are your horses shod or shoeless and what do you do with them?

I think I must have been amazingly lucky with how CM coped without shoes. Her hooves really were deformed when the shoes came off, plus she ended up with a huge amount of hoof wall being removed due to abscesses from the stretched white line (a result of the long toes and under-run heels). Her shoes were removed and she was sounder than when she was in them and coped with concrete and tarmac from day one. That was of course a great relief to me as there was literally nothing to nail onto if she had been unable to cope. I'd have been getting the nappies and gaffer tape out and ordering boots pronto.
 
Three all without shoes. Old cob is now retired but before that he had shoes off about a year after I bought him - this was 11 years ago now. He did Pony Club with my son and TREC with me, plus lots of hacking, schooling etc without any problem except for letting him take his time, or getting off and leading on extremely stony ground. Hie is exceptionally sure-footed - I think because he did a lot of hunting as a youngester, years before I bought him.

Young cob will be five in a few weeks and has never been shod. No problems so far but only in light hacking and schooling on a surface at the moment.

My son's horse was barefoot but we then shod him several summers running for affiliated eventing as he was slipping on wet grass so needed studs. They don't Event now so he is back to barefoot all year. Schooling on a surface, lots of hacking, won a couple of hunter trials and will affiliate to BD this year. I have done some TREC with him but would use front boots if we did more as he wasn't happy on long stretches of stony ground (though he did about 5km in passage last time out - walking just wasn't on his agenda!)

All have great feet. They live out 24/7. Only young cob has any hard feed at the moment - soaked grass nuts a handful of Pegasus nuts and some brewers yeast.
 
Welsh B barefoot mixture of roads & tracks. Barely even needs a trim in summer when riding a lot. She's a bit footy over rough ground, but is very good at finding a verge, even if it means I have to duck the branches.
 
Faracat said:
I think I must have been amazingly lucky with how CM coped without shoes. Her hooves really were deformed when the shoes came off, plus she ended up with a huge amount of hoof wall being removed due to abscesses from the stretched white line (a result of the long toes and under-run heels). Her shoes were removed and she was sounder than when she was in them and coped with concrete and tarmac from day one. That was of course a great relief to me as there was literally nothing to nail onto if she had been unable to cope. I'd have been getting the nappies and gaffer tape out and ordering boots pronto.
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She just preferred unshod I guess. My boy has strong hooves farrier has even said this and logically he should be able to cope without them he just can't. He might get by now but I think I would notice a change in his attitude he would become a bit depressed about it. His hooves are quite sensitive really washing them can be a problem and so can just putting oil stuff on them for conditioning. It's not pain though it's almost like tickly feet. He just looks confused as to why I am touching them with a brush. Strange horse.
 
Unshod, barefoot trimmed, elementary dressage (hoping for higher!). Never had shoes, never will put them on. Will explore other options before putting metal shoes on! His hoof looks very different to most shod hooves, his heels are so wide and thick.
 
B is fully shod. Mainly does eventing, with the usual schooling at home, and some hacking. He wears studs in his hind shoes when competing or schooling on grass.

He was fully shod when I bought him - if it ain't broke, don't fix it, as they say.
 
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