Anyone compete with an unshod horse?

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Parkranger

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Someone told me that alot of people compete barefoot (horse not rider that is)

Interested to find out if anyone on here does.....would shoes actually protect the feet it jumping or is it kinder for the hooves to work as nature intended as a natural shock absorber....?
 
My old horse (in his new home) is unshod he SJ's, XC and hunts unshod. The only time he has had problems was at Hickstead when the ground was hard and they watered the arena - just kept slipping and lost bit of confidence
 
I compete my two - showjumping - and they only have fronts on, never had any problems with them
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I thought it was a rarity! Obviously depends on the horse etc etc.....even though footsore on certain terrains, my boy is carrying himself so much better without shoes.....fingers crossed it continues!
 
I will be keeping my boy unshod until a time comes that he finds he is sore, he will be doing dressage and jumping is currently hacking out un shod with no problems and regular checks from the farrier
 
Only local level - XC, SJ and dressage.

I compete on the basis that if the ground is that hard I wouldn't jump etc with or without shoes.

Compared to using studs, apart from one corner which we took a little fast and it was very slippery and the back end paddled, I have not had any problems.

Jemima being a gypsy cob was very sure footed which may have helped.
 
have (have had) 4 that compete unshod.

1 does national level dressage up to Elem level - native X
1 does hacking and PClub all rounder including XC and SJ - welsh D horse
1 does PClub allrounder welsh x AA - bits of everything
1 does SJ up to 3ft - welsh x TB

no problems with roadwork either and they are trimmed every 7 weeks to keep the hooves balanced - even if nothing needs taking off the bottom.

Only time it's a bit dodgy is XC sharp turns on a footing when you'd put studs in due to the going on a shod horse - if it's THAT greasy then unshod also finds it slippery.
 
I think it all depends on the individual horse, it seems easier to keep a horse who has never been shod unshod, but to remove shoes and then carry on working seems to create problems
 
ooh was going to start a different thread but thought i could post it in this one as it is kinda relevent..

would you take your horse to a lesson if he has lost a shoe? got a pre-paid lesson tonight on an indoor sand school, horse lost a shoe today and farrier isnt coming untill tomorrow, he is a tough horse and want to still go as i wont get my money back?
 
there will be abit of jumping but not much, just for about 10 minutes at the end of the lesson. it is an eventing lesson but think we are focusing more on our flatwork today. its his back right.
 
We compete our two cobs shod at the front only - they mainly showjump and XC but have been known to dressage as well. We've tried them completely barefoot but the little one gets very footsore and the larger one's feet break up.

The AA mare we're currently breaking is expected to event barefoot - farrier can't believe how tough her feet are!

We've also suffered the embarrassment of turning up to dshowjump on grass with only two front shoes between them - didn't seem to harm the performance much but we did get them shod asap after that.
 
My boy was unshod, till the age of 12 (when he went lame, and shoes sorted the problem) and he used to do all sorts, PC activities. He is now only shod in front and does all activities no probs!
 
Yep, i have 3 unshod and 2 shod. My 2 NFs have always been unshod (except for when i was driving them down the road everyday), they've hunted, SJ and XC unshod absolutely fine. My WB has even competed unshod as well.
 
My TB is unshod.......always has been. We have done dressage and jumping and a bit of xc schooling without problem. We only had one sticky moment at an outdoor dressage where they kindly placed the arena on a slight slope in the long grass!! It had rained prior to my test and we slipped a little. That probably wasn't helped by horse's total lack of interest in what he was doing
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Ours compete in Dressage, SJ & XC only shod in front. They have gone XC training & never lost their footing (yet). We only have 1 horse out of 4 that is shod & that is because he is on loan.
 
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