irish_only
Well-Known Member
Just curious?
Do Barefoot advocates wear shoes?
- Thread starter irish_only
- Start date
FionaM12
Well-Known Member
I'm considering the barefoot option for my horse. Most of the other horses on the yard are barefoot, but completely sound and healthy.
Yes I wear shoes myself. But then, I don't have hooves.
Yes I wear shoes myself. But then, I don't have hooves.
muff747
Well-Known Member
I'm a barefoot advocate and I wear shoes - but my horse doesn't
If I felt my horse needed shoes, I would put boots on him first. I don't see any need for my boy to wear shoes ever again even when he wasn't retired and I was hacking out, if I was going somewhere where I thought he would be footy or going a lot further than usual, I would put his Epics on. Then I can take them off when he goes in the field.
Seems a strange question really cos if you are an advocate, you will usually make it happen for you.
If you were sceptical about it working, you would probably put shoes on and wouldn't be an advocate anymore
If I felt my horse needed shoes, I would put boots on him first. I don't see any need for my boy to wear shoes ever again even when he wasn't retired and I was hacking out, if I was going somewhere where I thought he would be footy or going a lot further than usual, I would put his Epics on. Then I can take them off when he goes in the field.
Seems a strange question really cos if you are an advocate, you will usually make it happen for you.
If you were sceptical about it working, you would probably put shoes on and wouldn't be an advocate anymore
maggiesmum
Well-Known Member
Only when I have to, i'm always barefoot at home and I go running in these
http://www.vibramfivefingers.it/eng/default.aspx
http://www.vibramfivefingers.it/eng/default.aspx
Circe
Well-Known Member
Yes i wear shoes but they arent hammered onto my feet ! I have the option to walk around barefoot, which i actually prefer.
Im probably the barefoot cob who wears hoof boots for hacking
Kx
Im probably the barefoot cob who wears hoof boots for hacking
Kx
irish_only
Well-Known Member
Yes I wear shoes myself. But then, I don't have hooves.
Neither did Zola Budd.
criso
Coming over here & taking your jobs since 1900
Not if I can help it and take them off whenever I can.
However I do wear boots up to the yard
However I do wear boots up to the yard
irish_only
Well-Known Member
Only when I have to, i'm always barefoot at home and I go running in these
http://www.vibramfivefingers.it/eng/default.aspx
They look interesting.
Oberon
Well-Known Member
I wear shoes. But then my feet are alot different from horse's feet.
And next time someone posts on here that they are going to have to have their horse PTS due to a foot problem (that could be sorted out by going barefoot) - perhaps I should just not reply because it ruffles a few feathers?
And next time someone posts on here that they are going to have to have their horse PTS due to a foot problem (that could be sorted out by going barefoot) - perhaps I should just not reply because it ruffles a few feathers?
FionaM12
Well-Known Member
Zola Budd/Pieterse wore shoes almost all the time. She only went barefoot occasionally to run on certain surfaces.
irish_only
Well-Known Member
So shoes worn for gravel/tarmac and barefoot on grass?
FionaM12
Well-Known Member
It's a matter of choice isn't it? Obviously, people and horses' feet are quite different.
But then, I assume your original question was tongue in cheek.
irish_only
Well-Known Member
Just curious
cptrayes
Well-Known Member
I could easily condition my feet not to need shoes, as could any of us. But like most people I wear shoes because I want to be able to take the dirt off and not spread it all over my house, or horrify people at the swimming pool with my filthy feet. It doesn't matter how well you wash, feet of human shoe refuseniks are ingrained with dirt and look disgusting.
Isn't it interesting how we are all quite happy to describe humans as "barefoot" but how many people take exception to describing horses as barefoot and insist that they are "shoeless"??
Isn't it interesting how we are all quite happy to describe humans as "barefoot" but how many people take exception to describing horses as barefoot and insist that they are "shoeless"??
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irish_only
Well-Known Member
Let your feet do what they were designed to do.
Why?
Whether you believe that the human body was designed by a higher being or by millions of years of evolution, our bodies are capable of functioning as they were meant to. Although people often think of feet as weak, helpless appendages that cannot function without the aid of thick and cushioned shoes, the human foot is an amazing piece of engineering that is perfectly capable of walking and running. Leonardo Da Vinci once wrote that, Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous. Let your feet do what they were designed to do.
Main advantages
Gait:
Shoes have altered the natural gait of human movement. Rather than landing on the forefoot or midfoot, shoes create the tendency to heel strike. When the heel takes the main force of walking or running the shock is absorbed by the joints and can cause ankle, knee and back problems. Minimal footwear supports a natural forefoot or midfoot landing where the muscles absorb the shock.
Ground Feel:
Although most people don't want to feel what they are walking on, there are some major benefits. Our feet are loaded with nerves that send instant feedback to our brains when our foot makes contact with the ground. This feedback alerts our brains of what we are stepping on and our bodies automatically alter gait, weight distribution, and balance depending on what specific terrain is underfoot. When the situation permits, it's great to go totally barefoot.
