Another poll barefoot vs shod

What do you do with yours?

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I never have this slipping thing shod or unshod.
Hunting a BF horse is just fabulous the ease they cover the ground with is magic .
 
badgermyers said:
My horse was barefoot behind and kept slipping behind on the grass. Had shoes on behind and hasnt slipped since. This was just light work too
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I've never shod behind and have xc'd, hunted, jumped etc, I think a lot of it can be helped by having a nicely schoooled, balanced horse who knows where it's feet are and how to use them. The ones I know that slip behind are the ones that are ridden to deep with noses pulled in and there back ends stuck out behind them! :)
 
badgermyers said:
My horse was barefoot behind and kept slipping behind on the grass. Had shoes on behind and hasnt slipped since. This was just light work too
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Mine used to slip all the time on mud and tarmac and grass in shoes but didn't as much barefoot. Can't comment on studs as was never able to keep him sound enough in shoes to compete and need studs.

I'm not sure your categories are relevant btw, I would prefer to see more. Plus the competitive activities I think you could argue are most demanding on feet are Endurance and eventing being on unpredictable ground and BE dressage is often on grass which is could be anything from concrete to mudbath. Affilated dressage being the least where horses work on controlled surfaces and I do struggle to see why some of the dressage horses I see who aren't even hacked need shoes.
 
badgermyers said:
I made the poll groups using the same guide as we use at uni as it was just easier and quicker.
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Heaven help us, then, if that's the way people at Uni are being taught to construct a survey.


In do hope you don't actually think that you can draw any conclusions from the numbers of people who answer this poll? It currently stands that more people compete shod than happyhack shod. Complete nonsense, of course :rolleyes:

Can you please clarify which of these you mean BM?

I wanted to avoid the 'I gallop over stubble fields and jump logs sometimes' going into competative
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or

I know its work, but it isnt competing and thats what I am on about....
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My horse is not shod, and I have no plans currently to put shoes on him - he is sound, has good feet, and frankly it is saving me a lot of money!

He's 4, so we're not currently competing affiliated, but he is aimed at BS and BE next year, and is going out regularly to clinics and lessons.

I'm no die hard barefoot advocate by any means, and don't judge people either way - all my horses in the past were shod, and I am about as far from a fluffy happy hacker type person as you can get. However I'm of the view that if it ain't broke, don't fix it - so I have no intention of putting shoes on mine any time soon.
 
With my grey - I would have him shod so I could use studs during the BE season, then I'd have his shoes off for the winter and compete BSJA usually. He's now unshod permanently as he's now a field ornament ;)

My new horse has just had his shoes taken off, I intend to BSJA him all winter.

Basically I would always keep unshod if possible and only have shoes if I needed studs for say eventing. I have competed horses unshod but after a certain point I do find they need studs for grip.
 
But what on earth do you think that it will tell you? The only answer you are going to get from it is that people have both shod and unshod horses which compete and don't compete. The actual numbers will be completely statistically invalid in a self selecting poll of a tiny number of respondents.

As a thread to generate discussion, fine. As a meaningul statisical exercise, completely useless.
 
The emphasis on competing/non-competing is a red herring I'm afraid - a bit like asking people if they like crisps and drive a red car and then coming to a conclusion that if you have a red car you don't like crisps for example.

There are many many reasons why people either 'compete' in the terms you describe above or do not, and most of them have absolutely nothing to do with a horse's feet.
 
Ditto red herring. I have barefoot horses. I don't compete (since hunting does't count). However the two have no correlation. He is barefoot because it's far less damaging. I don't compete because i lack time and money. If i DID compete he still wouldn't have shoes on.

The only potential conclusion you could draw is that more horses that compete are shod because the more "competitive" owner is far more 'traditional' , uneducated and close-minded about shoeing/barefoot.
 
