Barefoot Eventing?

Ample Prosecco

Ample Prosecco

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I have evented Amber this season with shoes but no studs. 5 of the 6 were on dry ground and it was fine but it was wet and slippery at Kelsall and Amber slipped in the dressage and did not feel entirely sure footed on the SJ or XC phases either.

Studs would be one solution to that but I am also thinking of transitioning to barefoot after reading Barefoot Performance. I was a barefoot runner and the logic of the hoof (or foot) being perfectly adapted for its job and shoes interfering with that makes sense to me.

BUT the science of their take on studs is unconvincing. (Husband has a PhD in Physics and works as an applied physicist - he read what they say about studs making no difference on soft ground because of the weight and momentum of the horse and it is simply not true in his fairly expert view).

So I still need to be convinced that eventing in all conditions is fine without shoes/studs. I am sure it's fine in the dry but I don't want to be limited to good conditions given the British weather! Anyone have any personal experiences of jumping XC barefoot in wet/slippery conditions. Is it really possible?? TIA
 
I've only gone up to BE90 barefoot, so more experienced people will be along. We also hunt and pure dressage.

The XC has never been problem. It's not even crossed my mind that we have less grip than others. The dressage is fine as long as horse nicely collected and weight back on hocks where it should. Shoulder-heaviness becomes more costly on slippery ground without shoes (but less costly that with shoes but without studs which always seems to the worst options to me). The SJ is generally my problematic phase when the ground isn't great. We do normally go clear, but we might pop in extra strides, I have to be waaaay firmer on the half halt than I'd like which limits the boldness at times. When jumping on a surface, my horse is so so bold that the sky is the limit. When on slippery wet grass, we don't have the same magic wings and have hit the occasional pole as the footing just isn't as secure. Would he be any different with shoes/studs? No idea as he's never had any! Might be that we'd experience the same or even different problems.
 
I usually have a variety of horses in the yard that do some low level eventing among other things and tend to shoe once they are competitive so they can wear studs for the dressage and sj phases, if on grass, I am less concerned about studs for xc as the turns at low level are less tight and momentum tends to allow for the odd slip to do no real harm, a horse can so easily lose confidence if they are slipping on turns and in my view confidence for both horse and rider is key so they get the help when required by having studs.

I have had a few go barefoot but even the ponies can struggle at times, one fell while sj on grass so in my view while it is more than possible when everything is going well we can rarely rely on perfect conditions so I will continue to do as much barefoot, they are often fully fit and competing on a surface unshod but shoes go on when we are ready to go out and compete rather than just school round for the experience, each horse is an individual and must be the priority in the decision.
 
Actually that's a really good point - the SJ on wet grass is likely to be the biggest issue. Amber even had time faults SJ at Kelsall because we trotted all the tight turns SJ. And daughter had a very sure footed unshod pony who lost his footing and almost came down in the warm up ring on grass at an unaff ODE a couple of years ago. I'd forgotten about that till just now.
 
BP would you take shoes off at the end of the season for winter SJ and dressage (all on surface) and replace them in Spring for eventing? From what I have read transitioning from shoes takes a while so once they are fine unshod you'd want to keep them that way?? But your post seems to suggest that you can take them on and off and it's ok? Unless I have misunderstood?

Sorry these are probably very basic questions! Mine have all just either been shod or unshod depending on what they wore (or didn't) when I bought them so I have never really considered the issues and options much before.
 
Ambers Echo said:
BP would you take shoes off at the end of the season for winter SJ and dressage (all on surface) and replace them in Spring for eventing? From what I have read transitioning from shoes takes a while so once they are fine unshod you'd want to keep them that way?? But your post seems to suggest that you can take them on and off and it's ok? Unless I have misunderstood?

Sorry these are probably very basic questions! Mine have all just either been shod or unshod depending on what they wore (or didn't) when I bought them so I have never really considered the issues and options much before.
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My farrier has a lot of clients who take shoes on and off depending on need.
 
I tried eventing my little mare barefoot this year and after a few slippy events I have just accepted she needs to be shod while in competition. She lost a bit of confidence in dressage if the ground was slick, the sj was lethal at one or two of them as well . In xc At one event we even slid down a bank as the conditions that day were so slick. I'm gutted having to shoe her as she copes perfectly barefoot all year apart from that.

Ambers Echo, im hoping I can take the showes off and on her as needed. She came to me with shoes on and transitioned fine.
 
