Please tell me why the obsession with barefoot?

[othbsits]

Well maybe an obsession. From a breeders standpoint, I am trying to breed the soundest feet and legs possible. Non of mine wear shoes and are in varying amount of work. My farrier tells me my horses hooves are hard on his tools because they are good hooves. If I breed good straight legs with a balanced skeleton, I shouldn't need corrective shoeing unless that balance would be set off at some time by injury. So to me, it's a big reflection on the type of horse I'm breeding.

 

[ester]

I don't think its necessary if horses are not in work or in light work with no roads. But I do personally think its a fashion thing at the moment, that and shoes are expensive and people want to save money.

Or people are finding that it is actually a good thing for horses' feet having never questioned the use of shoes previously.

My obsession stems from having lame horse in shoes to a sound one without so something worked

It does however mean I now look at every horse I meet from the feet upwards

 

[Marydoll]

I think its more increasing knowledge and education, foot care is evolving and through this discussions are on the increase.
My horses feet are treated as per their requirements, ive 2 unshod and 1 shod because thats what suits them.

 

[stargirl88]

Its not an obsession as such, although I have to admit, since going barefoot I always, always ALWAYS look at horses hooves now. Comparing, looking at how they move, etc etc. Especially other barefoot horses but I do have a peak when the farrier takes the shoes off the shod horses at the yard!

 

[Brightbay]

lol, yes - it's interest and curiosity.

The obsession kicks in after you've removed the shoes, when you go through a period of obsessing about whether the feet are too hot, too cold, imbalanced, thrushy, have wrinkles, don't have wrinkles, land heel first, land toe first, land medially or laterally...

Obsessive barefoot horse owners have even been known to buy laser thermometers to compare hoof temperatures. Not me, obviously, I would never be that obsessed

 

[Clava]

lol, yes - it's interest and curiosity.

The obsession kicks in after you've removed the shoes, when you go through a period of obsessing about whether the feet are too hot, too cold, imbalanced, thrushy, have wrinkles, don't have wrinkles, land heel first, land toe first, land medially or laterally...

Obsessive barefoot horse owners have even been known to buy laser thermometers to compare hoof temperatures. Not me, obviously, I would never be that obsessed

I find it an interesting obession especially as the bare hoof reflects the health of the whole horse. You just don't get the sae feedback and interest from a shod hoof.

 

[catkin]

If you have 'obsessive' tendencies you are going to be obsessive whatever.

I now have ponies who have never been shod, in the past I have had horses who wore shoes - I was just as obsessive about their feet back then as I am now, just looking for different things. Instead of checking clenches and shoe wear and signs of thrush daily I now look at hoof shape and hoof wear and for any signs of thrush daily - and I still listen to the hoofbeats intensely for any warning signs of stiffness or lameness.

The only 'issue' I have with the Stealth Ponies is that the little darlings can creep about where they are not supposed to be without us hearing them

 

[Kallibear]

I don't think its necessary if horses are not in work or in light work with no roads. But I do personally think its a fashion thing at the moment, that and shoes are expensive and people want to save money.

Which pretty much sums up the misconception of barefoot horses. Sigh. You hear it so often, even commonly from those who have unshod horses that don't do much. In fact they actually teach the idea (that it's only unworked or horses that don't do much Roadwork) at vet school! They actually teach that if a horse you go to see has no shoes on, you can safely assume it's not ridden much. Ditto BHS.

Lots of roadwork is GOOD for their feet!

I always think the opposite: what is the obsession with putting shoes on?! Two riding schools near me spend many thousands of pounds every year shoeing their horses, none of which ever do anything but school work, ever. Yet putting shoes on is just 'what you do' , like putting rugs on, feeding it nice food and making sure it's shiney and well brushed: it's something you do to be a Good Horse Owner.

