Shod or bare foot for competition horses?

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fiasco

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Hi i have my Stable managers exam coming up and doing some reasearch about competing bare foot or shod. would like your thoughts...thanks
 
most horses compete with shoes especially if they are on grassthis is so studs can be put in to give more grip so i think this is a really good idea
 
We have one that is shod all round to compete, but all the others are only shod infront, have competed in all disciplines, nd hunted without a problem. Hoof quality in barefoot behind is much better than the one shod all round, plus as our farrier points out the frog is allowed to do its natural job and helps stop the horse slipping, in fact they are much more "stable" on bad going than the one shod all round, they have competed on the same tracks on the same day.
 
For a horse that has never been shod-barefoot tbh as I think they then retain their natural function.
For a horse that struggles to cope/has problems barefoot shod everytime.
 
A horse on my yard evented up to Intermediate without shoes (though that was more because he was a bu99er to shoe than any other reason). He is half pony though, and very footsure. He was shod after that and went Advanced with shoes, but only wore studs a handful of times.
 
Personally i would like to think that by the time you do your stable managers you would have enough experience and therefore know enough about shoeing horses to make an informed answer if asked on the day anyway.
However horses have been shod for hundreds and hundreds of years. if it was better for them to seriously work without, i would imagine people would have stopped bothering by now with any that didnt work on a hard surface.Natural is not always better particularly as years of selective breeding has weakened the feet of several breeds commonly used to compete.
sorry to be so vague but i dont feel like a debate tonight
wink.gif
if you have more specific questions PM me.
 
I know the reasons for and against shod and barefoot but am interested in what riders like and why, this is purely research for my lecture so i can put forward an informed argument. it is a topic that many people have an opinion on and it is interesting to know why people decide to do one or the other. thanks everyone
 
The thing is, it really depends on how the horse is managed outside the competition arena. If I just did dressage and SJ and worked mostly on a surface I wouldn't mind keeping my mare unshod - she has good feet and I'd like to have an extra £60 in my pocket. But for XC I prefer to have studs - whether it is for my benefit or my horse's could be debated.

BUT for me, the decision is more about how I keep my horse in between competitions. My hacking is mostly roads or woodland, and the tracks in the woods are stony. Unshod horses tend to struggle in the woods in my experience - we have a few on the yard who are OK on the roads up to a point, but go quite footy on the stones. I need to hack to keep my horse fit, so I need her to be shod to cope with the conditions. Might confuse the arguments for/against being shod for competition.
 
There is a regular blogger who has keeps her horses barefoot and they hack, dressage, show jump, hunt and event barefoot. There are also people who hunt with the Exmoor barefoot - and one was on the front of the Weekend section of the Telegraph a few weeks ago - did you notice that it didn't have shoes. There are also quite a lot of endurance competitors barefoot and some use hoof boots which in some ways are excellent, particularly for road work, but not quite so good when you get off road and onto muddy bits.

I have found that once the horse's feet are conditioned and sound and the feet have developed good concavity - ie. the soles are off the ground, the horses are MORE surefooted and I school happily on grass in the rain. But they have to get used to it, you can't just take the shoes off and expect them to get used to the different feeling immediately.

However, having hunted and evented in my youth I don't really think I would event barefoot, even though I know it can be done. It does make you ride better, because you know you have to keep the horse balanced round the corners, but in my own case my horse was pretty stiff and he needed the studs to get round the corners in the dressage arena! Also, doing a cross country course, can you always be completely well balanced, sometimes you do have to pull them round quickly!

I think I might hunt barefoot (well I have, I used to have a 12.2 pony that didn't have shoes, and that was 40 years ago).

Removing shoes can make the horses move better, particularly for dressage when they are on an artificial surface.

It is a horrendously complicated subject and I don't think there is the space to discuss it on on this forum. There are lots of opinions and sometimes they are from people who have no experience of barefoot.

At the moment mine is barefoot, having had his shoes off for the winter, but I started hacking him again in his hoof boots, and he goes best of all in those, but I suppose for him they are like nice soft trainers. He walks out best in boots, there is the least concussion. But I am pleasantly surprised by his feet that have been in metal shoes all summer. He still has good deep soles, particularly on his hind hooves. I am convinced that if he hadn't been barefoot for a couple of years he would now very likely be lame with feet problems (for reasons that are far too complicated to go into now).
 
Anyone who uses or has used the hoof boots. how have you found them? have they ever caused problems? how long have you found they last for?
 
I have found most boots to be more hastle than their worth; falling off, breaking, causing problems with movement.
All of the horses on our yard are barefoot over the winter; all of them compete dressage over the winter, including some FEI level classes, and the majority do some jumping and indoor xc (Eventing Express style, but far better)
None of them have ever had problems with it, and it means that when shoes go back on, their feet have had time to rest and their quality is improved, helping for the summer competition series.
 
All horses should have their shoes removed for a month or two - it used to be normal practice. Not sure what happened to working horses, who had to work and be shod all year round.

As for hoof boots. I only have experience of the Easyboot Epics.
Good fit for my horse with standard roundish hooves. NOT easy to put on at first, until you get used to it and it is a bit of a knack.
They are a bit of a hassle, but that is mental rather than actual. How much hassle is it to put on boots all round on legs/knee boots?

Have always stayed on, even through fetlock deep mud. I have completed a 22km Trec competition and the following day obstacles in boots on all 4 feet with no problems. No rubs, never come off.

But it was only 2'3" jumps and I wouldn't like to jump any bigger than this with boots. We did drops, water, logs, ditches, everything, at a brisk canter.

Excellent on roads, stoney roads. Have galloped on grass OK (although slightly nervous). In most circumstances they provide better grip than anticipated. The exception is when they start to wear down a bit and then they become slippy in mud, more on the back than front, which is logical as the hinds provide the power. I have used the Easyboot Grip on the hinds only and they were a lot better than the Epics as they have a more agressive grip, but prefer the Epics for normal road work.

It is over 2 years since my first set. I think I have bought 8 boots altogether. They do last well.

My horse used to be a chronic tripper, but he doesn't trip in the boots, probably because his feet are more comfortable.

Hope this helps.
 
my young one is competing barefoot - he's doing dressage, XC and hunting with no probs. the old one is also barefoot but he's only hacking out once a week and doesn't have as good feet. going to buy boots for him as my new hacking is more stony and he cant cope with it. his feet fall to pieces shod though and they look so strong now he's barefoot.
 
Personally all of mine are shod all round - my youngsters start with just fronts on for competing and i see how they go for hinds.

However,

I have a very very good friend of mine who competes upto 1.35 tracks and only one of hers is shod and even then only on front.
She does this because she jumps on surfaces more often then not and only jumps on grass when she has to ie qualifiers etc.
 
My young Dressage horse only has front shoes on. Nothing to do with his Dressage but I hack out on stony tracks 1/2 times a week and without front shoes he is quite footy on these tracks.
 
I would not feel confident going around a BE novice or higher track with no shoes on. There'd be too many times I wouldnt run because I couldnt put studs in for extra grip.
My horses winter barefoot though and hack, jump and school on all surfaces no problems
 
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