Competing Barefoot - anyone?

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Sunflowers

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Hi all,

I'm looking for some opinions on competing without Shoes...

1. Can it be done, to a high level? In which disciplines? (Dressage must be ok due to always riding on surfaces... but SJ and Eventing?)

2. Who should be trimming a barefoot horse's feet? (I'm not convinced my Farrier, who is 3 years qualified, really knows what he's doing when it comes to bare feet!)

3. Does anyone regularly use Hoof-boots on their bare foot horse? Just for hacking on roads, or can you compete in them?

Thanks all
 
I'm trying it out this season- mine happily BSJAs up to 1.20 barefoot. I'm not eventing this year due to costs (she is intermediate BE) but did do a Yogi Breisner clinic beginning of the season where we jumped some serious stuff on tricky ground very happily with no shoes on.

My farrier (very good, shoes for WFP) trims her but only once every 12 weeks, she doesnt need more than that.

I'd never use hoof boots on her- would rather stick the fronts back on if she started struggling out hacking
 
My boy has never had a set of shoes on. He events PreNov, SJ and DR, he hacks often. Is trimmed every 6-8 weeks - when necessary. He has never lost his footing. I figure he wont miss what he's never had. As he moves up the rankings I will shoe if required for studs, but not until.
 
Ok, that's very encouraging to know he's jumping 1.20 happily with bare feet :)

I think i need to review the trimming though... if anyone has advice re Farriers vs Bare-foot trimmers, that would be awesome!

x
 
I have a trimmer to my boy, who is currently with a professional eventer for backing and schooling. They have had no issues with his feet and haven't had to use the Easyboot gloves that I sent them with, very much.

What area are you in? Maybe someone could recommend...?

My other horses are seen by our farrier, but I will keep the youngest with the trimmer. I like the trim and the shape of his feet when done.
 
I would look for a qualified farrier who also does barefoot trims - at least then you'll get an honest opinion of whether yours would be better with shoes on.
They are out there - if you say where you are, people might come up with suggestions.
 
mine *only* does dressage, but is an ex racing TB who is competing elem/med and schooling PSG.

i use a proper trimmer, as farriers look at me like im crazy when i talk about a barefoot TB!
 
Mine are all barefoot, my farrier does them happily however since my big horse came back from loan with dreadful feet he is getting trimmed every 4 wks his feet now look fab again.
 
I did BE Novice on two horses, and Intro/PN (90/100) on three others of all different types in mud and on rock hard ground with no shoes with no problems. I currently hunt a serious hedgehopper barefoot all winter with no issues either, with all his fittening work done on roads.

Try and find a trimmer (it can be a farrier) who has hard-working barefoot horses on their books, not just happy hackers. Hardworking feet look different - very short, very hard and very often "self-trimming" because of the number of miles they do to keep the horse fit.

Hoof Boots are not legal for BE. You can get dispensation for a period of 6 months to compete BD with them on. They are legal for long distance. I have no idea what the BS rule is.

It is abslolutely wonderful knowing that you will get your horse in on the morning of a competition and he won't have pulled off a shoe overnight. Have fun!
 
I do but I have a pony and we dont compete to any decent level as he is not ready but I'm hoping he will be a competition pony in the future. Mine is trimmed by a farrier but he thinks he is fine the way he is, today we did over 4 miles of stony tracks.
 
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Mine has been barefoot for 10 months now and went to his first HT on Saturday. I was riding round and one chap had to scratch because his horse had pulled a shoe, another couple were arguing over the wrong studs and I thought go barefoot and in his case bitless as well.
The following day he competed in two CT classes so did two dressage classes and two jumping rounds, I checked his feet afterwards and they were perfect.
 
Excellent, all this sounds really positive...

Seems to me like it's the forward-thinking rider's choice to go barefoot!

I'm based near chester, so i would be looking for a barefoot trimmer who can travel to me here? Can anyone help?
 