My horse is barefoot and we affiliated this year (BD). He is schooled 4/5 times a week at novice level working towards elementary ATM. I don't think his progress is being hampered by his lack of shoes ( his lack of brain cells however is another matter....:rolleyes:)

If we did a lot of cross country or jumping I would probably having him shod for studs.

Another non-scientific conclusion you could draw is that the breeds that tend to be used in high level competition are often TBs and WBs which aren't renowned for having the best feet (although there will be plenty of exceptions & some cases it may be down to poor shoeing/trimming etc).
 
Doogal said:
My horse is barefoot and we affiliated this year (BD). He is schooled 4/5 times a week at novice level working towards elementary ATM. I don't think his progress is being hampered by his lack of shoes ( his lack of brain cells however is another matter....:rolleyes:)

If we did a lot of cross country or jumping I would probably having him shod for studs.

Another non-scientific conclusion you could draw is that the breeds that tend to be used in high level competition are often TBs and WBs which aren't renowned for having the best feet (although there will be plenty of exceptions & some cases it may be down to poor shoeing/trimming etc).
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This is the sort of answer I was hoping for - thank you.

I am assuming higher level competitiors have shoes for studs ect. I know thats one reason I have mine shod.

I may looks at breeds with my study. I have found with research alot of it is quite breed specific. Most papers ive found on barefoot that are scientific have been on native semi ferral horses. Whilst alot of shod papers are based on TB's and warmbloods. I picked up on this during research. Its very interesting
 
badgermyers said:
This is the sort of answer I was hoping for - thank you.

I am assuming higher level competitiors have shoes for studs ect. I know thats one reason I have mine shod.

I may looks at breeds with my study. I have found with research alot of it is quite breed specific. Most papers ive found on barefoot that are scientific have been on native semi ferral horses. Whilst alot of shod papers are based on TB's and warmbloods. I picked up on this during research. Its very interesting
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Mine is a welsh cob.

It would be interesting to see the number of barefoot & shod native types competing at higher levels in dressage (where the decision to shoe will not be based on a need for studs) in comparison to WB and TBs. Of course it would need a proper statistical analysis to see if the results were statistically different especially considering the much larger numbers of TB/WBS competing at that level.
 
Doogal said:
Mine is a welsh cob.

It would be interesting to see the number of barefoot & shod native types competing at higher levels in dressage (where the decision to shoe will not be based on a need for studs) in comparison to WB and TBs. Of course it would need a proper statistical analysis to see if the results were statistically different especially considering the much larger numbers of TB/WBS competing at that level.
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That would be good but not a study I can do sadly as mine has already been approved. Would be good for someone to do though
 
badgermyers said:
This is the sort of answer I was hoping for - thank you.
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Then why the hell didn't you ask the question that would get you that kind of answer instead of this dumb but entertaining thread?????? I am absolutely baffled by your bizarre approach to "research" BM, I really am.
 
cptrayes said:
Then why the hell didn't you ask the question that would get you that kind of answer instead of this dumb but entertaining thread?????? I am absolutely baffled by your bizarre approach to "research" BM, I really am.
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This isnt research. This is a bit of fun between lectures to see what other people think. I am very sorry but isnt a forum a place to come and chill, chat, have fun and learn something? I wouldnt ever do real research on here. I come here to enjoy myself
 
None of the above. We do endurance and spend half the year bare and the other half the year in glue on easyboots. I'm not anti shoes its just the easyboots work better for our particular horse as they cut down on concussion whilst giving him far superior foot protection than shoes.... I really don't know what I'm going to do about foot protection with the youngster - we'll start with easyboot gloves/gaiters and see how we go.
 
EstherYoung said:
None of the above. We do endurance and spend half the year bare and the other half the year in glue on easyboots. I'm not anti shoes its just the easyboots work better for our particular horse as they cut down on concussion whilst giving him far superior foot protection than shoes.... I really don't know what I'm going to do about foot protection with the youngster - we'll start with easyboot gloves/gaiters and see how we go.
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thank you
 
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