Hooves and shoes Your opinions

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Under why do you use that option, i couldn't reply but the answer is I tried unshod, they got hoppy on the front, then as they got fitter and moved more impulsion to the rear, I had to have the backs done too.
So in short, mine are shod because they need to be, i have tried unshod and it doesn't work for them.
 
Bramble and Teazle were unshod for 14 years and only trimmed once a year! Then I started driving them 2 years ago so they had to have shoes on as I did a lot of roadwork.

Lottie is sometimes shod and sometimes barefoot depending on how much work she is doing. Flo is always shod as shes in hard work and I do a lot of hacking with her.

I do think a lot of people do have their horses shod just for the hell of it and follow the 'norm'.
 
Tricky this as have one of each now! Have tried Willsy barefoot, successfull to a point but have had to have front shoes on again. Cat has never been shod, farrier and vet say feet are lovely so have no intention of shoeing him, each is different.
 
Horses shod. I go barefoot over the winter because she loses her shoes. She has to wear hoof boots though because her feet are sore on the roads
 
I said I use shoes because my horse likes it but its really because her hooves prefer it!
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Mine are shod in front, Lance because he is feeling the ground in his old age, Beau because he is a monkey and digs and destroys his hooves if his fronts arent shod.

They used to be both unshod, just trimmed and dressed, they both have good hard fet,but life is easier with fronts on for the reasons I outinedaboe.

My farrier would never shoe a horse for the sake of it, he has always said if it would be a waste of money.
 
Unshod at present, but wouldn't rule out being shod again if necessary. Doing normal riding work - showing, pleasure rides, hacking, dressage - 16.00 horse.
 
All my youngsters are unshod as long as they are comfortable, as soon as they get footsore or start competing and need a little more grip the shoes go on!
 
My poor horse had to have her shoes taken off, they are getting replaced. I feel incredibly cruel watching her hobble across the yard as she is so footsore. How people can make a descision to put their horses thru this willingly is complelty beyond me. How can people watch a horse in pain and think it is complelety fine, as well it might get over it in 18 months. I really hope people get convicted of cruelty for it.

If you've got the right horse that can cope with it - no problem. I just feel very sorry for all the horses whose owners insist they go barefoot even though they are in pain.
 
If the horse is in pain , then I would say that indicates that they don't really have very good feet.

I used to think shoes helped with grip - I know they do in some cases - but I jump mine, on grass in the wet barefoot, and gallop up hills in the wet barefoot and he had not slipped once so far. Funnily enough I have lost count of the times he slipped on ROADs and the yard when he was shod - and I have seen numerous others slip to.
 
Mine are shod because they do alot of road work and Gyp had really bad feet when I got him and they were basically held together by his shoes. Now he has a big crack up one front still so is stod to stop this getting worse.
Hattie has frog problems and goes lame if she gets to much pressure on them so her shoes just keep them alittle higher.
 
mine are shod and have never slipped on the road, so there goes that arguement to me I think...but anyway.
That's always the arguement, still doesn't mean I should subject my horse to pain.
 
Mine is shod because I brought her like it, I have asked my farrier whether he thinks she would cope without them but because we do alot of roadwork and she wears them down alot, he said it could cause more problems than it is worth.

I think if a horse copes well without shoes there is no reason why shoes should be put on. It suits some horses but not others.
 
So you claim, how do you know they would stand up to what my horse is required to do? And I still dont really see the point, should I now having got a 10/12yr old take the shoes off and CAUSE him pain? I don't think so..
 
Murphy is barefoot because he has always been and I understand it takes a lot of time to get them right without shoes.
I would try it as Murphy gets older and the workload decreases as I am not against it in anyway.
As for following a celeb - god no - who does that??!! lol Mind you Murphy could do with doping..
 
I had to remove Mac's hind shoes when he went to live out with a group, as that was the rule of the yard. He was fine at first (back in June/July) when we had all the rain and ground was soft, but as the gound hardened, he became very footsore. He also wore down the outside of his hooves quite drastically and became very unbalanced. I had no option but to put his shoes back on for his sake.

Thankfully, the owners of the other horses in the herd agreed he could stay out with shoes on as he isn't a kicker.
 
Megan was shod very badly when I got her, and myself and the farrier made the decision to leave her unshod until her feet could grow into a proper shape again.

