Eventing without back shoes/studs?

floradora09

floradora09

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Win's had a shoe holiday, his fronts were off for 2 months (now back on) but his back feet are looking really good and they've been off for nearly 4 months now.

My farrier is keen to keep his backs off, and I agree with him as it's a lot of effort/stress to keep his feet in good condition with four shoes on (think cracking, pulling shoes just before a comp, loose shoes, 4 weekly shoeing cycles, re-clenching at 2 weeks etc :eek: ).

BUT I would worry a bit about if it's safe to event without studs behind? Last season we did lots of dressage and showjumping on grass as well as the eventing, and there were times when I was so thankful I'd got studs. But then there is some question that horses have better grip barefoot than with a shoe (thus needing studs).

We only do unaff eventing- planning on doing some more intros this season, but really don't want any slippage!

If I need to shoe and stud of course I will, but does anyone here have experiences or any words of wisdom to add to my musings? Thanks! :)
 
A number of the pros event young horses barefoot behind, I remember seeing both Phoebe Buckley and Richard Jones discussing the merits at a BE100 xc collecting ring. Both their horses were unshod behind
 
Ali16 said:
As I know you and pony I would say put the shoes back on and stud up to stop you worrying! It will only effect your riding if you are worrying about him slipping as well as everything else you worry about! :)
Click to expand...

:D

Thanks Ali, that hadn't really occured to me, but thinking about it I know I will actually RIDE more forwards/positively if I know he's not going to slip about- which will have a far greater affect on us than the studs themselves will probably have!

Millitiger- yes sorry should've said, I only usually stud behind.


Right I really must go for a hack now and stop wasting time on HHO! :o
 
My horse comepeted upto BE90 and unaffiliated BE100 without studs. I never had a problem with slipping, infact the ONLY time my horse ever slipped XC was when I used studs! I feel that, especially for the lower levels, if your horse is balanced correctly then it should never slip with/with out studs, and that riders can use them as a means to not having to balance correctly. I'm also not a big fan of the action that studs can produce on the foot and the damage they can do. But each to their own and all horses are different!
 
My horse evented up to BE100 without back shoes. I only put back shoes and studs in when he went Novice and needed a little more help, mainly in the dressage arena as he's 17hh+ and he was hard for him to balance in medium canters etc when the ground was bad.
 
This a really interesting thread, I can't add any wisdom, I am afraid, but, I took the back shoes off my boy about three months ago for the winter and he has been fine, always had good feet anyway and his feet still look fab - we have been doing a bit of SJ and Dressage over winter with no problems, I too have been wondering lately if it is really neccesary to have the back shoes put back on to go out and do some eventing, we are only aiming at a few events at 90cm and we did a couple of events last year shod, but with no studs, without any problems, so, after reading this I think I will stick to no back shoes and see how we get on. would be interested to hear any reports from others though - re are back shoes without studs anymore "grippy" than barefeet or does it just depend on the horse??
 
I'd say give it a go. If you're competing at unaffiliated / intro then I think your horse should cope fine (might struggle as you go up higher). I competed my Welsh Cob unshod for his first 3 years (intro level and SJ etc. on grass) until he started to slip a little and didnt feel overly confident so at that point I put shoes on and just studded him behind which worked perfectly. My current horse I compete unshod all winter as I SJ and dressage on a surface but come eventing time, he's shod and studded (but he competes at Novice BE etc. so a little bit bigger - I dont know of many who compete at anything over Intro/PN unshod). When the XC / SJ courses are straight forward slippage isnt much of an issue, but as you go up the XC levels and you get tighter combinations on a turn etc. then thats when I'd want to ensure no slips.
 
I took a horse SJ without studs once (as I had forgotten them), we didn't slip but I found that I was so conscious of the possibility of him slipping that I rode completely differently and crept round like a little old lady (apologies to any gung-ho grannies, this is not a generalisation) just so he didn't slip. Got loads of time penalties cos I was over compensating. Not sure how much help that is, but if you are the sort who is likely to over compensate for lack of shoes / studs, then it *might* be a good idea to put the shoes (and studs) back on
 
I'm planning on eventing my pony without any shoes at all this summer. He has schooled over fences from the 100 and the 90 without any problems and show jumps on grass without any problems and hes only 14.2.
 
I do BE80 (sorry i havent got the balls to go bigger!) with no shoes at all.
Cant say we've slipped :)
We're by no means experienced and last year was our first crack at it - but all my boys are barefoot and I would very much like to stay that way.

We do SJ higher on grass also - no problems at all :)
 
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