Shoes

L

LuanneCat

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 June 2005
Messages
701
Location
South Gloucestershire, UK
Visit site
To shoe or not to shoe. I know this has been debated on here before but can't find it. There are only a few reasons I would have Mighty shod. Either it's recommended by the Farrier for remedial purposes, the hoves are waak or was planning on a reasonable amount of roadwork. None of these apply so she is going barefoot. Currently she has just front shoes.

What do all your Horses have? All four shoes, just fronts, or something else?.
smile.gif
 
mine have shoes all round but if they didnt need to they certainly wouldnt have!! my tb has really poor feet and need remedial shoes and my youngster got a bit foot sore, until he did though i didnt have him shod. if you dont need to i wouldnt
 
Tia has fronts
smile.gif

When she events, she will have her backs shod too so she can be studded but that's not till next year.
She has fronts to give her that extra support, she has TB feet so not the strongest, we do road work, we jump on grass and on surface and i don't think her feet would hold up to it all
x
 
bracken has fronts on as she's flat footed (bl*ddy TB's!!) she was barefoot but after vet and farrier advice (she managed to bruise both soles by her toes!!) now just got the two to help raise her feet she doesnt do any work though so the shoes dont wear down!!
 
Sparks is shod all round, so I can have stud holes, as show, jump and do dressage on grass, also do a fair amount of road work.
 
galaxy is normally shod but just had his shoes taken off cause im not riding much at the moment due to exams and he has really good feet so can get away with the occassional ride with no shoes. Saves me about £40 per session. I will have his shoes put back on when everything is over so i can do more work with him
 
Had mine unshod all winter and bought hoof boots for the times when I could ride. She is shod for the summer but come November will have them taken off again. Parts of our fields turn to soup over the winter and the shoes just fall off. I would have liked to have gone barefoot totally but her feet are not good enough once they start to dry out
 
Jim is shod all round, he's got awful feet & just wouldn't cope unshod.

Little Un is unshod & the moment (unbroken 3yo) & I hope to keep him that way if possible. So far he copes fine with in hand road work & stony tracks & farrier thinks he should be able to stay this way for some time.
 
Maiden came to me with eggbars on for remedial purposes, and was shod on all four all the time I rode her. When she first went lame I had the backs taken off as there was no need for them as she wasn't being ridden (but the fronts stayed on as it is a foreleg lameness and was then un-diagnosed so we didn't want to change anything). Her fronts came off for her MRI scan and never went back on. My farrier told me I could ride her barefoot as she has really strong feet, so did my vet, but my vet was shocked how much her fronts have broken up (not even ridden on, she's been on box rest/ field rest the whole time!) so that won't happen. So she's currently unshod and unworked, if she is ever hacked again she'll have at least front shoes on but probably not backs unless she comes back into serious work AND she proves that she needs them. But both of those things are unlikely so half and half she will stay!
My last pony decided one day that she didn't want her back shoes nailed in, and lasted barefoot behind happily (as we have more off-road hacking than on-road) until they gravelled the tracks in the woods where we ride. She went very footsore and had to have them back on, luckily she'd forgotten all about being a prat!
I'm always willing to give barefoot behind a go if my farrier agrees, but in front and with the amount of roadwork I do now, I'd be cautious.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top