People who have researched barefoot trimming vs shoeing...

[Natch]

A bit of a cheeky question, but I'm after leads of who's who and any essential articles/books on the subject of barefoot trimming vs shoeing. I know lots of people are evangelical about it's got to be barefoot, (but would appreciate any names people can throw at me,) but what I'm really struggling with is who are the authors & researchers who are evangelical about the benefits of shoes?

thankies!

 

[hackedoff]

try the farriers society website. personally I prefer those with a balanced view i.e that shoes or barefoot suits some horses better than other. There is a good BHS Natural horse Csre book that makes this point. Im not an author but from my own exeperience barefoot has made my horse miserable eta 6 days to his shoes going back on!

 

[renethebest]

A book that I have found very informative is 'Horse Owners Guide to Natural Hoof Care' by Jaime Jackson.
Like you I would like to find out more about both sides of the 'argument'. I feel I know more about hooves since reading the above book.

 

[Donkeymad]

I have looked into this a lot. The 'barefoot' people sound perfectly good, but research has shown me that a horse can work perfectly with a farrier trim, and that encouraging people to self trim is rather worrying. By all means go unshod, or shod, according to what your horse and your farrier tihnk.

 

[lucy1984]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2ZofRxB1bU

(I really like the explanation he gives, its only 3 minutes long but he really gets his point across I think.)

Some other links:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feet-First-Baref...4010&sr=8-1

http://www.thesoulofahorse.com/barefoot.htm

http://www.hoofrehab.com/

 

[cptrayes]

It is not barefoot trimming vs shoeing that you need to research. The trim is only a minor part of being barefoot, as some of the comments on here about horses being made miserable show. Lucyfer has the right references for barefoot management.

Most horses can work without shoes, in time, but many owners won't be able to give them the environment they need, avoid the foods they don't do well on, or be able to give them the work they need. In those cases, the owner needs the horse shod, and it should be shod.

But I doubt if you will find many references for stuff that is "evangelical about the benefits of shoes" because shoes are a necessary compromise, not a benefit!

 

[Oberon]

'Feet First' by Nic Barker and Sarah Braithwaite

 

[_daisy_]

2 authors that come to mind are Jaime Jackson and Pete Ramey. Both informative of the practices they use
'Horse Owners Guide to Natural Hoof Care' Jaime Jackson
and
'Making Natural Hoof Care Work for You' by Pete Ramey

 

[sally2008]

For the pro-correct shoeing argument have a look at:

http://www.hopeforsoundness.com/index.html

and

http://www.equinefootprotection.com/

 

[soloequestrian]

I like 'No Foot No Horse' by Gail Williams and Martin Deacon.