 

[wellsat]

For me its a choice about the healthiest way to keep my horse. Barefoot horses are able to naturally wear their hooves in a way that suits them. You're much less likely to find a barefoot horse with long toes or under run heels compared to one that is shod. My new horse came to me with less than perfect hooves so with my farriers support he had his shoes taken off and he's been growing healthy new ones which he's shaping naturally with plenty of road work.

And its cheaper although not necessarily easier!

 

[suestowford]

I think its more increasing knowledge and education, foot care is evolving and through this discussions are on the increase.

^^ this.

Like when the air jackets first came out, there was lots of talk about those. Now we know more about how the hoof works, we talk about it ... a lot!

 

[Clava]

I always think the opposite: what is the obsession with putting shoes on?! Two riding schools near me spend many thousands of pounds every year shoeing their horses, none of which ever do anything but school work, ever. Yet putting shoes on is just 'what you do' , like putting rugs on, feeding it nice food and making sure it's shiney and well brushed: it's something you do to be a Good Horse Owner.

I have to agree, it is so often just done when a young horse starts to do more roadwork without assessing any needs or any other reasons why the horse may not be coping.

 

[Kallibear]

I have to agree, it is so often just done when a young horse starts to do more roadwork without assessing any needs or any other reasons why the horse may not be coping.

Yep, hear that a lot too. The automatic nailing on of shoes when the horse is broken. I've heard people saying how they can't send it off for breaking yet until it's got it's shoes on.

Well, of course the poor sod isn't going to cope if it's spent 4yrs of it's life standing in a soft field, 6 weeks poncing round a soft arena and now you're expecting it to do an hour + daily of road work straight away with no conditioning?! Not to mention it's prob stopped growing much but still likely to be eating the same high sugar diet or worse, had it's feed increases now it's a Proper Horse.

 

[catkin]

I have to agree, it is so often just done when a young horse starts to do more roadwork without assessing any ted a young horse needs or any other reasons why the horse may not be coping.

Agree - and having started a youngster who is still barefoot, the hooves were actually a very good barometer of when the horse needed to slow down/have a break/was growing. If you can see it in the feet the chances are that the other physical structures like muscles and bones and tendons need time to mature and strengthen too. As the horse has matured her feet have got tougher and tougher.

 

[amandap]

Agree - and having started a youngster who is still barefoot, the hooves were actually a very good barometer of when the horse needed to slow down/have a break/was growing. If you can see it in the feet the chances are that the other physical structures like muscles and bones and tendons need time to mature and strengthen too. As the horse has matured her feet have got tougher and tougher.

I think this is the really important point in all this bf/shod debate. My understanding is that it takes as long for structures in the hoof such as the digital cushion to fully mature as it does the body, so long as it gets the exercize/stimulation as the horse grows. Putting shoes on youngsters largely stops this by lifting the hoof off the ground (taking the frog and sole out of action) and clamping it or stabilizing it. It's the gradual exposure to varying terrain that actually strengthens the hoof structures.

Pete Ramey, Bowker et al describe some older long term shod hooves as having the digital cushion of a foal or yearling. Of course barefoot hooves can have the same problems if not getting enough exercize and if not trimmed if management requires trimming.

ps. Sorry, babbled slightly off catkin's point but I agree the hooves can be a barometer of what the horse can manage.

 

[Brightbay]

Yes, the roadwork one always makes me laugh

I get guilt attacks if I don't manage to get my (barefoot) horse out on tarmac for a good 8 - 10 hours a week. That's what keeps his feet in good shape to do other things.

Also, roads are the most forgiving surface for barefoot horses - I practically never have a time when we can't cope with tarmac. We do, in the spring, have times when we can't cope with lots of sharp pointy stones underfoot - when that happens, guess what we do? Yes, more roadwork

 

[cptrayes]

OP if you are talking about people posting about the topic, why are you not asking

"why all this obsession about saddles?"

"why all this obsession about rugs?"

"why all this obsession about bitting?"

and many other topics which have more threads started about them than barefoot.



Do you have an actual question about barefoot that any of us can help you with?

