Barefoot competition horses

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Supanova

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I would welcome some feedback from people who have changed their previously shod competition horses to barefoot. How successful was it? How did your horse cope? Did you go back to being shod after a disasterous experience? How long did it take your horse to adapt?

I am seriously considering changing my mare to barefoot due to some front foot issues (she's had an MRI and there are no big issues just some soft tissue inflammation). I have my other horse barefoot as she's just never needed shoes and I just have this gut feeling that barefoot might be the most help for my other mare, rather than remedial farriery, but i know its not a decision to be made lightly. I would be really interested to hear other people's experience (good and bad) of making the transition.

I should add that I mainly SJ and dressage so i can easily stick to surfaces if required.

Thanks! M&S Fuller Longer Crayfish and Noodle salad for anyone who's read this far!
 
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If you compete on surfaces theres no reason not to go unshod.
Mine are unshod except for eventing when I need studs. I have evented one horse unshod at novice level but she is exceptionally surefooted and I have to be very careful about what ground conditions she jumps on as she does slip when it's greasy on top
 
I don't compete a lot (yet!) but mine are all unshod - my mare is 18 months on from a navicular diagnosis - and I see no reason to be putting shoes on when all our local sj and dressage comps are on a surface. I never had any to plans to stud for eventing at 80/90, when we get there, so as far as I am concerned I have no need for shoes. I am careful with my management and make a point of working them on different surfaces, they have a b/f diet and hack out etc barefoot. The changes in their feet have been quite astonishing, I'm not sure I'd want to ever put shoes back on and ruin that.
 
Don't see why its not a decision which can be made lightly? Its no big deal taking shoes off? Are you talking about unshod (as in trimmed by a farrier) or barefoot (as in trimmed by a barefoot trimmer) as they are different. I have 2 ponies barefoot, and 2 horses unshod currently. The benefit of unshod is that you could put a shoe back on anytime, whereas with barefoot I believe it takes roughly 2 months to get the hoof shape back to being able to take a shoe again (just what Ive heard, might be wrong!). So if your horse didnt cope with having his shoes off, they could go back on straight away.

My experiences are that I always keep my horses unshod until I feel they need shoes (not the other way round which the vast majority of people seem to do!). Of my last 2 horses, my grey I had shod every March - October so I could use studs for eventing (I think at a certain level you do need studs, I wouldnt do novice level without but would do below and have), and then over the winter they were taken off as he was competing on a surface (although I schooled at home on grass). He loved it, his movement was actually a lot nicer without shoes on. I had another horse who I backed, I kept him unshod until he was 5 and we were moving up the levels jumping whereupon he started slipping a little on grass (he wasnt the most balanced) so I had him shod then but I still did a couple of Intro's on him unshod fine, I took his shoes off every winter too. Mine have all coped fine with this. By choice, I dont know why everyone doesnt try barefoot/unshod first, its a hell of a lot cheaper for a start...!
 
Our barefoot TB cross events up to 1m at present, on surface and grass. Had no problems slipping so far, and at one event when it was pouring down and had been for 12 hours the SJ was on grass as well and he had as much grip as the horses with studs!
 
My main comment would be that this is not an easy or cheap option! I took shoes off mine while in light work, Was sound generally (trotting tight circle on concrete) so no concerns there but if we had a flush of grass he would get a bit 'footy' without the support of his shoes and hacking out he definately noticed different surface types. I suspect it would be easier over winter with more consistent food source and if I was doing most work on arena where he was very happy however the lost days when he was feeling his feet a bit (usually if it rained and the grass spurted) and having to withdraw from competitions and loosing entry fees if I wasn't sure he was 100% was too frustrating when he was my only horse and on livery where I wasn't able to control every aspect of his management. He now has front shoes on and barefoot behind for the winter and is feeling great. If we event next year will shoe behind too but for the winter he'll continue without
 
MagicMelon said:
The benefit of unshod is that you could put a shoe back on anytime, whereas with barefoot I believe it takes roughly 2 months to get the hoof shape back to being able to take a shoe again (just what Ive heard, might be wrong!). So if your horse didnt cope with having his shoes off, they could go back on straight away.
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Sorry, that's totally not true! Ultimately any barefoot or unshod trim should be a balanced one to the horse's leg. If it's not then it isn't a good trim!

My horse is barefoot. He came to me shod but I took the shoes off after 5 weeks, so didn't compete him before the shoes came off. I had a long term goal of barefoot anyway, but took shoes off sooner as he was losing shoes and no foot to shoe, feet were scary. I took them off as I believe that improving his foot health through barefoot is the best I can do in the hope of keeping him sound in the future.

