Shoes, tarmac and slipping

[scruffyponies]

I was riding out at the weekend in the company of a number of shod horses. As they hit the road you can hear them all sliding and slipping, just in walk.

When so much of our riding is done on a metalled surface, traditional shoes don't seem to do the job very well.
Happily all mine are barefoot, but I am not against shoeing. I have seen carriage horses in Africa shod with pieces of old tyre, which seemed to protect the foot and obviously increased traction. Are there any other options?

Those with shod horses, does the slipping about not bother you? It would annoy the hell out of me!

 

[teddypops]

Some of my ponies are shod, some are not. The shod ponies have road nails to prevent slipping.

 

[milliepops]

a small bit of slipping is normal and fine, horses start to get problems when they can't slip at all during movement - its something that has to be considered when studding for instance, and ultra grippy waxed artificial surfaces are often associated with increased risk of injury. therefore I don't think I'd want rubber shoes

I almost always have road nails in my shod ones and apart from the most glass-like of roads this gives them a good level of security.

 

[ihatework]

You don't really want rubber on the shoes, too much traction, it changes the locomotion of the limb and applies strain higher up.

This is what road nails are for, but I find they don't last the whole shoeing cycle.

But honestly, its not normal for shod horses to be slipping and sliding all over the place. What I have found is there is a particular type of road surface, thankfully not common around here, that really does make them slip, I avoid those stretches - other wise none of mine regularly slip.

 

[dogatemysalad]

BHS advise you to inform your council of slippery road surfaces. The BHS also has an online form for reporting this. Horse riders are vulnerable road users and slippery road surfaces are dangerous for not only horses, but cyclists and motorbikers.

 

[SOS]

Mine have only really slipped consistently when not ‘completely right’. This could be under muscled, coming back into work, simply not being ridden correctly or low grade lame.

I have had road pins in the horses that have needed them in the past and currently have them just to help with traction on the large hills around here. He doesn’t slip at all now but when fat and doing his walk work would occasionally slip behind so I used resistance bands to strengthen there.

As per Millie pops post, hooves should slip to a small degree. They should not be fixed in place. I imagine barefoot horses too slip a little when going up and down road hills... you just can’t hear it

 

[scruffyponies]

a small bit of slipping is normal and fine

This isn't true at all for unshod horses. They slip on ice, and on wet chalk, but not on tarmac.

 

[milliepops]

This isn't true at all for unshod horses. They slip on ice, and on wet chalk, but not on tarmac.

i mean the mechanics of how horses move. they need to have a bit of slip as IHW also said.

 

[scruffyponies]

I imagine barefoot horses too slip a little when going up and down road hills... you just can’t hear it

Absolutely not - in fact one of my driving ponies routinely holds back a heavy carriage down a very steep incline in (collected) trot without slipping at all.

 

[milliepops]

even bare hooves should slip a bit to retain soundness, bit of info in this article

https://barehoofcare.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Get-a-Grip.pdf

 

[scruffyponies]

I should say that I'm not talking about normal movement, hoof rotation, breakover etc... I'm talking about the horse losing the foot underneath them, and having to catch themselves with the other legs, which can neither be 'normal' nor good for the horse.

 

[The Jokers Girl]

I was riding out at the weekend in the company of a number of shod horses. As they hit the road you can hear them all sliding and slipping, just in walk.

When so much of our riding is done on a metalled surface, traditional shoes don't seem to do the job very well.
Happily all mine are barefoot, but I am not against shoeing. I have seen carriage horses in Africa shod with pieces of old tyre, which seemed to protect the foot and obviously increased traction. Are there any other options?

Those with shod horses, does the slipping about not bother you? It would annoy the hell out of me!

Mine doesn't often go on the road as not worked now but when she was she had road nails and road pins on the back feet, never had an issue with slipping with those on her shoes. A friend just has standard shoes, no road nails, pins and her horse is solid as a rock on the road, never slips about.
Mine was barefoot for several years before shoes became a necessity for her and she did occasionally slip bare foot so I think depends on road surface and horse balance to whether they will slip rather than shod or unshod

 

[SpeedyPony]

Mine doesn't slip when unshod, but used to slip on tarmac and sometimes grass when he first had fronts on. I did wonder if this was partially because he wasn't used to being shod though. Now he's shod with road studs on all four hooves and we don't have any real problems.
We have a lot of steep roads around here and I definitely wouldn't want him shod all round without studs/road nails as the surfaces are pretty bad in some places.

 

[ester]

I've never had a road slip without shoes even on the slippiest of slippy bits (the sort of bits that when hunting everyone else has to walk.
Mostly had road nails when shod.

 

[milliepops]

I've been in places where the tarmac is so smooth that even my unshod ones have slipped, normally when the road is wet which sort of made it greasy. thankfully they were in places I could avoid most of the time, though one yard had an almost polished road just outside the stable barn which was a PITA.

 

[ester]

polished, yes that's the best word, this bit was technically loooong driveway to the posh house.

 

[SOS]

Absolutely not - in fact one of my driving ponies routinely holds back a heavy carriage down a very steep incline in (collected) trot without slipping at all.

I should say that I'm not talking about normal movement, hoof rotation, breakover etc... I'm talking about the horse losing the foot underneath them, and having to catch themselves with the other legs, which can neither be 'normal' nor good for the horse.