Freedom:
Not only are your feet allowed to breathe and move in a natural way but you are liberated from the need to always wear cumbersome shoes.
Stronger muscles
As your feet work and flex as they were meant to the muscles get stronger and stronger. At first your feet may become sore just like any muscle that is being worked out. Remember that your feet have probably been protected in shoes all your life and have become weakened.
Better Balance
As your muscles become stronger your balance improves. Your feet are able to read the terrain that you are walking on and are more empowered to react to keep your center of gravity where it belongs. This doesn't happen overnight but give it time and your balance will improve.
Why?
Whether you believe that the human body was designed by a higher being or by millions of years of evolution, our bodies are capable of functioning as they were meant to. Although people often think of feet as weak, helpless appendages that cannot function without the aid of thick and cushioned shoes, the human foot is an amazing piece of engineering that is perfectly capable of walking and running. Leonardo Da Vinci once wrote that, Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous. Let your feet do what they were designed to do.
Main advantages
Gait:
Shoes have altered the natural gait of human movement. Rather than landing on the forefoot or midfoot, shoes create the tendency to heel strike. When the heel takes the main force of walking or running the shock is absorbed by the joints and can cause ankle, knee and back problems. Minimal footwear supports a natural forefoot or midfoot landing where the muscles absorb the shock.
Ground Feel:
Although most people don't want to feel what they are walking on, there are some major benefits. Our feet are loaded with nerves that send instant feedback to our brains when our foot makes contact with the ground. This feedback alerts our brains of what we are stepping on and our bodies automatically alter gait, weight distribution, and balance depending on what specific terrain is underfoot. When the situation permits, it's great to go totally barefoot.
Freedom:
Not only are your feet allowed to breathe and move in a natural way but you are liberated from the need to always wear cumbersome shoes.
Stronger muscles
As your feet work and flex as they were meant to the muscles get stronger and stronger. At first your feet may become sore just like any muscle that is being worked out. Remember that your feet have probably been protected in shoes all your life and have become weakened.
Better Balance
As your muscles become stronger your balance improves. Your feet are able to read the terrain that you are walking on and are more empowered to react to keep your center of gravity where it belongs. This doesn't happen overnight but give it time and your balance will improve.
irish_only
Well-Known Member
Natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person, wrote Dr. William A. Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management. It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of gait, a remarkable feat of bioengineering. Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot.
In other words: Feet good. Shoes bad.
In other words: Feet good. Shoes bad.
teasle
Well-Known Member
I wear shoes (or a clumping pair of boots at the yard) but my horse, my cat and my guinea pig dont.
stormybracken
Well-Known Member
There's an interesting video on the Rockley Blog about this.
Nudibranch
Well-Known Member
I don't wear shoes in the house or garden. Yes at work and yes if it's raining or muddy, and obviously around horses etc for protection. But then my feet aren't made of keratin and my shoes aren't made of metal.
I have foot problems - I'm in the 11th out of 12 weeks off work after an op - and I can honestly say I have always been much more comfortable without shoes. I was supposed to wear a "stiff, supportive trainer" from when I got up to when I went to bed after getting rid of the podiatric shoe. I didn't, and my foot has healed very quickly, comfortably and correctly. My x-rays are perfect. I thought that was an interesting parallel with barefoot equine recovery actually.....
I have foot problems - I'm in the 11th out of 12 weeks off work after an op - and I can honestly say I have always been much more comfortable without shoes. I was supposed to wear a "stiff, supportive trainer" from when I got up to when I went to bed after getting rid of the podiatric shoe. I didn't, and my foot has healed very quickly, comfortably and correctly. My x-rays are perfect. I thought that was an interesting parallel with barefoot equine recovery actually.....
Laura1812
Well-Known Member
I wear shoes too although not in the house, but you would never catch me in a rigid pair of wooden clogs
Laura1812
Well-Known Member
Just as you may find my horse in boots but not stuck permanently in a set of rigid shoes
Clava
Well-Known Member
Actually they seem to prefer "unshod" rather than "shoeless" or "barefoot" for some reason.
tallyho!
Following a strict mediterranean diet...
My knee problems are entirely shoe related. Having op in Oct. Pod suggested vibrams and actually, my back is less painful and knee has stopped clicking. Maybe can avoid keyhole...
catkin
Well-Known Member
FairyLights
Well-Known Member
LOL
tazzle
Well-Known Member
I do wear shoes but I do approach it in the same way I do with the horses. I look at all the relevant factors and decide whats best / most practicable /feasable.
Right from when I was a child I made up my mind that human shoes could be very destructive indeed through observing a relatives deformed feet. By squeezing her feet into stilletto winklepickers for years she had painful bunions, all her toes were pointed inwards and she could not put her feet flat on the floor .