Charlie is barefoot tb. He competes happily in both dressage and showjumping. He sees farrier every 6 weeks for a barefoot trim. I have had no issues with him competing barefoot. Have used old mac g1s initially for the transition period for hacking out, but that was about a year ago now.
 
my Welsh Cob did 2 seasons draghunting barefoot and is now doing dressage/hacking barefoot. No probs at all. He has never needed boots and our hacking is quite stony.
 
You are close to a founder of the UKEP and a founder of the UKNHCP. I suggest you look their websites up, plus AEP and ANHCP, who are US based trained, similar organisations.

Get one who understands nutrition, it's vital.

Don't touch Strasser with a bargepole unless they have foresworn ever drawing blood in doing a trim!

If you use a farrier, use one with barefoot horses, some farriers do not understand that the toe callous is essential and should not be removed even if they do think that the foot looks "better balanced" without it.

If your horse is less comfortable immediately after a trim and the trimmer repeats the same trim again, sack him.
 
I am glad to hear that other people are competing successfully barefoot. I took my warmbloods' front shoes off in january and so far he is coping fine with most things, only problem I have found comoeting wise is his grip is not as good as I'd like when showjumping on grass. I am hoping this might improve as his feet adapt to being unshod and become more concave (they are a bit flat at the moment). In fairness he doesn't have the best canter, he either rushes and then nearly slips when he goes round turns too fast or when I ask him to slow down he can't yet contain all his energy/power so goes flat and feels like he's backing off which isn't ideal either, so I need to work on his schooling more before I can blame his feet too much I guess! For all other disciplines he is fine, I will put boots on him for hacking if we're doing a lot of roadwork or going somewhere very stoney, mainly because his feet do wear down quite quickly otherwise (though they are getting stronger). Saying that I was very impressed a few weeks ago when I took him to a 12mile sponsored ride over stoney tracks sand and xc jumps, I decided not to wear boots as I don't like to use them on deep going or for jumping as I worry they may fall off! He coped absolutely fine, loved all the jumping and his feet weren't even that worn afterwards.
 
I compete my boy - we are aiming to go BS this year as we have a show centre around the corner from us & he jumps 1m+ at home.

We trim him ourselves & he gets done & checked by a farrier every 6 months or so.

I have never tried hoof boots - my boy's feet are solid so dont really need to use them!

Hope that helps :)
 
Another barefooter here.

In particular I have one doing BE90 at the moment barefoot (and when the ground stops being so hard, won't be long before he's doing some 100's), and who has also hunted barefoot fine (well, not entirely fine, as we didn't have breaks, but that was nothing to do with his feet, LOL!). BE don't allow hoof boots, as said above.

I also had a project pony last year that I took out on endurance rides of up to 32k barefoot, no probs (he wasn't shod prior to me getting him either otherwise I doubt I could have built up to that if the shoes had only come off for the period of time I had him). Endurance GB do allow hoof boots (not that we needed them). Same pony also went out hunting over the winter.

I really never had found lack of sure footeness while jumping a problem barefoot - if anything, I wonder if the horses can better judge the ground without shoes in the way of that?
 
Sunflowers said:
Ok, that's very encouraging to know he's jumping 1.20 happily with bare feet :)

I think i need to review the trimming though... if anyone has advice re Farriers vs Bare-foot trimmers, that would be awesome!

x
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My farrier was out last week and said he wasn't a qualified trimmer - I was a little confused (he's a dry sense of humour) and then he said he had only studied for 5 years, but hadnt done the internet course...:rolleyes: thats somes trimmers up IMO. A good farrier will know what to do with a barefoot as well as a shod one. A bad farrier won't.
 
My welshXarab is doing driving trials barefoot at the moment- this includes the marathon with roads and tracks of about 20km- no problems so far but only one event into the season :p The farrier trims his when they need doing ;)
 
My 3yo tb is currently without shoes on doing one short hack and one short schooling session. I wouldnt let anyone but my farrier trim them. Saves money on shoes and my theory is that it will hopefully make her aware of where her feet are and make her nice and surefooted when the shoes go back on.
 