If you read the whole of my post I talk about how a degree of small slipping movement when the foot is expected in both shod and barefoot horses.

If the accompanying horses were slipping continuously to the point of loosing their leg that’s not normal.. were they being ridden correctly or allowed to dribble along? As per my previous post true slipping IMO has always been associated with other issues.

 

[scruffyponies]

These were fit horses being ridden well, and they were definitely not slobbing along on the forehand.
I last had a shod horse myself 20 years ago, with road nails in for driving.
Might they have had studs? Do they make it worse?

 

[fredflop]

I can’t remember the exact type of road surface now, I think it’s some type of SMA. There was an article in H&H many years ago about it.

 

[holeymoley]

Road pins.

Mine was slipping a bit too often for my liking on tarmac. I asked the farrier to pop some road pins or something of the sort on. That was 2 shoeings ago and he’s had them ever since. Not slipped once! I wouldn’t have bothered but I felt that the slipping was causing him not be a bit over cautious about striding out.

 

[Bernster]

We hacked out at the new yard yesterday and there are stretches of downhill tarmac that were slippy. My boy (shod all round) only slipped once but he did go carefully over those bits. He’s got road nails in the back but as well be doing this more often next time I will have them put in all round. I don’t like it and it does make me very careful but no avoiding it at this new yard unless we are allowed to use the pristine grass verges (I assume not!).

 

[huskydamage]

Not a problem for me but I always have full set of road nails in mine. I do so much road work I wouldn't have them without. They might slip a bit on a downhill slope when its been chucking it down with rain or on a metal drain cover but thats it. I went on a fun ride that had a ramp bit in it and pretty much every horse in front of me slid down it, mine didn't so they do their job.

 

[Kat]

I don't know why more people don't use hoof boots.

I understand that barefoot isn't for everyone, but here we have some pretty slippery tarmac and some steep hills, lots of horses that hack but don't compete so I would have thought hoof boots would be ideal. They give much better traction than metal shoes on smooth tarmac.

One of the reasons I would avoid shoeing on all four is slippery tarmac. Barefeet have much much better grip on tarmac, it scares me to see some horses skating along.

 

[Pippity]

I only have road nails behind, but they're enough to stop her slipping. I did have them all-round, but she was losing her shoes a lot in front, and farrier suggested the road nails weren't helping. I don't know if it's coincidence, but she hasn't lost a shoe since I stopped with the road nails in front.

 

[criso]

BHS advise you to inform your council of slippery road surfaces. The BHS also has an online form for reporting this. Horse riders are vulnerable road users and slippery road surfaces are dangerous for not only horses, but cyclists and motorbikers.

But does anything get done?

There was a very well publicised incident a couple of years ago where I am. Was reported, covered in HHO, all over facebook but it's still the same and riders go down carefully. It's downhill and slippery and not that avoidable as it's the route from several yards to the bridlepaths.

I was coming down yesterday and very thankful my tb has no shoes as he was a little fresh and wanting to trot downhill.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Rail nails.

The section of road stretching for several 100ms both ways from the house is worn smooth with age, it’s lethal for shod horses without road nails. Perfect for rehabbing an unshod horse, though, apart from the traffic.

 

[Baywonder]

My old boy started to slip on tarmac. I mentioned it to my farrier, and he popped in a few road nails, and this worked a treat!

 

[dogatemysalad]

But does anything get done?

There was a very well publicised incident a couple of years ago where I am. Was reported, covered in HHO, all over facebook but it's still the same and riders go down carefully. It's downhill and slippery and not that avoidable as it's the route from several yards to the bridlepaths.

I was coming down yesterday and very thankful my tb has no shoes as he was a little fresh and wanting to trot downhill.

Depends on your council. A few years ago, the parish council put tarmac on a stretch of a bridleway. The horses couldn't keep upright even when we got off to lead them. A week later, I noticed that the council had put up temporary signs (after complaints) to warn of the danger.
I rang the parish councillor who said she couldn't afford the extra £4,200 to correct the problem. I told her that it would be cheaper than paying for legal action if my horse broke it's leg, particularly as the signs now acknowledged a safety hazard.
Rang the county council right of way officer who was fantastic. He told me that she'd already been told to get the work done. Less than two weeks later, the bridleway was sorted.

 

[criso]

Depends on your council. A few years ago, the parish council put tarmac on a stretch of a bridleway. The horses couldn't keep upright even when we got off to lead them. A week later, I noticed that the council had put up temporary signs (after complaints) to warn of the danger.
I rang the parish councillor who said she couldn't afford the extra £4,200 to correct the problem. I told her that it would be cheaper than paying for legal action if my horse broke it's leg, particularly as the signs now acknowledged a safety hazard.
Rang the county council right of way officer who was fantastic. He told me that she'd already been told to get the work done. Less than two weeks later, the bridleway was sorted.

Meanwhile a local bridleway round here is being tarmacked to make it better for cyclists.

But bridleways aside, I was thinking of how often roads get resurfaced because of horse riders, even after an accident.

 

[ester]

There's a byway here which has been SMA'd (the really nasty slippy stuff) without notice (it leads to a big/new town development but also goes across the cambs busway which has bridleway alongside it though heavily used by everyone). It looks like it would be fairly nasty to ride on.