I do take them off for the winter and continue as normal, the work is reduced at that time anyway and they do more on a surface, I have never had one take time transitioning, even the racehorse did all his pre training work barefoot, went racing came back and was out doing RC stuff unshod until he needed studs and his feet were as bad as they get when he first arrived, by the end of the first few months of roadwork he had 4 decent feet although by then had been turned away for a few months unshod so transitioned with no real input other than regular trims from my farrier.
I think if they are on a sensible diet, have a half decent frog and heel most will be fine if taken carefully, we only had one that wasn't totally happy but he was older and the owners could not afford to take the time he would have required so he only went through one winter but even that did his feet good.
 
Good feet should step in and out of shoes with no issues. Barefoot takes time for transitioning in horses with issues, but those with decent feet can have the shoes off and carry on pretty much as normal
 
When you are remembering horses which slipped when barefoot, please try to remember the many which slip when shod, but nobody comments because the horse has shoes on.

The only horses I saw fall due to slipping when I was hunting my barefoot horse were shod. There's a show judge in a wheelchair because a shod horse slipped and fell when she was riding it in the ring as a judge.
 
So, if you are running early there is no getting away from the fact that dewy grass on hard ground is very slippy especially for dressage and show jumping. If you can ride them very balanced it helps - Frank on his own forgets this and I have watched him wipe out at the turn at the bottom of the hill in their field many times in winter when others are fine.
My main consideration for XC would be any stoned take offs and landings as I know my own would have struggled with two many of those and it wouldn't encourage him to keep jumping. I wouldn't be worried about the ground XC and mine has also certainly had better grip than those shod when hunting.

If my horse had an issue that meant barefoot really had to be best for it I would prepare to not run if ground conditions were difficult.
If I wanted to do a full season I would shoe for the season but take them off out of season. If they have been transitioned barefoot properly initially then shoeing for a few months should not compromise them enough that they find steppng out of them too difficult.
 
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ycbm said:
When you are remembering horses which slipped when barefoot, please try to remember the many which slip when shod, but nobody comments because the horse has shoes on.

The only horses I saw fall due to slipping when I was hunting my barefoot horse were shod. There's a show judge in a wheelchair because a shod horse slipped and fell when she was riding it in the ring as a judge.
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Amber does slip shod so I need to either stud, take shoes off or choose when I run more carefully. Do you mean they slip studded as much as they slip barefoot? Or that they slip in shoes without studs.
 
Nope, wouldn't do it.

It would be absolutely fine if nothing goes wrong. Or if my riding was spot on and I could trust myself to keep my horse balanced and collected at all times, but I can't and my horse is young. I made the decision to shoe in order to stud for this season and haven't regretted it at all, not so concerned for the XC but I think particularly where we are both green SJ jumping on grass sensible studding has been the right decision.
 
ycbm said:
When you are remembering horses which slipped when barefoot, please try to remember the many which slip when shod, but nobody comments because the horse has shoes on.

The only horses I saw fall due to slipping when I was hunting my barefoot horse were shod. There's a show judge in a wheelchair because a shod horse slipped and fell when she was riding it in the ring as a judge.
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were they studded though? I wouldn't have an issue hunting my girl barefoot, but its a different kettle of fish to be doing trickier technical turns on slippy grass.
 
My horses are BF and I have never had an issue jumping/xc on grass.

However if you want to jump on grass then you need to jump on grass! Only jumping on a surface at home then going to an event and expecting the horse to jump on grass without any change won't always work. When I was prepping my lad to event I was riding on grass as much as possible in all weather, he improved massively and became much more confident. I had a few lessons at my trainers where we jumped on grass too and that also helped.

It can be done, there are folk out there competing, and winning, unshod, but if you want it to go well you need to do what you can to make it successful.
 
Scarlett said:
My horses are BF and I have never had an issue jumping/xc on grass.

However if you want to jump on grass then you need to jump on grass! Only jumping on a surface at home then going to an event and expecting the horse to jump on grass without any change won't always work. When I was prepping my lad to event I was riding on grass as much as possible in all weather, he improved massively and became much more confident. I had a few lessons at my trainers where we jumped on grass too and that also helped.

It can be done, there are folk out there competing, and winning, unshod, but if you want it to go well you need to do what you can to make it successful.
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thats interesting. I found that i school on grass all the time, but i still couldn't be 100% confident she wouldn't have a slip or a slid the odd time. I haven't really met anyone competing over 90s barefoot, I'd love to see someone doing a higher level one barefoot, just to see the difference in how the horse lands and turns etc. , everyone just seems to stud up from what i can see . I wonder are some horses just more naturally talented at balancing? My mare is perfect on good ground, but slick ground really makes her lose confidence, no matter how much we school on it.
 
me too, we only had an arena when on livery for a couple of years near the end, no arena at home so everything done on grass. If the ground isn't good my already short striding pony would become even more so.
 
