Barefoot or unshod - what's the difference?

ah, you see I use "Barefoot", simply beacuse I thnk unshod sounds like Im leaving soooo natural that I don't get a farrier to trim

Other than personal preference, i don't think it matters..........or does it? :eek::D
 
It is a difference that arouses emotions it seems. :D Strange how words get such emotions attached to them.

Perhaps one day horses will just have hooves that function to varying degrees of stonkingness. :D Is that a word? lol
 
What I think also has something to do with the distinction between the two terms is that people who 'go barefoot' often to do so as there is some kind of problem with their horse (usually lameness). This means that their horse's feet are not healthy, so diet and management changes are usually essential. If your horse has healthy feet then you may be able to just whip the shoes off and carry on as normal, meaning there's no need for you to investigate the 'barefoot religion'!
 
our farrier is simply amazing, and does £20 for a trim.

All of ours are called 'Unshod'. The horses at work are 'barefoot' and have trimmer come to see them.
IMO unshod means shoes may be put back on in the future and barefoot means shoes aren't going to be used again.
My native has been unshod for a while now and seems fine but if she did ever appear to need shoes again they'd be put back on. It was the farrier who said he reckoned she didn't need shoes in the first place....

am hoping my youngster can stay unshod but he has a foot imbalance needing corrective trimming. and he has had some hoof bruising from the hard ground when it snowed so we will see.
 
Nocturnal said:
If your horse has healthy feet then you may be able to just whip the shoes off and carry on as normal, meaning there's no need for you to investigate the 'barefoot religion'!
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And you may not! The custom of shoeing horses arose in different societies at different times because of a problem - unsound horses who couldn't work because of foot problems which shoeing solved. These animals were not pets and had to earn their keep.

Unshod/barefoot works for some horses, doesn't work for others.
 
I need to stop reading these treads, it always makes me feel like a bad horsey mummy!

All mine are unshod/barefoot. 2 I bred so they have never had shoes, 1 had shoes but have terribly weak hooves and kept pulling them off. Prior to owning this particular horse i had never had a horse unshod! it was practically unheard of if it was anything other than a kids pony.
When my horse couldnt keep shoes on and my farrier refused to shoe in anylonger i cried myself to sleep for days thinking i could never ride him again, i thought weak hooves not horse! However I discovered hoof boots and bought a set, learn how to trim his hooves himself from a local barefoot trimmer and carryed on regardless!
From the word go i NEVER had an issue - i carried on competing on grass and surfaces, but rode in the boots for road work. I didnt change his diet or anything, no suppliments (only put hoof hardener on for a few months until the nail holes grew out)

That was 3 years ago and i will hand on heart NEVER put shoes on a horse again - mainly because i dont have to rely on a farrier and its so easy :)

I still wear the hoof boots and have even done endurance in them but do everything else (riding club etc) we go barefoot - i love it!

But everytime i hear about special diets and different management systems it makes me feel like i'm doing it all wrong. But my horses are happy and so am I, their feeties look great and I'm not trawling the fields looking for lost shoes or cancelling comps due to thrown shoes. GREAT!
 
Smogul said:
And you may not! The custom of shoeing horses arose in different societies at different times because of a problem - unsound horses who couldn't work because of foot problems which shoeing solved. These animals were not pets and had to earn their keep.

Unshod/barefoot works for some horses, doesn't work for others.
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The horses you describe did not have healthy feet... not sure what point you are trying to make?:confused:
 
Nocturnal said:
The horses you describe did not have healthy feet... not sure what point you are trying to make?:confused:
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The horse evolved to travel for miles in dry conditions over sandy scrub land. We ask them to live in bogs and work on tarmac and over stoney ground. The fact that some of them can't manage this doesn't mean they have unhealthy feet - simply feet not designed for the job the horse is being asked to do.
 
Smogul said:
The horse evolved to travel for miles in dry conditions over sandy scrub land. We ask them to live in bogs and work on tarmac and over stoney ground. The fact that some of them can't manage this doesn't mean they have unhealthy feet - simply feet not designed for the job the horse is being asked to do.
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The conditions you describe, in combination with inappropriate feeding, cause the horse to have unhealthy feet. Thin soles, white line separation, thrush, weak caudal hoof... these are the type of things which cause horses to be unable to cope without shoes. These things are not present if the hoof is healthy.

Healthy feet are happy on tarmac and gravel. If the horse cannot cope, that means there is a problem with their feet.
 
Nocturnal said:
The conditions you describe, in combination with inappropriate feeding, cause the horse to have unhealthy feet. Thin soles, white line separation, thrush, weak caudal hoof... these are the type of things which cause horses to be unable to cope without shoes. These things are not present if the hoof is healthy.

