Hunter trials/XC/jumping on grass barefoot?

tobiano1984

tobiano1984

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This is one for those of you who compete on grass barefoot - I have a lovely Irish gelding who has recently started jumping and proven to be rather good at it, having previously been aimed just at dressage. He's going to an ODE next month, and I'd love to go to hunter trials over winter, but I'm a bit wary of jumping on grass barefoot. He's been barefoot for a couple of years, and is 15.1hh and 7yo. Very steady and sensible, but although all my horses are barefoot I've generally only jumped on surfaces or dry grass with them! (although hunted one of them too and that was fine)

He's been round a BE80 and 90 course (see video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNU45pSNexo) and although it had rained that morning the ground was good - just avoided jumping downhill and all the fences were prepared on T/O and landing anyway. My concern is that with hunter trials etc you have to generally book in advance so can't be sure of the weather. Certainly this winter I wouldn't do anything particularly big on him, but just wanted some feedback from any of you who go XC barefoot - whether it's safe or if you have to be really wary of slippery ground and withdraw if the going isn't right!
 
My old pony (14.2 welsh D x) did everything barefoot - xc, hunting, ODE, SJ on grass etc etc without any problems whatsoever. You do have to be a little more sensible if its really slippy, but we certainly didn't have any problems.
 
I used to event barefoot, to be honest I never had to withdraw, if he is balanced they actually have pretty good balance feedback when bare and better grip than you think. You know how balanced your horse is :)
 
I wouldn't want to be trying jump offs on grass but would happily do eventing SJ and XC. The only ground I would be concerned about is very hard with morning dew-type but given the amount coming out of the sky right now I'm not sure that is going to be an issue now!

I'd certainly try it and if the horse wasn't jumping confidently I would consider shoeing for the following season but trying to make sure they got 6 months without shoes in the year.
 
All of my ponies where unshod and they did everything. You just have to be wary of the ground and not take turns to tightly. I have only ever had 1 fall over and that was after a sharp rain shower during a showjumping round and a turn that was a tad too tight, poor girls legs just went from underneath her.
I would definitely give it a go. Like others have said, you can always get the horse shod if needed. What I would give to be able to have my horse barefoot and compete! However, after the going at Bicton yesterday I was very pleased I could put studs in!
 
I've jumped a bf horse on dry and wet ground and not had a problem but then he was a big hunter type and didn't really do tight turns :D...
 
I know several people who event at around BE90/BE100 level barefoot just fine (in fact one thinks her horse actually has better grip and cornering ability compared to when she competed shod horses) including in wet and muddy conditions and lots of people hunt barefoot very successfully.

I jump on grass at a very low level and thus far have had no issues.
 
Now, I believe this is one you can take my word for it, I know some forum users who hunt bf and there's lots that do that are not part of this forum and many more that make no bones about not shoeing horses and wonder what all the fuss is about....
 
I did my first ode yesterday on my barefoot boy and he was fine on the slippery ground. I wouldn’t want to do jump off turns but am happy doing a normal round.
 
Mime is barefoot and I do everything with him. The thing you must be wary of is long wet grass. If jumping on wet surfaces I dont go for mad jump off turns. You are better on short, wet grass than you would be on a shod un-studded horse.

Always make sure they are balanced around corners! I have had 2 falls with my boy. 1 on a xc landing as the ground was uneven and long wet grass - my fault for not checking landing properly. Other was bone dry short grass (and yes, very hard ground too!) in a xc warm up as I didn't have him balanced around a corner.

He also hunted last year barefoot. Felt much better about it when I was hacking along with someone whose horse was lame after loosing a shoe!

My farrier also trims his frogs slightly more pointed so that they can stab into the ground a bit more!
 
I have always wondered this.

A friend's horse slipped and fell.. she broke and dislocated her ankle, nearly lost her foot less than two months ago. Horse has always been barefoot and evented/hunted barefoot.

Has made me very wary
 
Tern said:
I have always wondered this.

A friend's horse slipped and fell.. she broke and dislocated her ankle, nearly lost her foot less than two months ago. Horse has always been barefoot and evented/hunted barefoot.

Has made me very wary
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Shod horses also slip and fall and no one thinks anything of it, but of course a horse which slips and falls barefoot must just be because it was barefoot. A shod horse slipped and fell in a county show ring a few years ago and paralysed the rider. Riding is a dangerous sport.
 
ycbm said:
Shod horses also slip and fall and no one thinks anything of it, but of course a horse which slips and falls barefoot must just be because it was barefoot. A shod horse slipped and fell in a county show ring a few years ago and paralysed the rider. Riding is a dangerous sport.
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:rolleyes:

Yes, thank you. I realise that shod horses fall. I was relaying an experience. Both my mare shod and barefoot has slipped and gone right under herself.
 
