Barefoot

[Iceni Warrior]

Is Barefoot big in the UK?? Anyone event with a Barefoot horse?? Im just about to make the change ... sick of unreliable farriers and their dramas. Farriers do not have to be licenced in Australia, so there are lots of fairly ordinary ones shoeing horses and unluckily for Oscar and me, Ive met a few of them. Oscar has been pricked by two different ones in the space of 6 months ... an he suffers from corns so Im giving Barefoot a go.

 

[Blizzard]

Well my horses vary between being unshod and shod, both done by my farrier.

when they arent doing much over winter, they are unshod, I only get them shod when the amount of work they are doing deems it necessary, ie when we step up on roadwork, as they both have good strong feet. Our farrier is great though and wont shoe a horse unless it needs shoes.

Both my boys are currently unshod, but my big lad will be getting fronts on next week because his feet are very chipped etc from how hard the ground was before this rain, he likes to dig!

Other boy will be getting fronts on next time probably.

It doesnt suit all horses though, some horses cant bear to be without shoes.

 

[Teasel]

My mare has been barefoot since December - and loves it. Her feet are trimmed by an equine podiatrist, and after a 'transitioning' period where what she could do was determined by how good her feet were - can now do just about anything. We just have to be careful about the amount of roadwork we do - but she can easily manage 2 hour hacks mainly on the road.
We compete at unaffiliated dressage, and do showjumping and x-country training - we do plan to event at Intro level next year - and she will still be barefoot.

Good Luck with barefoot - I know not all horses take to it, but my mare definitely prefers it!

 

[Michelle73]

I used to alternate between shoeing and barefoot i.e. barefood during winter months and shod between April and October as I didn't think the two of them would cope with the road work. But this year I decided to go completely barefoot. My mare has has sore feet but that was fixed within 10 days using Keretex Hoof hardner and my big boy is happily barefoot unless we encounter stoney ground then he's very sensitive. The big boy does between 4 and 12 miles of exercise per day and I would say up to 60% can be road work depending on where we ride. My farrier has eventers who have gone barefoot and its rapidly taking off in my area. Hope that info helps

 

[claire1976]

My sisters tb x cob has never had shoes on. He's ridden barefoot on road and stony bridleways and copes extremely well. His feet are tough and grow quick so he only needs a small trim and shape up every few weeks.
My mare has just gone barefoot on her back feet. I have to have corrective shoes on her front as she toes in a little so can't go totally barefoot. She's still a little sore on her back feet but farrier says ride her through it as they will toughen up. Each week I see an improvement and her back feet are in the best condition I've seen them in years.

 

[Theresa_F]

Chancer is only 3 so never had shoes. However I intend to leave him this way.

Cairo had his shoes off several years ago and since them problems with hemoraging and constant thrush have disappeared. I did put shoes on last summer as he does have low ringbone to rock his weight but only whilst the ground was hard.

This year he is still without shoes - the ringbone may now have fused.

I also had a gypsy mare that I did low level everything on, including roadwork and her feet were fine without shoes.

All depends on the horse but it is worth trying.

 

[*hic*]

I have two unshod - one a driving pony, the other is being brought on at the moment but we are expecting her to event barefoot.

My two cobs are both shod at the front as their feet won't cope with being unshod. We have tried both of them a couple of times now but in the end we have to replace the shoes as they are uncomfortable and their feet wear badly and I don't think it's fair to put them through the pain.

 

[Iceni Warrior]

Thanks for all the replies ... very interesting. So do you have Barefoot Trimmers or do farriers just do the trimming?