Pondering....

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avthechav

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So I am a complete fully paid up obsessive member of the barefoot club at the moment...and it certainly makes sense to me, (even if it does seem too good to be true at present!) Now being as obsessed with feet as I am, I am noticing more and more barefoot horses around across disciplines.

Is it that I am only just aware of the fact that horses don't seem to automatically die if you take their shoes off, or is the trend for barefoot horses increasing?

Do you think we will get to a point where barefoot is an acceptable option for most? (By that I mean less of the "you can't take your warmblood barefoot....he will wear his feet away, become crippled and then they will drop off'). Do you think that shoeing won't just be the norm one day?
 
Was talking to our trimmer yesterday about this when she came to do the boys - at competitions I'm seeing more horses that are bare behind now that compared to even a year ago. Not many fully bare (perhaps 1 or 2 every couple of shows). But the general feeling I'm getting from a few online forums is that it IS becoming a more standard way of managing your horse.

Although I will miss the 'EXCUSE ME!!! Did you know you've lost a.... Oh!' from bystanders at competitions :)
 
I was hacking through the village on my youngster the other day and a man stopped his car and said why doesn't your horse have shoes on....I said umm well he doesn't really need them at the moment. He looked confused and said, oh has he been lame...I said no he just doesn't wear any....he looked confused and drove off :-).

I though i was seeing more around but didn't know if it was just that I have become more attuned to it?
 
My impression is that owners who use the internet to research tend to be more informed about trends and new developments in horse care. Owners who don't, tend to stick with what they know.
I'm on a large yard where the majority of DIY owners seldom or never ride, but still have their horses shod with a full set.

I think amongst native pony and cob owners, many don't shoe because traditionally they have tended to be trimmed rather than shod anyway.

I just wonder if users of forums get the impression that barefoot is more common than it is. It's not a criticism, more an observation. Perhaps as more owners of the hot bloods and warmbloods manage their horses full time without shoes, their example will snowball but it does require commitment and I'm not sure that every owner can or would choose to do it.
I'd just be happy if owners would only shoe if they'd first asked themselves if they need to.
 
What I am seeing here, is that farriers are pricing themselves out of the market and a lot of the happy hackers are seeing that for what they do, barefoot or at least, unshod is an affordable option.

However, you don't have to get very far up the competition ladder before you get the same old, same old "my horse can't go barefoot because ..." If I point out that mine did to 3* (endurance) and still is at L2 dressage, I am frequently told "I'm lucky that my horse has such great feet". *sigh*.

For it to become mainstream there needs to be more like the Italian guy (who's name I can't remember) who won the puissance at Olympia a few weeks ago. A lot more, but it will still take some time I think. A lot of the people who barefoot don't ride competitively at any great level, and those that do ride at that level still don't see barefoot as a viable way to compete.

It's still like being vegetarian 25 years ago - you were a bit of a freak and there is still one or two waiting for me to die of some sort of vitamin deficiency. Now being a vegetarian is so boring it doesn't even rate a second look. But it took some time LOL !
 
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