Barefoot horses

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AlanE

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With the current interest in barefoot riding and the special trim involved (different to a farriers trim). I wonder if anyone is currently using this system and would like to say how they are getting on?
 
My girl has been barefoot for the last 6 weeks or so. Her shoes were taken off purely due to the fact that her hoofs were in a terrible condition and would not keep a shoe on. Her feet have improved so much already I am really surprised, I ride her out with Old Macs on her fronts and barefoot on her backs. Due to the wet weather and soft ground they are not hardening up at all yet but I am hoping that when the summer finally arrives they will improve. I am not having a special trim done on her, my normal farrier has just rasped her feet, no growth yet unfortunatley. I will see how she goes for a couple of months and take it from there.
 
I competed my 15hh whp in all throughout 2005 with no shoes! She hunted, xc, showed most weekends...she was absolutely fine with out! Slipped far less when it was wet and muddy and no studs to faf with! She was 10, so had previously had shoes on. I reccomend it! But some horses feet may not like it. Give it a go!
 
i maybe be on he wrong route here but there a few local people i know that believe in the all the natural way, no rugs, bits, shoes etc, so why do they use them boot things old macs, surely they are not natural, am very curious
 
Soda, a fully transitioned hoof won't always require booting, but Old Macs are useful during the transition phase which can take up to 2 years. That's why it's ridiculous when someone says, "I took my horse's shoes off but he couldn't cope so I had to put shoes back on 2 weeks later". If a horse goes from shoes to barefoot, but straight into boots and pads, he doesn't suffer any immediate discomfort. An Equine Podiatrist will then recommend a programme of conditioning, which might not involve any ridden work to start with. The next stage would be to dispense with the pads, and then as the hoof structure improves, the sole exfoliates and hardens and the hoof wall grows back it is possible to dispense with the boots too. I only use mine now for particularly hard or stony ground.

My horse is TBX and the sort that people would say couldn't cope without shoes, but in my case she had a longstanding lameness issue and was on death row, so I had to try something radical. It saved her life. She has been barefoot for a year now, and is back to normal doing everything. Other people love to ride her because of the soft contact of her hooves on the ground, unlike the harsh clip clop of shoes.

There is a difference between a farrier trim and a High Performance Trim. My EP is trained in the KC LaPierre method.
 
Hello I have two horses who are barefoot. They both trimmed by a conventional trimmer and this works fine. One is not completly happy on stones still after a year, but he has not worked for a lot of the year due to and injury during the summer and then this awfull weather this winter. I am hoping once the weather improves/lighter nights start and i can ride him regularly this will improve. My mare who has has her shoes of for the same length of time, but has been ridden for the whole year is fantastic and can cope with anything. They both practically live out and i expected to have to use Boa boots in the winter due to feet softening up but this has not happened. Both do any amount of roadwork. Boa boots were useful for transitioning but don't think i will have to ever use them again now they have hardened up. Think any decent farrier can trim barefoot horses properly.
 
I have had my horse for just over 6 years now - I took his shoes off the day after he arrived and he has not been near them since!! He is trimmed by the farrier at regular intervals- we don't have a problem with stones etc as if I am in a stony area I let him make his own way over them that way he is happy. Being barefoot also saves gate holes in the field I find and it isn't getting cut up by shoes!! also the horses on my yard (4 of them) seem to lose at least 1 shoe a week between them. His feet are good and strong and we jump and allsorts. He's happy and thats all that matters!!
 
My TB has never had shoes. He is rising 7 and has good feet (for a TB
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) He just has a regular farrier trim every 5 weeks. He does feel the stones at the time, but he just picks his way through slowly and has never been footsore *touches wood* He does slip a little on long wet grass, but he is still a bit green and unbalanced at times. We compete and hack with no problems.
 
We just have a farriers trim on our Section A and she used to be hacked out on the road at least three tiems a week and is also driven. She hops a bit on stones but we let her find her way and have no problems. She's never bruised a sole or anything.

We're hoping the AA mare will go as sweetly and soundly treated the same - she has even harder feet than the Section A.
 
My daughter's pony is barefoot but just has a normal farrier trim - she copes well with roadwork, rough tracks, PC rallies, jumping, dressage, etc.
 
Mine hasn't ever had shoes on. He gets seen by the farrier every eight weeks but doesn't always need a trim. When he does have a trim it's what I'd call a normal trim, nothing fancy about it. We do roadwork, hack out over all sorts of terrain including a rocky stream bed, he's never footy. I haven't used those boots, I had heard that they can rub the foot, is that so?
 
Mine is barefoot under an EP (Equine Podiatrist) - KC La Pierre trained. Only reason I didn't stay with my farrier was because he was not interested or supportive enough. If you have a farrier who does a good trim, then that is fab, unfortunately there aren't enough of them about, although it does seem that more are beginning to come out of the woodwork, so that is really encouraging!

My TBxWB mare has been shoeless for just over 12 months and can be hacked out over pretty much any ground a shod horse copes with without footiness and has done a hunter trial bare and one dressage test too (her score was 5% above her shod average!). Hope to get out competing more this year finances allowing.

I do use boots with her (Old Mac G2s) for some hacking, as she doesn't grow a lot of foot, so I need to preserve it sometimes on abrasive surfaces, particlarly in the winter. She is always ridden bare for non abrasive stuff and school work. The boots are great as they give me the option of help when my mare's feet need it, without having to have permanent shoes on. They stay on at all paces including jumping and have great traction on all surfaces. My mare strides out all over the place in hers without any worries at all.

Whilst I don't think it is a case of barefoot suits all horses, I would like to see more people thinking "why does my horse need shoes" instead of it being the norm to shoe every horse when it reaches a certain age. Plus would love to see barefoot thinking being used more to help lame horses with problems instead of the current "quick fix" of remedial shoeing for short term soundness.
 
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