Is there a healthy balance between shod and barefoot?

[Regandal]

This is a very interesting article. One of the points noted: " If you were to trot up 50 horses here on a nice level surface and then take their shoes off and trot them up again, the vast majority would move with more freedom than if they were shod. So the mechanical effect of the shoe comes at a price. It’s a necessary price. If people are aware of it, especially the long period of time horses are shod, horses need a period of time with no shoes on to recover. You compromise the blood flow which you cannot see with shoes.’
John Killingbeck, FEI vet.

Full article:http://www.internationaleventingforum.com/the-use-and-effect-of-studs/

 

[ycbm]

What a fantastic article! Thanks for that.

 

[ihatework]

It's an excellent article and one that everyone should be aware of.
Way way too many people over stud for low level stuff. Not enough shod horses get a break from shoes. Insufficient balance and conditioning work is done over a variety of surfaces.
But that doesn't mean shoeing and studding is not essential as you go up the competitive ladder out eventing

 

[tallyho!]

Probably - but most of us don't have access to the "right" places.

I know, it was just a musing and probably why sometimes shoes are necessary.

Does it make you wonder why we can't try and replicate a better environment for hooves rather than just soft grassy areas.

 

[ohmissbrittany]

I assumed it was the half inch of shoe raising the foot above the stones! Mine still feels stones if he treads on one thats taller than the height of his front shoes.

I've always felt that a shoe is basically just creating the concavity a healthy foot would have, in flat footed and thin soled horses.

 

[tallyho!]

I've always felt that a shoe is basically just creating the concavity a healthy foot would have, in flat footed and thin soled horses.

A horseshoes primary function is to protect a hoof from wear or indeed improve it's function. The excessive wearing due to excessive work, unsuitable diets and husbandry meant that metal was used to prolong the function of a hoof.

I can't be sure that it would have created concavity for unhealthy feet. It would certainly have made it worse by loading the walls only - allowing pressure from the leg to further press down on a thin sole - rather like jumping on a trampoline.

 

[stencilface]

I still remember an instructor loved by many who tried to explain to me that shoes help support the tendons in the legs. It was then that I truly knew I had outgrown so many of my old instructors!

 

[ohmissbrittany]

A horseshoes primary function is to protect a hoof from wear or indeed improve it's function. The excessive wearing due to excessive work, unsuitable diets and husbandry meant that metal was used to prolong the function of a hoof.

I can't be sure that it would have created concavity for unhealthy feet. It would certainly have made it worse by loading the walls only - allowing pressure from the leg to further press down on a thin sole - rather like jumping on a trampoline.

Oh absolutely. Buti f you think of the foot as a static object and the shape made by nailing a shoe (like many staunchly traditional farriers seem to)... the overall shape made by the foot + shoe is that which barefoot horse owners strive for in a healthy concave foot, to provide some distance between the sole and the ground.

 

[MissTyc]

I event and hunt two horses without shoes ... but it can be limiting sometimes. I am more cautious on wet grass than I would be with studs. It costs me time penalties. It costs me dressage penalties as some of the moves on hilly wet grass are not as confident ... It's my choice for various reasons, but I would shoe if they "needed" it for comfort ... or if I needed to win. But they are comfortable, I don't need to win, and I never have to worry about them losing a shoe hehe

 

[Auslander]

I've always felt that a shoe is basically just creating the concavity a healthy foot would have, in flat footed and thin soled horses.

That wasn't really my point! I was relpying to a comment about how shod horses didn't feel stones as much because their feet were numb. I was suggesting that it was because the feet were raised 1/2 inch above the ground. I'm not anti barefoot, as explained in my first post on this topic. I just feel that sometimes, people overthink it a bit

 

[tallyho!]

Oh absolutely. Buti f you think of the foot as a static object and the shape made by nailing a shoe (like many staunchly traditional farriers seem to)... the overall shape made by the foot + shoe is that which barefoot horse owners strive for in a healthy concave foot, to provide some distance between the sole and the ground.

Is it the primary reason for shoeing? From what I've read, it was to protect from excessive wear only. No consideration was made to create a "concave sole" although I can sort of see why you could think that.

Barefoot owners do not necessarily strive for a concave sole. Some horses naturally do not have that. It is soundness without shoes that barefooters strive for. You see many barefoot hooves with no concavity, mine for example. That lack of shape has no bearing on soundness for her.