My tb was doing a bit of everything (dressage, jumping, xc, galloping, hacking etc) with no shoes. I have had fronts put back on today though.

She was getting a bit pottery on the hard and then I had the trimmer come do her she went very lame. It meant I had to pull out of a lesson and I didnt like her being lame, even if it would of just been for a week as she got used to it again, its no good. All the time shes being footy she will be putting down poor quality foot so I had front shoes put on. There was just no advantages for her whilst its this hard. She bounced across the hard to the field today, first time in ages, that made me realise for her, at the moment, the shoes are the best thing for her.

I have a full set of Old macs and they are great and have lasted for ages. They were £90 ish pounds for 2 boots but compared to shoes. My mare gets rubbed by everything so the boots arnt really a proper solution for her. Apparently there are new old macs which are easier to put on but I havent seen them.

I think as long as you get someone who is good it shouldnt matter if its a farrier or a trimmer. My farrier is amazing, but I do have a very good trimmer who does Lill when shes barefoot and my babies
 
vickyjay I do hoe the person you are calling a very good trimmer is not the same one who lamed your horse for you?

Did your trimmer question whether your horse went footie when it went hard because she was getting spring grass when it went hard? Many cases of "went footie when it went hard" are actually "went footie because it's too sensitive to spring grass".
 
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smiffyimp said:
My farrier was out last week and said he wasn't a qualified trimmer - I was a little confused (he's a dry sense of humour) and then he said he had only studied for 5 years, but hadnt done the internet course...:rolleyes: thats somes trimmers up IMO. A good farrier will know what to do with a barefoot as well as a shod one. A bad farrier won't.
Click to expand...

Just shows how out of date your farrier is. Tell him to check out UKNHCP, UKEP, AEP and ANHCP. No qualified trimmers on the basis of an internet course in those reputable trimming organisations.
 
A bit - it's the tb's first season and we've done a couple of dressage tests, gone cross country schooling and show jumped twice.

No problems so far, this is him at his first competition.

CHA_0102a.jpg


My farrier trims him but does nothing more than a quick tidy up, I do have to stop him from 'tidying' the frogs though ;)
 
cptrayes said:
vickyjay I do hoe the person you are calling a very good trimmer is not the same one who lamed your horse for you?

Did your trimmer question whether your horse went footie when it went hard because she was getting spring grass when it went hard? Many cases of "went footie when it went hard" are actually "went footie because it's too sensitive to spring grass".
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I said she was getting pottery before the trim (and she had been for the last month or so) and wasnt completly sound on the hard. We have had no rain since the begining of March and all the tracks from stables to field, school, hacking etc are very stony so she had been starting to struggle. Of course it would of been made slightly worse after having her feet done.

We dont really have any grass as have had zero rain! She also doesnt go out in the field for enough time to make what grass we do have make her feet more sensitive.

And yes, my trimmer is good. She is even sensible enough to tell me to put shoes back on my horse, doing herself out of a client because it is what is best for my horse at the moment.
 
Another one here, hacking, dressage, jumping whatever.

Needed boots these past few weeks over our stony tracks but hey - it is spring and he's a diabetic :D

Diet almost more important than the trim if competing barefoot. The foot will tell you what it needs and may I recommend some reading?

Barefoot Performance is a good source of background knowledge as an owner... they recommend further reading.

I use UKEP and anyone who say's it involves a few hours internet training is obviously a comedian in the making :D
 
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ironhorse said:
I would look for a qualified farrier who also does barefoot trims - at least then you'll get an honest opinion of whether yours would be better with shoes on.
They are out there - if you say where you are, people might come up with suggestions.
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Nick Hill Cloverrose equine has saved horses lives hope he can help you out
 
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