shod or barefoot?

[Vikki89]

Do you find horses that are shod slip more on the ice or barefoot horses?
I always thought shod horses would slip more but my pony who is shod hasn't slipped once and my other pony and mums who are both barefoot have both been slipping, which i have been surprised at.

 

[ofcourseyoucan]

you have opened the can of worms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bigboyrocky]

i find that the one who does the best with me, is the one whos shod infront but not behind

 

[dwi]

Daisy has been both in her time with me and it didn't seem to make a difference. My guess would be that its more to do with how the horse moves than what is on their feet.

 

[Vikki89]

[ QUOTE ]
i find that the one who does the best with me, is the one whos shod infront but not behind

[/ QUOTE ]

Best of both

 

[Vikki89]

[ QUOTE ]
My guess would be that its more to do with how the horse moves than what is on their feet.

[/ QUOTE ]

In Monty's (youngster) case this is probably right as he was trying to walk on ice with his head on the floor sniffing it. It looked like a Bambi moment but he managed not to fall over.

 

[Paint it Lucky]

I have noticed at the yard where i work that the unshod horses do slip more on the ice, but tend to have better grip normally on things like roads etc. I know when my horse was barefoot I always felt really safe on the roads as he never slipped, unfortuantely he wore his feet away too much though so had to have shoes back on which he has slipped in a few times (nothing major though), but then I've now put roadnails on him and he hasn't slipped, he also has better grip on grass with shoes on.

 

[kerilli]

depends on the ground, imho, as much as anything. on v wet soft ground a shod foot is like a sharp blade cutting into the ground. on hard ice, an unshod foot is flexible and has a much bigger bearing surface. on snow, unshod is far safer imho, no "balling" in foot. also depends on the horse's individual action, surefootedness etc, obv!

 

[hairymolly]

In my experience barefoot horses slip more on the ice.

 

[vickybrennan]

Yes - my barefoot horses slip more on the ice than the shod horse too ...

 

[cptrayes]

mine are no different on ice from how they were shod, it depends on the horse.

 

[eggs]

Unshod definitely slip more on ice than the shod horses. Have found that the horses that were previously shod and have had their shoes removed when retired slipped more on the ice than they did when they were shod.