can you ride a horse with 3 shoes?

ShowJumperBeckii

ShowJumperBeckii

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Hey, just quick question.. would you ride a horse if its lost a shoe? [back one]
ebs must of lost one hacking and she was only riden 3 days last week and i dont want her to have loads more days off cause the farriers havent rang back will try again but in the mean time? :)
thanks
 
I personally would ride without a back shoe in the school only as long as the horse was sound. Not if I had a pansy horse that went hopping lame as soon as it lost the shoe. To be honest with mine I dont think he notices ;) I wouldnt make a habit of it though and wouldnt do too much.
 
Depends really. If the pony wasn't lame without it and it was only for a couple of short, light rides under soft footing then possibly, yes, but I wouldn't do any jumping or road work and would only ride the pony if it desperately needed to be ridden. I would try and get the farrier asap.
 
I have lost a shoe hacking before, not realised and finished my hack. It was only when I got back to the yard and picked her feet out I noticed!

When I went back round to find the shoe (not fair to leave it where another horse might injure themselves on it) it turned out that the horse had lost it near the beginning of the hack so I had ridden her for about 6 miles without it.

The horse wasn't lame or even bothered and since then I have been more relaxed with the idea (ONLY if the horse can cope...)
 
If my horse had good feed and didnt get foot sore then riding in an arena with a missing shoe would be fine.

However if the foot had a chunk missing or my horse was the type that got foot sore easily then i wouldnt.
 
When I was around 13/14 a pony of mines shoe (front) came off whilst we were competeting at a jumping show. I didn't know what to do. My parents were not horsey, so i asked another adult competitor and he said it would be fine to carry on. We did and we won the class. I wouldn't do that now. But he suffered no ill affects and actually jumped very well.

But as I say, I wouldn't jump now, but would continue to ride if I were on a hack (at walk) until I were home.
 
My horse is a bit of a pansy so I wouldn't just because he gets foot sore quite easily if he looses a shoe. But if I had a hardy time would ride in a soft school.
 
I wouldn't ride if either of mine lost a shoe. I would phone the farrier and he would come out and put it back on within a day or two.
 
If my horse was fine w/out (back) shoes I wouldn't have it shod, just trimmed.

Think about why you have yours shod. If there aren't any reasons get them to take the (back) lot off and try barefoot. If there are reasons to be shod keep riding w/out to a minimum (probably none if you have turnout), I don't like anything working unevenly.
 
PS when riding other peoples I go with what the owner wants, but wouldn't generally do more than potter around in a school with one on/one off.
 
Mine lost a shoe just before a show (indoor) and I had put my heart and soul into getting ready to jump my first 60cm (confidence loss). I took him anyway and he DC (much to my horror as meant had to do 70 in Jump off). Its fine if you are riding on a surface and its soft anyhow.
 
personally I wouldn't. enough can go wrong when everything is perfect, so not worth the risk to me. I could not live with myself if anything happened and I couldn't be bothered to wait till farrier had been
 
a horse at my yard recently lost a front shoe, and was ridden consistently, he actually seemed to go better with three shoes rather than four, and his owner was convinced that three shoes is the way forward,
(please note, farrier was called out and he now has four shoes again before anyone starts :rolleyes: )
 
My old mare would go footsore when she lost a shoe, so I wouldn't have dared ride. Infact when she lost a shoe she went straight on boxrest until the farrier arrived to put it back on again!

My fell pony and connie, however, wouldn't be at all footsore on hard ground if they lost a shoe. If the fell did, I would ride her lightly and only in the arena as she is slightly arthritic and the vet has said the more mobile and active she is the better. I would not ride the connie, however, as a week (which is as long as it would take my farrier to come out) off is not going to do much harm. The horse is unbalanced without one shoe, and even if they're sound you should take this into consideration.

So the short answer is yes I would ride with only 3 shoes, but only if the horse was sound on hard ground and I had a real necessity to ride (not just that I wanted to ride).
 
Mine pulled a front shoe off whilst hooning about in the field on monday afternoon, and Ive just schooled her in the sand school, she was fine. Probably wouldnt hack her out though.
 
If the horse is sound and you are only riding in a school then absolutely yes - you cannot compare us losing a shoe to a horse. If you lost a shoe in the house, would you notice?
 
i see no problem if the horse isnt footsore.

my old horse was a bugger if he thought he was going to a show he'd stand on his own shoes and pull one off...

i panicked one day as was due to be a away showjumping- but his owner laughed and said he'll still be going he's not getting away with that!

he won both his classes that day.

said owner and my friend with us were vets though - so best hands to be in!
 
Its not just whether or not the horse is going to be foot sore that you should be considering here. There is the unlevelness of the horse and the damage that this could do. Also no one seems to consider what happens to the shoeless hoof. If the shoe is left off for too long or too much work is done (arena surfaces although potentially 'soft' are abrasive) the hoof will wear leaving your horse with unmatched and potentially uneven hooves.

I have been out to clients before that a) often didnt bother to let me know a shoe had come off and had carried on riding anyway or b) only let me know a few days after it had happened. (normally if someone lets me know i get out to them as soon as i can, normally 24-48hours.) But the horses i mentioned above often have hooves that are a whole size smaller than the other one that held its shoe. Sometimes this can happen to horses (to some degree) that have only been without a shoe for a day or two because they have been ridden.

And ill tell you this for nothing, it does weaken the foot even if the horse isnt footsore and that hoof is more likely to lose a shoe again especially if there is a large size difference from the wear when the shoe was off.

Hope that makes sense.
 
my horse is due to have her shoe back on tomorrow having lost it yesterday, surely one or two 40 minute schooling sessions isnt going to make any difference?
 
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