Healthy feet are happy on tarmac and gravel. If the horse cannot cope, that means there is a problem with their feet.
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Think we will have to agree to disagree on this. My pony doesn't have any of these problems but is much happier when shod at the front. If we increase his road work over the summer, I will probably put on hind shoes as well.
 
Smogul said:
Think we will have to agree to disagree on this. My pony doesn't have any of these problems but is much happier when shod at the front. If we increase his road work over the summer, I will probably put on hind shoes as well.
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Whatever works for you :).
 
ahhhh of all the emotive discussions and disagreements between different ways of keeping horses this seems to be a biggy :o

I have two in what I call varying degrees of free wheeling.

One heavy cob with feet as hard as nails, no shoes and is happy without regardless of surface. He was shod for a period of time and during recovery from a tendon issue but is happy and healthy without now.

One Clydie cross on loan is currently freewheeling as he is semi retired. Happy enough in the field, if he needs a shoe up front when we hack him out in the spring he will get one.
 
Smogul said:
My pony doesn't have any of these problems but is much happier when shod at the front. If we increase his road work over the summer, I will probably put on hind shoes as well.
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Would you accept the suggestion that in a different environment than you are able to give him, possibly including a complete absence of grass as food, your pony would probably be absolutely fine with no shoes on?

In other words, that it is much more often the owner/horse combination which can't manage without shoes than it is that the horse itself cannot manage without shoes? The exception to this is horses with serious metabolic conditions, often undiagnosed.

There is no suggestion in this question that anyone who needs to shoe is a bad owner. Not everyone has total control over their own facilities or enough time to put into the difficult ones. That is not their fault, it's just a fact.
 
angelish said:
the way i see it is

unshod costs £10 - £15 a trim

barefoot costs £50 - £60 per trim and involves a lot of "i know better than the vet/farrier" and a different way of feeding etc :confused: ?
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The difference can be life and death. Plenty of horses are alive today when their farrier said that they were unable to help them any more. At least on of mine, probably two. To the owner, the price of that is irrelevant.

I don't know of any trimmers who charge £50 myself, but again, if your farrier charges £80 a set like the ones around here do, and insists that your horse can't go without shoes, and a trimmer charges £50 a trim and gets your horse rock crunching barefoot, you're saving a lot of money. And you never lose a shoe on a day you're going to an event, either :D
 
Nocturnal said:
What I think also has something to do with the distinction between the two terms is that people who 'go barefoot' often to do so as there is some kind of problem with their horse (usually lameness). This means that their horse's feet are not healthy, so diet and management changes are usually essential. If your horse has healthy feet then you may be able to just whip the shoes off and carry on as normal, meaning there's no need for you to investigate the 'barefoot religion'!
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But what if you fall somewhere between the two? Kal wasn't lame when we took his back shoes off . . . but he simply couldn't hold onto a shoe behind . . . his back/hind feet/hooves were so full of nail holes and dry and 'orrible that I just said to farrier (without doing any research or changing his feed mind) shall we just see how he goes with no shoes behind for a while . . . farrier agreed and that, as they say, was that. We did use some topical treatments to help harden the hooves . . . and he does get Biotin (but he did anyway and we didn't increase either) . . . but other than that we just got on with it.

Did he have healthy hooves? Erm, nope. Does he now? YES - his back/hind feet/hooves have never looked better. We have just been very lucky that he took to it like a duck to water . . . with no real intervention beyond good trimming (from a farrier). While he wasn't lame, he was constantly pulling shoes off and his feet/hooves looked dreadful (not to mention costing me a fortune) . . . but I didn't consult a barefoot guru - I just talked to my farrier. That isn't to say that consulting a barefoot guru is a bad thing . . . I just didn't.

The point I'm making (in a very roundabout way, I'm sorry) is that, like most things in the horse world - feed, schooling, disciplines, tack, training - there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to what works and what doesn't wrt horses' feet/hooves . . . so landing on a tidy little catch-all phrase like "barefoot" or "unshod" or any other permutation is tricky.

You could make the argument that I should have had his forage and grazing analyzed, adjusted his feed/supplements accordingly, etc. . . . but I couldn't/didn't . . . doesn't mean I was wrong or that those who do so (and/or consult the "barefoot taliban") are wrong either.

Phew - hope I managed not to offend anyone by saying feet when I meant hooves or vice versa ;).