 

[Jasper99]

OP if you are talking about people posting about the topic, why are you not asking

"why all this obsession about saddles?"

"why all this obsession about rugs?"

"why all this obsession about bitting?"

and many other topics which have more threads started about them than barefoot.



Do you have an actual question about barefoot that any of us can help you with?

I am asking about barefoot as I wanted to know why people choose to go barefoot. IMO I see more threads about barefoot than any other but maybe I'm wrong, I apologise.

 

[TrasaM]

There have been quite a few farrier threads recently too

 

[cptrayes]

I am asking about barefoot as I wanted to know why people choose to go barefoot. IMO I see more threads about barefoot than any other but maybe I'm wrong, I apologise.

I haven't counted but I'm sure you are wrong about barefoot having more posts than any other subject. There are several right now running about bitting, for example.

Why didn't you just ask people why they went barefoot if that's what you wanted to know?


I did it because I had two horses who were going worse and worse in shoes. One couldn't walk up stony tracks, the other had one front foot that was very badly asymmetric and he pointed it all the time. I took off the shoes and the one that couldn't walk up stony tracks in shoes was doing those tracks without shoes after 3 months. And the other horse, who two farriers told me would never be able to work without shoes, evented BE Novice after 9 months with a symmetric foot that he never pointed. (pointing is often a symptom of navicular, by the way)

I haven't looked back since. My current hunter, neither of those two horses, did nearly four hours roadwork today because the field were too wet to hunt over. I have a rehab who is sound and now jumping who has been 4 years unsound in shoes and on field rest. I had another two years ago who now hunts/wins elementary dressage/wins national breed shows with the people who I gave him to.

I am passionate about barefoot, but I think my passion is completely understandable when through barefoot I have restored to soundness multiple horses that farriers and vets couldn't help.

 

[cptrayes]

Jasper99 there are so many of us now (I am rarely alone in the hunting field on a barefoot horse these days) that the better question, I think, would now be

"why would you NOT try barefoot?"

 

[Mythical]

I am asking about barefoot as I wanted to know why people choose to go barefoot. IMO I see more threads about barefoot than any other but maybe I'm wrong, I apologise.

I chose to go barefoot (or, more correctly, so stay barefoot) because my farrier advised me to, other people agreed with him and I decided it was the right thing to do at the time. If the horse's workload changes, and he advises me to put shoes on, I'll give that the same thought and consideration.

 

[tallyho!]

I suppose its better than asking "why do people wants kids"...

 

[Jasper99]

Jasper99 there are so many of us now (I am rarely alone in the hunting field on a barefoot horse these days) that the better question, I think, would now be

"why would you NOT try barefoot?"

*Sighs* Sorry I got it wrong.

 

[Flame_]

I'm not a barefoot fanatic, but I have dealt with a lot of hoof problems and had, on my own, formed a very poor view of remedial shoeing, particularly wedges. So to discover on the internet, a bunch of people saying not only that remedial shoeing is not the bees knees, but that barefoot is a genuine alternative way to treat and prevent foot problems was really interesting. Sooner or later everyone has to deal with horses' feet issues - where they are, the job they have to do and how much can go wrong with them make that a given fact really, and hoof care is something that's normally very important to all horse owners because of this. That's not obsessive, just giving a lot of thought, interest and care to something really important IMO. It was quite brave of the earlier barefoot crusaders to stick their necks out in the first place and start shouting that people, including the experts, were doing something wrong.

 

[ozpoz]

Jasper99 you don't have to apologise - most of us are on a learning curve,and a very interesting one too.
I would say it has taken me a year to really understand how to keep my horse comfortable without shoes. I didn't realise just how much improvement was possible in a foot after 4 decades of horse ownership
Thanks to some really knowledgable people on this site! All the drip feed of information really makes a difference.

