barefoot hacking

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1Lucie

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My boy has been barefoot for about 3 months. His feet are in pretty good condition, i'm currently hacking once a week (mostly off road work, 800yards on road). I'm not sure if my horse can do more, i really dont want to make my boy footsore.

Have much roadwork does everyone do with a barfoot horse?
 
o, loads. In summer we probably wrack up about five or six hours a week all on the road. Mine hasn't ever had shoes though so he is a rock cruncher!
 
i was doing about 3-10miles per week before i bought hoof boots for fronts as horse was feeling feet - all road work, barely any off road.
upped to about 15miles (at most) per week with boots on front, bare at back. That did wear her backs down though so didn't want to do more and cut back, then the weather stopped the riding :rolleyes:

I do know of others that can do miles and miles without issue though
 
The TB and I normally do 6-9miles average each day hacking - he's only ever 'footsy' on the stony/flint tracks we have to go across occasionally.
 
Ahh very interesting! My farrier said (in general terms not about my boy) that horses without shoes should do very limited hacking!
 
I don't do much roadwork as such, but most of my hacking is hard forestry roads with stones on them. My rock-crunching horse does several long hacks each week (probably 5 hours in total each week) on them in the summer and his feet haven't worn away yet. I have two others who need boots to work over the same ground - don't know why - very frustrating!!
 
well we have done miles and miles and miles ....... but we have been barefoot for 10 years :cool:. We did driving so more roadwork prob than most ridden horses.

At the three month mark Taz was not hacking .... out but that was less to do with feet and more to do with her being a "rehab" rescue horse and not even at the stage of being happy with a saddle within a mile of her :eek: :eek: :eek:

With Bonnie she had had shoes on for thirteen years before we took shoes off so she was still getting used to it. I cannot remember what distance she was doing but she occasionally had boots on the front.

Every horse is different so all you can do is just gradually up the distance but keep at it regularly a few times a week and the feet will "harden off" .



The last distance they both did recently all in one go on the roads was 14 miles in one day ( only a few of them off road).... and they are both "unfit" atm
 
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Summer: 12-15 miles a week barefoot on varied terrain, mostly tarmac.
Winter: 6 miles a week, due to me having less time.

Many other people on HHO do many more miles, some go hunting barefoot!!.
 
When I had the time we were going out every day for an hour and more! All different surfaces, never footy :D

Your farrier is talking crap - id be wary of a farrier who thought like that trimming my barefoot horse cos it sounds like he hasnt got a clue tbh
 
1Lucie said:
My boy has been barefoot for about 3 months. His feet are in pretty good condition, i'm currently hacking once a week (mostly off road work, 800yards on road). I'm not sure if my horse can do more, i really dont want to make my boy footsore.

Have much roadwork does everyone do with a barfoot horse?
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The more work your horse does, the more stimulation is received and indicates to the hoof to produce more tissue.

So work will actually make hooves grow faster (and stronger and tougher).

Wild horses all over the world travel 15 - 20 miles a day on any terrain from the 2nd day of life.

I doubt you would do more roadwork that that;)

As long as the diet is correct for the horse and the hoof care provider isn't paring the frog or sole then you can do any amount of miles you want.

I've never actually heard of a single BF horse with the right diet and care in place who has EVER worn it's hooves out.
And this includes endurance horses.

I've heard of many, many horses where the owners and farrier have worried and imagined that the hooves are getting too short and therefore shod the horse.

BF hooves are supposed to be short (usually 2.5inches long) and cannot go any shorter than the internal structures. Sadly we are so conditioned that over long hooves are the norm, BF ones look too short to many:(
 
1Lucie said:
Ahh very interesting! My farrier said (in general terms not about my boy) that horses without shoes should do very limited hacking!
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Oh heavens! I must tell my hunter and pass the word on to the other five barefoot horses that hunt with us, cos they obviously don't know this :D
 
1Lucie said:
Ahh very interesting! My farrier said (in general terms not about my boy) that horses without shoes should do very limited hacking!
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This is exactly what my farrier said as well! I cant WAIT to prove him wrong, and get the shoes off my other horse! (well fingers crossed ...) :D :D :D
 
dressagelove said:
This is exactly what my farrier said as well! I cant WAIT to prove him wrong, and get the shoes off my other horse! (well fingers crossed ...) :D :D :D
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GLad its not just mine! My farrier is very experienced and well regarded in my local area too!
Very encouraging advice on here! Think i'm going to increase my hacking and just monitor my boys feet.
 
In a bad week - lack of time and daylight: 12-15 miles; summer or the odd afternoon off work about twice that and most of it over roads and tracks.

Plus at least one schooling or jumping session and a short but fast hack round the fields to give him a gallop.

The more I do the better his feet are so the problem I have is finding the time to do enough!
 
OP - sounds like your farrier doesn't have a lot of experience of working with barefoot horses. If he/she did then they would know that roadwork is beneficial and provided the horse is healthy and properly conditioned they can cope with far more than most of us could ever provide. My old horse did 50 miles a week and two days of flint bashing at weekends. Some client horses exceed this - and thinking of a few in particular, they are the ones who started with terrible hooves and now have the best ones.
 
When we are at uni at least an hour a day if not more normally arround 2. Mainly because the only farriers I can find near uni have the same opinion as the farrier quoted below :rolleyes:.

1Lucie said:
My farrier said (in general terms not about my boy) that horses without shoes should do very limited hacking!
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But when we are at home and I dont have to wear his feet to trim them and I can get my lovely farrier out when they need it we do far more work on grass mainly because we can go for a good blast :D. We hack round two diffrent gravel pits complete with stoney gravley tracks without a problem and have done a 5 mile round trip to compete before we had our trailer. Farrier at home is all for him working on all surfaces and trims him diffrently to those not in work because he works hard on his feet.
 
Mine are all barefoot and have no problem what so ever hacking out on roads but they have been barefoot for years. If yours has only been barefoot for 3 months i wouldnt do to much on road hacking with him as more than likely he will get footsore cause his feet havnt hardened up enough. It can take up to a year for there feet to really become hard enough.
 
How long does it take from ten years in shoes until you can do this sort of riding and the foot learns to regenerate? Shoes off next weekend!!!!
 
unbalanced said:
How long does it take from ten years in shoes until you can do this sort of riding and the foot learns to regenerate? Shoes off next weekend!!!!
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My old boy had his shoes off at the age of 17. I had him shod at age 5.

I knew nothing about barefoot in those days and it was a case of, "no road work for two weeks" and that was the extent of my rehab with him
lol.gif


Nowadays I would say that ensuring you follow The Rules;

1) An appropriate diet
2) Movement on various surfaces within his comfort
3) A sympathetic trim

Walking in hand at first is always helpful. Boots for riding are an excellent tool to use.

But as long as you've done all you can to follow The Rules - it all depends on how he feels.

The more work he does, the stronger his feet will become - but only within his comfort at first.
 
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