Shoes/road/winter

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xTrooperx

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My little Coblet has been barefoot but at present doing a quite abit road work. I am thinking of sticking front shoes on, but worried about slippy ground when winter comes what's better barefoot? Shoes with studs? ..
 
xTrooperx said:
My little Coblet has been barefoot but at present doing a quite a bit road work. I am thinking of sticking front shoes on, but worried about slippy ground when winter comes what's better barefoot? Shoes with studs? ..
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I have just had pretty much this exactly conversation with my farrier (although warmblood, not cob). He recommended I leave mine barefoot as it gives him a much better grip but not to trot him on the road at all.
 
All depends really. Why are you wanting the shoes? If it is because your horse is wearing his feet down too quickly then shoes would be the way forward. If it is because you think they should have shoes on, but the feet are fine, then no leave them barefoot.
 
Thank god I'm not the only one worrying, have toyed with idea of hoof boots but decided they would be even worse with slipping.
So a vote of barefoot.
 
Reason I'm looking is starting to get low, not really bad but not wanting to get to that point. I can decrease work if needs but just starting to get somewhere.
Otherwise she got lovely strong feet.
 
I would stick with barefoot unless your farrier thinks it's wearing your horses feet too much, which you'd probably have to be doing loadssss to do that!

My horses shoes are quite a bit slippier in winter even with road studs, although it's not THAT bad but if I have to do road work in winter I do have to be careful. If the roads are dry it's no problem.
 
My horses are shoeless in winter but haver shoes on April to October. I find it better for them to be shoeless in the winter when out in the paddock and dont do much work because of fog/ice/rain/gales/snow.
 
Shoes and roads, ice and snow don't mix, even with road nails are lethal with regards to slipping.
Barefoot is safer, walk, trot or cantering on the road. (Obviously not trotting or cantering on iced up roads.)
If you have an imbalance of wear, use hoof boots, much safer than shoes.
If you cannot be arsed using hoofboots as part of your barefoot regime, get a bike.
 
It depends on the ground you are riding on. On the roads barefoot is far better for grip and hoof boots give more grip than shoes (even with road studs). If you do a lot of fast work on grass you might be better with shoes and studs.

I have my mare barefoot (but we use front boots for some of our hacking) and the difference on the roads between her and our shod hacking buddies is incredible! We never slip, even when the others are skating about on smooth tarmac. We also stride out down steep hills and aren't afraid to trot on worn tarmac.

The only time we have slipped we were using boots and hit a patch of ice. Had we we been shod we'd have been on the the floor. As it was her fronts slipped out but she stayed upright.
 
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Barefoot is definitely better for slipping on the roads. I used to slip all the time in shoes but never being barefoot. Id get some hoof boots if you are worried about wear. I have the equine fusions and we have never slipped in them. She walks as if shes born in them.
 
Shoes will slip more than boots which will only slip on mud/ice. What I would do is use boots some of the time and bare when its icy. Well ideally I'd not use boots but if you feel bare isn't working boots will be better I think.
 
If you can get away with barefoot then do, but if you need shoes then get tungsten pins. My road was retarmacked and whatever mix they used was lethal for horses (very very steep road too) but with the tungsten pins we felt very secure
 
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