 

[micki]

I took my horses shoes off because they were having a break while i was pregnant and i just never put them back on when i started to ride again as my horses feet looked the best i had ever seen them and didn't want ruin them. I did some reserch on the interenet and found loads of info about riding horses barefoot, it was just the thing to do if you rode a horse you put shoes on it but the research i did has totally changed my mind. Now the 4 horses i have are kept barefoot and will never have shoes on them unless they need them for any reason, i can't think what that reason would ever be though.

 

[Skippys Mum]

I originally decided to go barefoot as a purely cost saving exercise over winter. I do get a bit obsessed with anything different that I do with Arnie but luckily for me, Brightbay lives close enough to take the brunt of it .

I started by sorting out his diet and then off came the shoes. I didnt ride for 6 weeks but I knew I wouldnt be riding over this period which is why I picked it for my trial. The original plan was to keep them off for possibly 2 or 3 shoeing cycles.

I was obsessed. I religiously tweaked his diet, photographed feet, picked out feet, scrubbed feet, sprayed feet, booted feet and barely a week went by that poor Brightbay didnt get dragged over to look at his feet.

Then it was 4 cycles since he had been shod - and his feet had never looked better (at this point I was still photographing them regularly) - and he was going really really well. I thought perhaps it was worth persevering so I decided to give it a full year. Booting was a bit of a faff but worth it for the money I was saving and I had achieved everything I had wanted to do over the year (sj, xc, pleasure rides, loads of hacking).

Slowly, I got less obsessive. I missed the odd days spraying. I stopped taking photos. And suddenly it dawned on me that he didnt need his back boots - and then he didnt need his front boots.

So now I am not obsessive - I just sit back and wonder what to spend the £600 odd quid a year I am saving. I enjoy riding my horse that has never moved better or jumped better and I dont need to worry about him slipping on the roads. If I hadnt had help from here and Phoenix forum (and poor, longsuffering Brightbay) I would still be shoeing him.

Yep, lifes a bitch

 

[Jazzy B]

Perhaps the current raft of threads about barefoot/unshod can be explained easily.

It's been an appallingly wet year, we none of us can deny that... wet conditions wreck horses feet as I'm sure most of us can relate to... lots of wrecked feet/lost shoes/lame horses causes lots of concerned owners looking for a way to help their horses... if the horses feet won't hold shoes, there's not much option other than taking them off... hence lots of 'new to this' barefoot questions from caring horse owners trying to do the right thing for their horses.... just a thought based on my own experience...

^^^ this, I took my horses shoes off for a few months when it was really bad and he was ripping his shoes off every 5 minutes. I tried barefootness for 3 months and I have new found respect for anyone that has to or goes down this route, it may be cheaper but not for the faint hearted. We are surrounded by gravel and hardcore and it was just a nightmare for me.

 

[diamonddogs]

My last and current horses both barefoot. I choose barefoot because I'm lucky enough to have had two horses with amazing feet that simply don't need shoes.

I don't feed specially for barefoot, and my farrier trims every two to three months @ £20 a throw. The shod horses on our yard see the farrier every 5-6 weeks, more often if they lose shoes (at a rate of one horse, one shoe per week during the mud season), but Sham's feet are good and strong and grow really slowly, specially in winter. She just has her feet picked out twice a day and a dollop of Kevin Bacon's hoof dressing on when her feet are dry

She was wearing fronts when I got her, and they hardly showed any wear at all, so when we needed the farrier the plan was for a refit, but she lost one in the field the day before our appointment. My farrier was quite happy with the condition of her feet, and recommended leaving shoes off to see how she went - that was a year ago and she's been fine, except for an abscess last summer on her toe, so she had a few splits and cracks as the hole grew out, but her hoof was soon back to normal.

I'm also lucky to have a farrier who I can trust, and won't shoe them just to get the money if you want to try barefoot.

I'd say that other than the cost, the biggest advantage of no shoes is if they tread on your foot they can feel they've done it, and release you immediately instead of grinding your toes into the concrete like shod horses do!

 

[webble]

It's cheap.....

this ^^^ that is all