I must have been rather unusual as a teen in always asking for flat and sensible shoes ..... whenever tempted by fashion I always reminded myself of my aunts feet. I do spend a lot of time without shoes or socks on.
As part of being a manual handling trainer I was involved in assessing peoples phyical abilities to do it and it was amazing how many people ( including teens) that had adaptive shortening of the muscles at the back of the legs due to wearing higher heels.
my own children had constraints placed on them as children as to what shoes they could choose .... always measured and checked for fit ....and limited too with regard to height of heels as teens !
I think it would be entirely possible to harden off human feet as many people throughout the world do not wear shoes....... however that is usually from birth and the feet callous from an early age.
In the western world it would be far more difficult to fully engage in being totally barefoot certainly starting to do so as an adult. The transition stage especially would be difficult as we would be "footy" and slow getting to and form work..... and if work involved walking as well it would affect our abilityto work. Shoes migh also be required for protection form hazards in the workplace that sole callous would not protect from. Our feet too are not made from vey thick keratin as already mentioned and have no protection at all, even from decent muscle or thick skin, on the top of the foot . We also have vulnerable unprotected digits more susceptible to damage form direct impact on say large stones or impact with hard surfaces as well as torsion forces.
Social acceptance does also play a small part.......... I doubt there are many employers would look favourabley on someone arriving for an interview with no shoes at all ( no matter how smartly / appropriately dressed) or dispensing with them once they got the job !
Sooooooooooooo
personally I do what I can to allow my feet to function as close to nature as intended while still enabling me to fit in with my life. Whenever I can I walk with no shoes. When I do wear shoes I wear the minumim possible which is usually sandals that are ergonomically sound ( and its the only thing I do wear that costs £50 -£60) or at work I wear trainers that are wide enough and supportive enough to keep my feet healthy and still provide the protection and requirements of the employer satisfied.
with my horse....... if she needs protection ever then she too gets it as she has her "trainers" too
Right from when I was a child I made up my mind that human shoes could be very destructive indeed through observing a relatives deformed feet. By squeezing her feet into stilletto winklepickers for years she had painful bunions, all her toes were pointed inwards and she could not put her feet flat on the floor
.I must have been rather unusual as a teen in always asking for flat and sensible shoes
..... whenever tempted by fashion I always reminded myself of my aunts feet. I do spend a lot of time without shoes or socks on.As part of being a manual handling trainer I was involved in assessing peoples phyical abilities to do it and it was amazing how many people ( including teens) that had adaptive shortening of the muscles at the back of the legs due to wearing higher heels.
my own children had constraints placed on them as children as to what shoes they could choose .... always measured and checked for fit ....and limited too with regard to height of heels as teens !
I think it would be entirely possible to harden off human feet as many people throughout the world do not wear shoes....... however that is usually from birth and the feet callous from an early age.
In the western world it would be far more difficult to fully engage in being totally barefoot certainly starting to do so as an adult. The transition stage especially would be difficult as we would be "footy" and slow getting to and form work..... and if work involved walking as well it would affect our abilityto work. Shoes migh also be required for protection form hazards in the workplace that sole callous would not protect from. Our feet too are not made from vey thick keratin as already mentioned and have no protection at all, even from decent muscle or thick skin, on the top of the foot . We also have vulnerable unprotected digits more susceptible to damage form direct impact on say large stones or impact with hard surfaces as well as torsion forces.
Social acceptance does also play a small part.......... I doubt there are many employers would look favourabley on someone arriving for an interview with no shoes at all ( no matter how smartly / appropriately dressed) or dispensing with them once they got the job !
Sooooooooooooo
personally I do what I can to allow my feet to function as close to nature as intended while still enabling me to fit in with my life. Whenever I can I walk with no shoes. When I do wear shoes I wear the minumim possible which is usually sandals that are ergonomically sound ( and its the only thing I do wear that costs £50 -£60) or at work I wear trainers that are wide enough and supportive enough to keep my feet healthy and still provide the protection and requirements of the employer satisfied.
with my horse....... if she needs protection ever then she too gets it as she has her "trainers" too
Changes
Well-Known Member
I think that would be a sterling idea. If you are so blinkered as to believe all serious feet problems can be sorted by going barefoot then you should not be giving anybody advice.
tallyho!
Following a strict mediterranean diet...
Apart from the heel first bit, I can see your logic.
soloequestrian
Well-Known Member
I'd love to give it a go, but my feet get SO COLD without shoes - is there anything out there that can be worn to give the same sort of effect as barefootedness but would keep my feet warm?
This aside, I've often wondered if shoes could be designed that had a socially acceptable upper but a 'barefoot' style sole??
This aside, I've often wondered if shoes could be designed that had a socially acceptable upper but a 'barefoot' style sole??
SusannaF
Well-Known Member
Sadly I require remedial shoeing and the problem is not solved by going barefoot. Otherwise I'm confined to box rest till sound and then the whole sorry cycle starts all over again.