I think the fact is, you have to think about where your balance is in relation to the forces being applied during turns. More so than on a shod horse as you don't have studs to compensate for any mistakes.

Unshod horses are generally more careful, but it's a lot to ask to balance it's own body against centrifugal forces and yours as well, without any additional support.

I can see why studs are needed in sport when you're against the clock as you have to ask a horse to push it's boundaries, so it's only fair to offer some sort of tool to assist with gripping on impossibly tight turns on challenging turf. It's up to you to provide either impeccable balance or some sort of compensatory mechanism.

Accidents can happen to anyone despite what you've screwed in or not.
 
I am one of those who event/hunt bf, just to agree with a lot of what's been said it depends a lot on the horse/rider. Hard dewy conditions are definitely the hardest. Of the two I event one doesn't slip much but looses her confidence as soon as it's slippy, she's on the forehand and has had studs in on grass for 10+ years prior to going bf. The other one slips a bit in the warm up when messing around but never once on course, actually gets better results in extreme wet then shod horses, guess he's more used to coping with a little slip. He's much better balanced and has never had studs as couldn't get them in even when shod. Both definitely better bf then shod without studs. Never felt unsafe on either, you don't tend to get the big skids you get with shod horses as they're a bit more aware of what their feet are doing! Biggest tip is don't back off because you're worried, that's when you'll loose balance or pop extra strides in, ride in a balanced rhythm and you should be fine.
 
I always keep mine barefoot until I feel I really have to shoe. All of mine I've generally competed up to BE100 barefoot, but for Novice BE level I definately needed more grip with studs due to tighter more complex XC combinations. I'm doing my mares first BE80 in a couple of weeks and she's barefoot. She's not the most balanced horse so she'd probably be better with shoes however she's 9 and never been shod so I feel it would be unfair to do it to her now so I'll continue on without. When you say barefoot, I dont know if you mean barefoot trimmed or farrier trimmed - I've been told barefoot trimmed gives much better grip which is what I have done to mine.
 
MagicMelon said:
IWhen you say barefoot, I dont know if you mean barefoot trimmed or farrier trimmed - I've been told barefoot trimmed gives much better grip which is what I have done to mine.
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It doesn't make any difference who does the trim as long as it's a correct trim for the horse.

I personally don't believe, though I've been told it many times by people, that any trim makes much difference to grip. What I do believe is that rider confidence is critical, and entering an event having been told that your horse has been trimmed for extra grip will result in the rider riding more confidently, resulting in a more confident horse.
 
Just to update from my original post - my barefoot cob went to his first ODE yesterday - and won! With one of the fastest times, and was one of the few horses who didn't slip in a particular corner of the SJ field :-)
 
Have done and been placed in two hunter trials with my barefoot cob this year and XC schooled twice. Also done a derby where she was also placed. The only slip was in the Derby because she was somewhat excited and cornering like a fool. Generally speaking where I live and because I hack out whatever the weather, she is safer without shoes than with, in my opinion. Going XC schooling over the 1m class jumps at the end of the month so will see how that goes.
 
tobiano1984 said:
Just to update from my original post - my barefoot cob went to his first ODE yesterday - and won! With one of the fastest times, and was one of the few horses who didn't slip in a particular corner of the SJ field :-)
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Fabulous news! Am contemplating it for my boy too now, but am in that slightly unsure stage given I want to take him xc hunting etc. I know there are those who do this bf but there are more shod, so it's going against the majority view.
 
Bernster said:
Fabulous news! Am contemplating it for my boy too now, but am in that slightly unsure stage given I want to take him xc hunting etc. I know there are those who do this bf but there are more shod, so it's going against the majority view.
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I hunted my sports horse barefoot, and a friend took her ex-race horse hunting BF too. Number one thing is to find a good trimmer who really knows barefoot and isn't just doing a pasture trim! My best friend is one so I had plenty of support when getting into it and it was nice to have someone to reassure me about various things. I now have a warmblood, TB and 2 cobs barefoot - all competing. I was mostly worried about the cornering aspect with SJ and XC on grass. At low level XC it's not really an issue, and as many people have said on here you just have to be sensible with the ground...
 
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