It took 8 months and I did some riding but as soon as she went out for longer than 30 mins on the roads she was sore and she really struggled on stony ground. She was also wearing her feet down too much towards the end as she was a lot more active.

So she's now shod and has been ever since. I

don't think it's cruel leaving them without shoes if they are not ridden out on roads, but you only have to have a look at how much a shoe is worn down in 6-7 weeks of heavy roadwork to see what it would do to a hoof.
 
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Each to their own. But they wouldn't be in pain having shoes off if they never had them in the first place.......

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Your right. As mine would have died from hunger as she wouldn't be able to walk and get any grass. No pain in heaven.
 
All my dressage horses are barefoot.
They can be a bit tentative at first after having shoes off as the circulation returns to the foot!! The foot cannot expand on weight bearing with a shoe on, this disturbs the pump action of the circulation around foot and leg leading to stagnation and poor blood supply.
I don't see how you can say I am cruel to have no shoes on! I would feel cruel to put them on, but hey ho each to their own.
 
I have a TB with poor feet...so she always has to be shod, even if out of work as she literally can't walk without shoes.
My 3yo has hard black horn, and I will probably not shoe her if things go to plan when she's broken.
My 2yo has feet that are better than my TB, but not as good as my 3yo so may/may not be shod.
I think each horse is an individual - barefoot doesn't always work for TB types who have been bred to canter on manicured courses....and shoes don't always work for hard footed native types...
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All mine are unshod.

Absolutely nothing to do with any preference, one way or another. The plain fact is that none of them have ever been shod, they all have good feet (since I ditched the crap Natural Barefoot 'practitioner' after 2 visits) the riding horses have feet like iron, and get on just fine without. Damn sight cheaper too, my farrier charges $100 per set for shoeing, $25 for trims (I get a discount)

If they needed to be shod for any reason then that would be OK with me too.
 
2 of mine are unshod, one a field ornament but the other events. We went xc schooling today and it was wet and miserable, not a single slip. I have a throughbred who is having his shoes off next week.

The trick is to take the shoes off at the end of the shoeing cycle. He is due to be shod on Friday, the farrier will take his shoes off and back very slowly away from his feet..... he will not, on pain of death rasp or trim anywhere on the foot as this could make him sore!

However, if he can't cope the shoes will go back on him, I'm not the type to let him struggle if it's not working for him.
 
Neither of mine wear shoes. Dont like to say barefoot, as don't want to be thought of as NH *shudders*
Delilah has never been shod, Harry needs VERY heavy sedation to be shod. He is doing about 3 hours roadwork a week, and copes fine with it. He is still a bit footy on stony bits though. He has been ridden without shoes for a month now and his comfort levels have improved significantly over this short period of time. I do feed him biotin though, and use keratex to help him.
 
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All my dressage horses are barefoot.
They can be a bit tentative at first after having shoes off as the circulation returns to the foot!! The foot cannot expand on weight bearing with a shoe on, this disturbs the pump action of the circulation around foot and leg leading to stagnation and poor blood supply.
I don't see how you can say I am cruel to have no shoes on! I would feel cruel to put them on, but hey ho each to their own.

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Do you honestly believe that? If they had no circulation in their feet they would fall off.
 
It is limited circulation. I was taught the following (taken from Wiki as I felt it explained it well)

The frog

The Frog (horse)

Each hoof contains a structural component known as the “frog,” which covers the deeper structure of the hoof known as the digital cushion, a vessel-filled tissue. When the horse places weight on a leg, the ground pushes upward on the frog, compressing it and the underlying digital cushion. This results in squeezing blood out of the digital cushion, which then helps to pump it back up the leg, helping the heart to work against gravity.

When my horse was shod the frog did not touch the ground properly, sometimes not at all.

I was also taught, by a farrier, that the hoof helps absorb shock. Shoes transfer this shock from the hoof structure to the leg and other joints. Now this will not affect all horses, maybe will probably not have any major problems.
Mine was shod, we did 1 3hr hack and the next day he was not happy in his legs at all. When he was unshod before we did a 5hr hack, and he himself decided to trot on the roads (he can be a bit 'forward') and he was as fresh as a daisy the next day - and no it was NOT fitness as he was fitter the shod time as he had been competing the year before.

But as was said before Each to their own, no one is 100% right!
 
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