Shoes, hoof boots or nothing??

Paint Me Proud

Paint Me Proud

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Kasper has been unshod for approx 14 months and whilst he has no problems with being foot sore when out he does seem to get bad chips really easily.

Also we started competing low level ODE and being barefoot I worry about him slipping (which he did and fell over!) on the grass.

I have been considering shoeing but really dont want to. I had considered hoof boot but didnt really know where to start but yesterday i spoke to a hoofboot specialist at YHL and he said hoofboots would definitely help.

But i'm not sure.

What do you all think.

Here are Kaspers hooves, taken tonight, not great as i had to scrub the mud and filth off first, but will give you and idea. You can see the chipping on the front hooves.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/33949649@N00/sets/72157649235662845/
 
Personally I wouldn't compete at a ODE without a full set of shoes on so that I could use studs, after walking the course with a friend who was competing I know how slippy it can get on a nice day.

I'd happily compete dressage and bsj barefoot if the horse could cope, it was actually my friends boy she took to the ODE, he was barefoot for everything else but shod when she took him to event.
 
My TB was doing very very well BF , if I had just wanted to SJ and do dressage and hack I would never have needed shoes again but when I started going XC schooling it was clear he was not happy on his feet .
The trainer asked me to shoe him she felt we were not safe and he was not happy I put shoes on used a small stud next time , different horse .
He still works part of the year without shoes .
 
The chipping on the front look as if they are because the feet are too long, the white line is stretched, a good trim should stop that.

I would shoe and stud for ODE's a horse will lose confidence so quickly if it slips, especially on take off, it should do no harm to shoe for a while then take them off at the end of the season.
 
The chipping looks like it is due to the feet are too long. There is a fair bit of flair going on there. It may be that you horse needs trimming more frequently at present to keep this in check. Maybe just tickling the edges yourself every couple of weeks or so between trims?

As already said, there is no harm in shoing for the eventing season and then removing them...
 
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