD barefoot, they couldn't "see" how sore their horses were.  They've learned a ton since then and are now somewhat authorities on the barefoot plus hoof protection thing, but that day their horses definitely paid a price.