P
 
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PolarSkye said:
But what if you fall somewhere between the two? Kal wasn't lame when we took his back shoes off . . . but he simply couldn't hold onto a shoe behind . . . his back/hind feet/hooves were so full of nail holes and dry and 'orrible that I just said to farrier (without doing any research or changing his feed mind) shall we just see how he goes with no shoes behind for a while . . . farrier agreed and that, as they say, was that. We did use some topical treatments to help harden the hooves . . . and he does get Biotin (but he did anyway and we didn't increase either) . . . but other than that we just got on with it.

Did he have healthy hooves? Erm, nope. Does he now? YES - his back/hind feet/hooves have never looked better. We have just been very lucky that he took to it like a duck to water . . . with no real intervention beyond good trimming (from a farrier).

The point I'm making (in a very roundabout way, I'm sorry) is that, like most things in the horse world - feed, schooling, disciplines, tack, training - there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to what works and what doesn't wrt horses' feet/hooves . . . so landing on a tidy little catch-all phrase like "barefoot" or "unshod" or any other permutation is tricky.

Phew - hope I managed not to offend anyone by saying feet when I meant hooves or vice versa ;).

P
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Which is why I used terms such as 'often', 'usually' and 'something to do with' ;). Nothing's ever black and white with horses.
 
PolarSkye said:
The point I'm making (in a very roundabout way, I'm sorry) is that, like most things in the horse world - feed, schooling, disciplines, tack, training - there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to what works and what doesn't wrt horses' feet/hooves . . . so landing on a tidy little catch-all phrase like "barefoot" or "unshod" or any other permutation is tricky.

You could make the argument that I should have had his forage and grazing analyzed, adjusted his feed/supplements accordingly, etc. . . . but I couldn't/didn't . . . doesn't mean I was wrong or that those who do so (and/or consult the "barefoot taliban") are wrong either.

Phew - hope I managed not to offend anyone by saying feet when I meant hooves or vice versa ;).

P
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Hurrah!! :D Thank you for this
 
cptrayes said:
Would you accept the suggestion that in a different environment than you are able to give him, possibly including a complete absence of grass as food, your pony would probably be absolutely fine with no shoes on?
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This pony, possibly; other ponies, no. I am amazed how unwilling some people are to accept that some animals simply have poor feet in the same way as some people have poor nails or teeth. My sister and I had the same diet, same dentist and same tooth cleaning regime as children. She has never had a filling in her life and I am never away from the dentist. All my baby teeth and all my adult teeth have needed work on them. One of her children has the same problems as me and the other one takes after her. Genetics!
 
Smogul said:
This pony, possibly; other ponies, no. I am amazed how unwilling some people are to accept that some animals simply have poor feet in the same way as some people have poor nails or teeth. My sister and I had the same diet, same dentist and same tooth cleaning regime as children. She has never had a filling in her life and I am never away from the dentist. All my baby teeth and all my adult teeth have needed work on them. One of her children has the same problems as me and the other one takes after her. Genetics!
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Are you identical twins?

Perhaps your metabolism does not absorb the minerals needed for strong teeth as well as your sister's does.
With a little research I am sure you could find a mineral supplement which would improve your teeth and nails.;)
 
You can't make a direct comparison of human nails to whole hooves. The hoof wall possibly/probably. The hoof is a complicated and dynamic structure and like muscle needs exercize to become strong and maintain that strength. It needs correct exercize though not compensatory exercize and it needs it from birth and throughout the horses life.
This is the reason so much emphasis is put on getting the horse to land (hit the ground with his hoof when moving) correctly...
 
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Smogul said:
This pony, possibly; other ponies, no. I am amazed how unwilling some people are to accept that some animals simply have poor feet in the same way as some people have poor nails or teeth. My sister and I had the same diet, same dentist and same tooth cleaning regime as children. She has never had a filling in her life and I am never away from the dentist. All my baby teeth and all my adult teeth have needed work on them. One of her children has the same problems as me and the other one takes after her. Genetics!
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I'm perfectly happy to accept that some horses find barefoot easier than others for genetic reasons. But I have yet to find a horse who does not have an illness, diagnosed or otherwise, who cannot work barefoot with the right diet and living environment and work, though sometimes it is tough to provide that for the individual horse concerned. Arguably, for those horses it is not worth the effort unless they are also lamed by shoes.

I suspect that the overwhelming majority of horses who "just cannot do it" are still eating an unsuitable (for them) grass based diet and that the overwhelming majority of the rest have IR, EMS, EPSM or Cushings but their owners just don't realise it.

I have always had terribly weak nails myself. Recently my doctor told me to up my intake of dairy foods so that I do not get age related osteoporosis. Guess what happened?
 
This thread should really disappear but I thought I'd resurrect it just to say that...

If anyone were to need some help keeping a horse unshod - typing it in google will yield less results than typing in "barefoot".

The world speaks.
 
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