Being a strong advocate of barefoot, no I wouldn't event without shoes/studs. It is one thing hunting without shoes, you are going in a natural environment, but when eventing the dressage arena is a tight area (and one lady who was "never put a shoe on again" admitted that dressage on wet grass was the worst thing), often sharp turns are required in show jumping and across country.
 
If you do a search for 'barefoot' on the Twitter eventing group on Facebook, you'll see lots of posts about barefoot horses competing. A friend of mine did Badminton grassroots at 90 with her barefoot horse and they compete at 100 now. Another horse that I know of is successfully competing at Novice, including a win. I've only done unaffiliated tiny stuff with mine (70 and 80) but never had an issue.

Barefoot should be less slippy than shoes without studs in any situation!
 
I have kept and competed horses barefoot for 15 years, after working for a wonderful sj producer who did, but I would not sj or dressage on grass without studs in. I happily flat school, xc and hunt on grass barefoot, but not for a competitive dressage test where you can't just make a turn a bit wider if you hit a dodgy bit of ground.

I've had the unfortunate experience of sliding into a metre showjump in a warm up having cocked up the striding and it destroyed the confidence of the young horse I was riding. It took months to get her properly secure in her jumping again, so now I just wouldn't risk it.

Most horses have no problem slipping in and out of shoes for the season. Often at the end of an eventing season you have a month or so of just winding down and pootling around so it's not generally a problem.
 
j1ffy what I find a lot of people aren't clear about when posting about it is whether they are competitive every time out or whether in some instances they have to pick being careful instead, or withdrawing if the ground is tricky as people are much keener to post about their successes.
 
yep i had every intention of keeping my little mare barefoot, but after she slipped going down a bank xc I just woudln't risk losing her confidence or having an injury. I also just wouldn't have the confidence to do a sharp turn on a course between big wide jumps. i'd like to know the horse def wasn't going to slip.

do the barefoot folk on here withdraw if the ground is slippy or greasy?
 
ester said:
j1ffy what I find a lot of people aren't clear about when posting about it is whether they are competitive every time out or whether in some instances they have to pick being careful instead, or withdrawing if the ground is tricky as people are much keener to post about their successes.
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Yep and its not just that. Like DabDab said, its confidence. It can depend on the age of the horse, the skill of the rider, the confidence of the horse if it does go wrong, the height (whether the horse is competing at or near the top of its comfort zone). I have no doubt I could get Boggle around barefoot, we might slip and slide a bit when things go wrong, he's very genuine so probably he could still jump even if his confidence was a bit knocked. But why risk it...
 
A few weeks ago i had the horrible experience of watching my barefoot draft lose his footing in the field at a canter when it was dew on grass. He slammed onto his side at speed.

My mare has gone over twice on damp grass too so I've stopped riding her on it. Watching another livery and her barefoot dressage warmblood take a tumble didn't help my confidence either.

I'm a huge fan of barefoot but not to the extent you'd risk the rider or horse's safety. I used to wear studded boots when I was a kid playing hockey on grass to not slip so in my mind fast work on horses needs extra support. Some seem to have inbuilt 4WD - mine don't!
 
I'm also aware that some people that have studded easyboots (as yes they do come with the option) for many it just seems to make them more likely to come off because of the forces involved.
 
ester said:
j1ffy what I find a lot of people aren't clear about when posting about it is whether they are competitive every time out or whether in some instances they have to pick being careful instead, or withdrawing if the ground is tricky as people are much keener to post about their successes.
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I've evented barefoot two to novice, two to 90, one to 100, and I competed whatever the ground. I once did Henbury in pouring rain and mud and heard everyone warning each other about how slippy the ground was, but I had no issues at all with it.

I was on the same horse and he slipped show jumping once and everyone was tut tutting and saying how brave he was too carry on and clear the show jump we were turning for. But the horse used to slip in shoes, it was no big deal.

It depends on the horse and on the rider's ability to balance the horse and to give it confidence. I currently have a barefoot cob who is hopeless in mud - go figure :D

No-one who is hell bent on winning should even consider eventing without shoes. If nowhere else, you'll definitely lose marks on a grass dressage arena.

Of course most barefoot hunters go in any conditions.
 
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