I do dressage so like you can stick to surfaces. I do hack as well though. When the shoes came off my boy was in hoof boots with pads even for turnout for 6 months. He would have been fine in the field without however he needed to walk down a stony track to get there - plus I wanted him in the pads as much as possible as they are beneficial to improving the functioning of the feet. A year down the line he was able to hack out for upto an hour with no hoof boots on a variety of terrain, as well as his normal school work. Actually the other night I was watching back my videos from when I first got him - it's quite difficult to say for sure as his schooling has come on etc. but I am sure that he moves better now, although I think he did also change how he moved and his balance changed so it has taken a longer time with the schooling I think. He is 9yo very big moving dutch warmblood so I guess any balance changes are more pronounced due to his movement. Also, when he was in shoes he had a vertical crack running right down from coronary band on near fore, and we have finally gotten rid of this!!

I won't lie though, it has been hard work in tweaking his diet, and making sure his work is always appropriate - even when we started working without boots I had to always consider the terrain of any hack and whether I thought he could manage. Sometimes I got it wrong and then would need to rest him for a couple of days too :(

We've had a setback now as he was kicked at the beginning of July resulting in a fracture and 2 months of box rest. Because his feet were not getting any stimulation from exercise on the box rest they have gone downhill, plus I was scared of lifting them too much due to the fracture so I stopped treating/preventing any infection and he now has quite bad thrush. So we are slightly back in terms of progress and he is back in hoof boots with pads.

However, overall I am very happy to have taken his shoes off and would do it again in a heartbeat. I really believe that this is the best I can do for him in terms of long-term foot health.

In terms of competition it hasn't affected what I do at all, except at first I used to keep the hoof boots on the lorry in case there was a lengthy walk down a stony track. If your horse isn't lame before you take shoes off, and the feet aren't very bad, then you should be able to continue working on a surface as soon as the shoes come off. But it's always good to have hoof boots on hand for the early stages of hacking.
 
I converted two Novice Affiliated eventers to barefoot. I only missed the studs on dry grass dressage arenas. I ran in all conditions and had no more slips than previously when they were shod.

I eve ted three others who had never evented in shoes at BE90/100 without any issues.

I have drag hunted four barefoot hunters and know of four others with no more problems than I have had with shod horses.
 
MagicMelon said:
Don't see why its not a decision which can be made lightly? Its no big deal taking shoes off? Are you talking about unshod (as in trimmed by a farrier) or barefoot (as in trimmed by a barefoot trimmer) as they are different. I have 2 ponies barefoot, and 2 horses unshod currently. The benefit of unshod is that you could put a shoe back on anytime, whereas with barefoot I believe it takes roughly 2 months to get the hoof shape back to being able to take a shoe again (just what Ive heard, might be wrong!). So if your horse didnt cope with having his shoes off, they could go back on straight away.
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The 2 month comment sounds a little odd to me, a barefoot horse should have a 'optimum' shaped hoof and thus when a shoe is put on the shape shouldn't be changed, surely, as the hoof should be the correct shape, angle etc. From my experience farriers, whether trimming or shoeing, have altered my horses hoof shape in a bad way, usually by taking down the heels and lengthening the toe, flattening the foot. That's certainly why my mare ended up in the vets. Should I ever need to shoe I will be looking for a farrier who can shoe the feet they have now and who wont be trying to go back to how they were when the were looked after by a farrier before. There should be no need for a healthy barefoot hoof to be altered so drastically that it takes 2 months to be able to get a shoe on it unless there is something badly wrong.
 
MagicMelon said:
The benefit of unshod is that you could put a shoe back on anytime, whereas with barefoot I believe it takes roughly 2 months to get the hoof shape back to being able to take a shoe again (just what Ive heard, might be wrong!).
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Yup, whoever told you that didn't know what they were talking about :D
 
Ok, so not a competition horse (yet!) but my TB is barefoot, and has been for almost 2 years now. I already had an unshod pony and another that was barefoot for navicular - but the type that had 'good' feet and transitioned to it with ease. I took him barefoot as basically, I was sick of my farrier laming him everytime he was shod, and then inbetween shoeings, losing the damn things with half his hoof with it! He was your typical 'flat footed' TB - his feet are STILL improving almost 2 years into it (we've had a few set backs though, like almost dieing and emergency surgery, so that would throw a spanner into any works!), but is very sound, sounder than I ever saw him in shoes. I got to a bit of a cross roads with him I guess and decided that short term I'd lose out whilst he transitioned, no matter how long it took him, to ensure longer term soundness.

We aim to 'do' dressage, so our activities are hacking, lunging, schooling and occaisonal outings. I sometimes use boots for hacking depending on the route (local bridleways are concrete hard, flinty tracks, so best will in the world, he'd probably never manage them bare!), but otherwise he does all school work bare, and as I don't have a school, lunges/schools in the field bare (or with front boots should it be really hard, but that is more as I can pad the boots and lessen the concussion to his legs).

Depending on the type of horse, it can be really tough transitioning from shod to unshod/bare (whatever you want to call it!) - there are lot of factors to get right - exercise/movement, diet (probably the most important bit IMO), the trim, and then depending on the horse you might get other complicating factors thrown in! Some horses are easy, others (like my TB) are not easy - would I ever shoe him again though? Lord, no! I have learnt such a lot about my TB just from having the shoes off....I see his feet as a barometer to his overrall health and well-being. Not having shoes on hasn't limited us in our activities, I put boots on if I need to - marvelous things.

OP - do lots of research, understand how barefoot can fail through diet/management that is not optimum for what you wish to achieve - a sound barefoot horse - and set realistic expectations. Don't expect the horse to be miraculously sound after, say, 2 months, with amazing feet - if that happens, brilliant, but if it doesn't, that's when you'll need to assess which part of the jigsaw isn't right for the horse in question. It's a huge learning curve, but amazing when you get it right.
 
Thank you all for your replies. It sounds like the vast majority have had success going barefoot. Magicmelon - I do mean getting a proper barefoot trimmer (or an applied equine podiatist as they are called) rather than just a normal farrier.

Regarding diet - my mare also has a muscle condition and therefore her diet is actually perfect for being barefoot. One of the supplements she has for this condition is actually primarily meant for barefoot horses so in some ways its almost like its fate!!

I will certainly do lots of research and have made contact with an AEP.

One thing i'm slightly worried about is that she has one boxy foot and one quite flat foot and i am not sure how the heel will be supported on the one thats flat!

She has currently got her front shoes off following the MRI whilst i wait for the farrier - i don't know if i'm imagining it but i do wonder if she is walking better - she certainly doesn't look foot sore!
 
QR - my horse has one boxy foot, its more noticeable now he is barefoot but he's sounder than he ever was in shoes. I don't think it actually matters that the boxy foot is now more upright than the other - he was born that way, so I think maybe that's how he needs to be? Touch wood we have as yet not had any problems with him being barefoot.
 
Mine is a low level comp horse. Done some 80cm ODEs this yr along with sj at 80/90 and some dressage. 90cm HT coming up and planning to BE next year. He's shod at the mo and will remain so until after the HT as I find he slips on grass. In oct after the HT I'll be taking off his shoes. When I bought him last yr I took off his backs for the summer and put them back on for hunting.
He gets a reasonably BF friendly diet and has great feet. I do plan to put them on again in spring so its a shoe holiday for him. Discussed it with farrier who is in favour of horses having a break from shoes . Over winter he will dressage and sj with some hacking. Some of ourhhacking is stony so will have yo see how he gets on. If all good then I may not put them back on. See how it goes!
No plans for a trimmer. Just using farier.
 
Mine also has one boxy and one flat foot. It's quite common and as long as they are sound who are we to argue? The worst thing you can do is try and trim a foot to look "perfect" - you need to be guided by how the horse grows and wears his foot.
 
What are people's views about just taking them barefoot with a normal farrier or having a specialist barefoot trimmer? Do you think its important to have a specialist?

Ecrozier - its good to know yours also has a boxy foot! However, its really the flat foot i'm concerned about because she has a broken back pastern / foot angle (think i might have got the terminology wrong as not very good with this stuff) and she really needs support for her heel. I guess over time she might adapt the foot naturally ...
 
As said above I will continue to use my farrier. When I took of back shoes last year I was in a different area and used my farrier at the time. He didnt do much to them, just a quick rasp/tidy up if needed.Horse trimmed them himself. HHe's shod every 5 wks (now he's in shoes) as they grow like mad but once I started hunting he wore them down too quickly and growth didntcatch up. I never used a trimmer.
Had a podiatrist out to look at last horse and he was absolutely useless so stuck with farrier.
 
chestnut cob said:
As said above I will continue to use my farrier. When I took of back shoes last year I was in a different area and used my farrier at the time. He didnt do much to them, just a quick rasp/tidy up if needed.Horse trimmed them himself. HHe's shod every 5 wks (now he's in shoes) as they grow like mad but once I started hunting he wore them down too quickly and growth didntcatch up. I never used a trimmer.
Had a podiatrist out to look at last horse and he was absolutely useless so stuck with farrier.
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Thanks chestnutcob - i am in two minds. There is a very good AEP who lives close to me (she has the top rating on their website and gets good reviews if i google her) so i think i'm going to get her out to look at my horse and see what i think of her! I am a bit scared though!
 
Supanova said:
Thanks chestnutcob - i am in two minds. There is a very good AEP who lives close to me (she has the top rating on their website and gets good reviews if i google her) so i think i'm going to get her out to look at my horse and see what i think of her! I am a bit scared though!
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I think if you have a good, supportive farrier then it's worth sticking with them. But if they aren't then definitely talk to the AEP, or even a different farrier. What do you have to lose? Take the shoes off, see how it goes. If your farrier isn't supportive yet hasn't managed to keep the horse sound then find someone else. At worst the horse gets a break from shoes, which is never a bad thing IMHO, and doesn't cope long term so you put shoes back on. At best, s/he copes well and comes back into work.

WRT to boxy feet. My last one had a boxy foot, farrier also called it a club foot. He had arthritis in that leg (ringbone)... did the boxy foot cause that, or did it cause the boxy foot? Who knows. I had years of a farrier trying to make them identical. Then I switched to a remedial farrier (who was brilliant) who said why change it, it's like that for a reason so leave him be. He claimed most farriers dislike uneven feet because it means using shoes from different sets/ pairs so they try to make both feet the same so they don't end up with odd shoes in the van! He shod him with one size on the right and a smaller size on the left, and spent a lot of time making both fit each foot perfectly. Horse was far happier when the boxy foot was left alone, and the other one not chopped up to make it match. I'd think you'd get the same with an AEP - let the horse have the feet he needs to support himself.
 
Supanova said:
What are people's views about just taking them barefoot with a normal farrier or having a specialist barefoot trimmer? Do you think its important to have a specialist?
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I think it is important to have someone who manages horses that do what you want to be able to do.

Lots of farriers can trim well. There are also qualified trimmers who don't trim well. The best you can do is go by reputation and don't use a trimmer who has made the same horse less capable twice in a row.
 
R is barefoot at the moment. She has been for about 3 years following an extended bout of lameness, wedges, heart bars etc etc. I am a rather reluctant barefoot person to be honest. In it's favour she has remained sound since, which would have been unheard of in shoes. Her feet look much better, not permanently missing huge chunks of hoof and to my inexpert eye the heel is better ( awful flat TB feet). Against, it is a lot of work, getting the diet right and I find I have to control the amount of roadwork because she can suffer excessive wear. The main reason for my negativity though is slipping. She slips much less on the road barefoot which is good, but more in flatwork on grass and as I am BEing ( though only at 90) it does affect our scores, particularly if the grass on the arenas is long. If I was only SJ and dressaging on a surface I definitively would not contemplate shoes, but am currently considering whether I can sweet talk vet and farrier back into shoes for her next spring so I could possibly have a bass at an 100.
 
Thanks for all your replies.

Chestnut cob - my farrier is good and always seems willing to help but he does moan about her having different feet and I am not entirely convinced he will be that supportive of me taking her barefoot - I think I might ask him to take her shoes off initially and then perhaps talk to the AEP

Cptrayes - thanks good advice!

Ffonwinnie - yes I think I'm going to go for it! Not quite sure why I'm making such a fuss about it really!

Rosiemum - thanks for your reply. I know what you mean about slipping on grass. Thankfully mine's not an eventer and its easy for me to avoid doing much on grass. Although I actually think she'd be pretty sure footed as she's quite short coupled and agile!
 
I am the most minimalist horse owner ever and I can manage it fine so you will too. My only "thing" is not likeing jumping on grass, but nothing has ever adtually happened, its in my head not their feet. Just wait til you can hack on snow and ice in the winter with no issues at all, its really fab!
 
My dressage horse is barefoot. Had shoes on when he arrived but took them off after a couple of shoeings.

He hasn't had to transition, wear hoofboots, change farriers or diet.

From day one he was, and still is, sound as a pound on any surface no matter how rough, hard or stoney. Been barefoot 4 years now and is competing at Advanced level.
 
I don't compete any more, but when I did we slipped more on grass or any other surface for that matter when shod. I've recently deshod a dressage horse that was being retired because of long term intermittent lameness. They've just won a high level competition. Last year a highly competitive all rounder was deshod. They've not looked back. The downside for them is getting used to new 'go faster' feet having recently clocked time faults for going too fast. I've not seen them compete sadly but the owner reports that they are finding themselves more sure footed than when shod. But I'd lay money that the jockey is good and I know the feet whilst not perfect are getting there.
 
JLav said:
My dressage horse is barefoot. Had shoes on when he arrived but took them off after a couple of shoeings.

He hasn't had to transition, wear hoofboots, change farriers or diet.

From day one he was, and still is, sound as a pound on any surface no matter how rough, hard or stoney. Been barefoot 4 years now and is competing at Advanced level.
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This for me also!

Mine arrived with racing plates, completely sound and with good feet. Took them off, never looked back.

Hacks and jumps too.

He is competing Elem BD and training Adv.
 
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