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I have to agree with Kat on reasons RM often prefer shod or booted horses at 
their rides.

The statement " if a horse gets 'ouchie' it will be pulled"  really bugs me. 
Is it fair to the horse to make him sore before he can be pulled?  Or before 
you shoe or boot?

Some of the old time "cowboys" and I use the term loosely, shod only the 
fronts because the horse was too bronky to handle the hinds.  Some times 
they were just lazy.   The expression was "if the front end goes the back 
end will follow"
A really snakey horse, bad to buck, often went bare, he wouldn't buck so 
hard if his feet hurt.
I can't help wondering if a few endurance horses are easier to rate if they 
are bare?  Hard to be chargey if your feet hurt  (;>)

Sorry,  take it with a grain of salt.

Dot



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "k s swigart" <katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Ridecamp" <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:29 PM
Subject: [RC] Why I require hoof protection (was: Barefoot endurance)


> Kathy Sherman said:
>
> > If the barefoot horse is ouchie, it'll get pulled, right?
>
> In my experience few riders and very few vets at endurance rides can
> tell when a horse is footsore on all four (or even just two fronts or
> two hinds) until the horse is in absolutely excruciating agony from its
> sore feet such that it is obvious to everybody (and, as often as not, it
> is obvious to everybody but the person who is riding the footsore
> horse).
>
> Consequently, there are several reasons that I have required some form
> of hoof protection on the rides that I have managed so far:
>
> 1) Many riders of barefoot horses don't know that their horses feet are
> sore.
>
> 2) Barefoot horses have to be really (and I mean REALLY, REALLY, REALLY)
> sore before they will get pulled for being sore on all four when trotten
> out in hand.
>
> 3) Many riders of barefoot horses will argue with the vets when told
> that their horses are foot sore because they are unwilling to believe
> it.
>
> 4) As a consequence of 3, many vets are loathe to pull barefoot footsore
> horses because they don't want to get into an argument with an adamant
> rider.
>
> So, no "ouchie" horses don't "get pulled"
>
> And
>
> 5) I don't want to have to trailer horses out of remote locations for
> being pulled for being foot sore when I knew that the terrain and the
> footing was such that the chances of a horse successfully negotiating
> all 100 miles under saddle without some form of hoof protection are slim
> to none.
>
> I won't even let horses start that do not have hoof protection on all
> four feet (no "shoes or boots in the front only" for my rides), since
> this makes it even harder for both riders and vets to detect horses that
> are sore on their unprotected feet.  As horses that are sore on the back
> feet but not the front feet will "limp" (i.e. favor the sore ones) by
> transferring their weight from back to front.
>
> BTW, that is what "limping" is, transferring weight from the sore one to
> the not sore one.  Favoring a left foot over a right foot is the kind of
> limping that vets and riders are used to looking for.  Favoring both
> front feet over both back feet provides no lateral asymmetry at the trot
> (which is the way that ride vets evaluate horses at vet checks), but
> rather exhibits itself as "shifting a bit of weight onto the forehand"
> and there isn't a ride vet on the planet that will pull a horse for that
> until the horse is SO sore on the hinds that it is absolutely
> excruciating because the horse won't bear any weight on them at all.
>
> So, there you have it.
>
> The reason I require hoof protection on my rides is that I don't trust
> either riders or ride vets to know when a horse is foot sore.
>
> kat
> Orange County, Calif.
> :)
>
>
>
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