Re: RC: hoof soreness

[Lynn Kinsky <lkinsky@silcom.com>]

>IMO, if you ride your horse 50 or 100 miles whether shod, shod and padded,
>shod with hoof boots, barefoot with hoofboots or barefooted.... your horse
>IS going to have sore feet!! I have a feeling if you asked a marathoner if
>their feet hurt after a marathon the answer would be YES... in spite of the
>best, most advanced running shoes technology can offer or money can buy. IMO
>if you pound your feet (or your horse's feet) on the earth for mile after
>mile after miles... your feet ARE going to be effected. If you think your
>horse's feet are any different, IMO, you ARE in denial. Plain and simple. If
>you say your shod horse's feet are pain free after a long endurance race...
>for me this only proves the theory that horse shoes are masking the horse's
>ability to feel the pain, soreness, damage, what ever.
>
>Cheryl


One good way to evaluate this would be to put  barefoot horses in NATRC
Open or IAHA CTRs (2 day 60s or 80s).  If a horse is in pain its heartrate
will be elevated over its normal resting heartrate.  Endurance criteria are
generally far above a resting heartrate, but in Open CTR the horse has to
recover to 48 or 44 bpm within 10 minutes (or points are taken off), after
going at a pace equivalent to a slow LD or endurance ride (ie., mostly
trotting but not racing) with the rider always on its back (can't jog
alongside your horse in CTR).

It is not at all unusual for a fit *and shod* Open horse carrying a
heavyweight rider to recover to 40 or even 36 after the 10 minutes at a P&R
25 miles or so into the day's riding -- and then trot out sound.  If the
horse is in pain *nothing* in its manner or physical parameters is
indicating it.  If barefoot isn't leaving the horse footsore then barefoot
horses should be able to make the same recoveries.

By the same token, if shoes cause a horse to lose all sensation in its feet
("mask the ability to feel pain") then a shod horse should never appear
lame after hitting a stone wrong or developing thrush, or being quicked by
too much sole paring.  But that isn't the case.


Lynn Kinsky (Santa Ynez, CA)
http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky