to shoe and stud the barefoot horse? or not.

Hoof_Prints

Hoof_Prints

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Been given conflicting advice, and not sure what to do. My horse has super feet, although due to the weather a front one has a crack at the front. farrier says nothing to worry about as it's not getting worse. He has hunted and done xc without shoes fine, but a few people have told me i need to have him fully shod and studded up for team chasing- took him team chasing barefoot a week ago and he was fine on 23/24 fences but slipped on his hinds on one fence (you may have seen the photo!) so would you advise full set of shoes and studs? don't have long to get him used to them so would need to have it done within the next week really. is it the done thing to TC with studs or without? as i'd rather TC barefoot than with shoes and no studs! I admit I'm not the most knowledgeable with studs as I've never used them :o
 
How clever is your trimmer? You can knotch the wall of the hoof for extra grip, if they know what they are doing. It works a bit like a jagged finger nail - you know how you always catch those.

My trimmer used to do this for me when I was endurance riding - early in our season the ground could still be a bit soggy, so hill riding was quite slippery. Worked a treat.
 
NZJenny said:
How clever is your trimmer? You can knotch the wall of the hoof for extra grip, if they know what they are doing. It works a bit like a jagged finger nail - you know how you always catch those.

My trimmer used to do this for me when I was endurance riding - early in our season the ground could still be a bit soggy, so hill riding was quite slippery. Worked a treat.
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I can ask him about that definitely, I was wondering if there was a way to "stud" a barefoot hoof. Obviously without actual studs but you know what I mean :) i'd imagine that could make the hoof chip up a bit though. It would be a shame to put all four shoes on, especially the backs as his back feet are invincible but having just front on wouldn't be any good
 
If you stud at all you would want to stud either all 4 or hinds only. They need the grip to push up over the fence. Are there hoof boots which might work?

I'm not a barefoot expert by any means - everything I have had has always been shod. But I am quite good with studs. I am also a big fan of keeping your horse as suits him. Obviously you need to be safe; but if he is OK barefoot and nothing in the rules stops him being barefoot then stick with it. Even studded horses slip from time to time!!
 
I am having the same dilema at the moment!! My horse is a 7 year old who has never had shoes on and has great feet. We mostly SJ on a surface but I did a BE event on Friday. She coped ok with no shoes/studs but she slipped a bit twice with her hinds when i asked her to do a tight turn. I really don't want to put shoes on but most people say that you absolutely need studs to jump on grass. In fact my SJ trainer said yesterday it may be impacting her grip on a surface?!!! I really don't know. I wish there was a way of studding a barefoot horse. The hoof boots aren't far enough advanced IMHO. I will read the responses to this thread with interest!
 
Renegade do studded hoof boots. I've not used them so can't comment personally on their performance, but their normal boots have been used for the Tevis Cup and that's no picnic.
 
I think it really depends on how much of it you think you will do on him and how seriously.

The ground is pretty hard round here, not sure about near you but means it tends to be slippy on top. For a lot of team chasing I think it is muddier! I do think if I were still competing Frank and didn't want to be ground restricted for drsg/SJ/XC on grass I would shoe for part of the year.

I wouldn't want to use boots and studs for a few reasons.
 
If the team chasing or XC was going to be a very regular thing then I think would shoe. If it is only the odd competition on grass then I wouldn't want to have to go through a transitioning period again when I took the shoes off, I wouldn't waste good feet personally but then I don't jump on grass much these days
 
I have had exactly this quandary. Boots are typically not allowed in XC comps here, studded or otherwise, plus I would have reservations about that anyway potentially. And while I know a lot of people event perfectly successfully barefoot, I know me and my horse and I'm not prepared to do it. I know I wouldn't ride properly through getting defensive, which wouldn't help either of us. And in my mind I'd rather compromise temporarily on the feet for increased protection against the potentially awful implications of a bad slip. I considered glue on shoes too, but ultimately decided I would do a shorter season than most, but shoe for it. So my horse had shoes from start of May to 1st September, and is now barefoot again until next spring and between now and then we will only compete on a surface. She has great feet, and I think there are two ways to look at that. One is that you don't want to "ruin" them by shoeing, or that they're a good candidate to cope well with having shoes on for a short period and then being comfortable barefoot again very quickly.
 
I used to shoe (and stud) mine during the eventing season and then take them off from about October - March (when our season stops) since he BS'd indoors during that time, but I only have grass paddocks to ride in at home and he still worked perfectly happily. I just took my mare to her first ever XC yesterday, plan to event her next year so guess I'll have to shoe her then - will hold off for as long as possible but the last thing I want is for her to slip and lose confidence. I wish boots of some kind were proven to work well eventing etc. and that they were actually legal.
 
I think if I were to shoe this would be my preferred option: http://www.eponashoe.com/ as they are a much more "natural" shoe - for want of a better way of putting it.

Do consider that adding the weight of a shoe to a horse's foot affects the swing phase of the horse's leg and therefore how hard the horse has to work compared to without shoes. I think if I were to shoe with metal shoes I would ease off the work and then build up gradually after the shoeing, in order to reduce the risk of strain due to the added weight. I read an article where they had done a study on it but I can't find it now unfortunately.
 
Fuzzypuff said:
I think if I were to shoe this would be my preferred option: http://www.eponashoe.com/ as they are a much more "natural" shoe - for want of a better way of putting it.
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They were the glue on options I considered, you can glue and / or nail. My farrier who's a barefoot / weirdy shoe specialist said in practice they come off a lot and it can get a bit eye-watering to keep paying to put them back on! But if anyone has had good results with the Eponas for eventing I'd be really interested to hear for next year as they do look a great concept. We did go for aluminium on the fronts for mine as it's not only lighter but also softer and they can more easily wear the breakover where they want etc in a sort of version of "self trimming".
 
The think with most of the plastic shoeing options that I think I would tend to prefer to be bare than use many of them for traction purposes although you can stud with the eponas, not sure whether you can with any of the others.

hoof prints I think your farrier trims for you atm, have a chat with him. I think you should be able to shoe while not compromising the hoof too much that it wouldn't take too long to get back to stone crunching.
 
it is a bit of a conundrum ..... as there are so few horses being competed XC without shoes, it is tricky to know whether it is a disadvantage or not ... I would agree that if you are shod, then you need to stud ... but without shoes is there really less grip ? or more ? ... I know I have sometimes looked at studs I put in and wonder if they really make that much difference, or if the difference is in the riders mind ? .. if we have no studs in , or are barefoot, do we tend to ride more defensively/ differently , or do the studs really make the horse more stable ?? .. I am still undecided.
It is very tricky question ... if you don't , and your horse slips it will always be 'told you , you should have had shoes / studs in ' .. if the horse does not slip 'you got lucky' ...
 
on hard ground with wet slippy turf on top studs definitely make a difference. Mechanically there isn't a lot of grip otherwise bare, or in shoes.
 
philamena said:
They were the glue on options I considered, you can glue and / or nail. My farrier who's a barefoot / weirdy shoe specialist said in practice they come off a lot and it can get a bit eye-watering to keep paying to put them back on! But if anyone has had good results with the Eponas for eventing I'd be really interested to hear for next year as they do look a great concept. We did go for aluminium on the fronts for mine as it's not only lighter but also softer and they can more easily wear the breakover where they want etc in a sort of version of "self trimming".
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I'm currently competing BE90 in Eponas all round (we're failed barefooters). My farrier uses both glue and nails and I don't have any more issues keeping them on than I would do with a normal shoe - in fact he keeps them on better than he used to do when he was conventionally shod. He occasionally pulls off a front when jumping (which he used to do with metal shoes) but one of the good things I have found is that they don't damage the hoof wall at all when they get pulled off, he never pulls any chunks of foot off...

They have good grip but I have found them a little slippery on hard ground/grass - however I have just had a set put on with the stud holes for this reason although have yet to try them with studs. Overall I love them and the horse is doing well in them (much better feet and good growth). I would say you need the co-operation of your farrier as they are time consuming to put on. My farrier loves them and although they are not cheap for a full set, I think he does them for a fair price.
 
bluehorse said:
I'm currently competing BE90 in Eponas all round (we're failed barefooters). My farrier uses both glue and nails and I don't have any more issues keeping them on than I would do with a normal shoe - in fact he keeps them on better than he used to do when he was conventionally shod. He occasionally pulls off a front when jumping (which he used to do with metal shoes) but one of the good things I have found is that they don't damage the hoof wall at all when they get pulled off, he never pulls any chunks of foot off...

They have good grip but I have found them a little slippery on hard ground/grass - however I have just had a set put on with the stud holes for this reason although have yet to try them with studs. Overall I love them and the horse is doing well in them (much better feet and good growth). I would say you need the co-operation of your farrier as they are time consuming to put on. My farrier loves them and although they are not cheap for a full set, I think he does them for a fair price.
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That's great, thank you! Maybe I'll revisit them as an option for next season. Can I ask how much your farrier charges for a full set? (And where you are / who your farrier is?) PM me if you prefer. My farrier is very open minded, he's a barefoot convert in a massive way, but I think the few horses he's used these on he's struggled with a bit in terms of keeping them on. Though he said he was fully prepared to admit that may be him needing to improve his skills with them, which is a refreshing admission as always - he's very open minded.
 
great replies , thanks a lot. I am swaying towards putting a full set on this week and studding to be honest, originally i was going to have fronts put on for hunting as I wanted to just protect his front feet from getting chipped if galloping over gravel. He has invincible backs but the front can chip up a bit if worked really hard on rocky ground. Thing is that he will probably be working mostly on a surface in the winter, just doing some regular unaffiliated showjumping and dressage at venues with very good surfaces to work on. He will hunt but not that often, and last year he was pretty much fine hunting barefoot- I also am not fond of the idea hunting with studs in case of falls with lots of horses and riders around to stamp on should that happen. So really I would be putting shoes on for one team chase in a couple weeks and then another in the spring- he xcs for hours without slipping but that's on prepared take offs and landings and it all depends on how the ground is. Ahh :( why can't you just drill stud holes in to feet without issues :D My worry is that he will be jumping some very big hedges and drop fences that could have a slippy take off and landing, if he was to slip and hurt himself I would never sleep at night again. My farrier is brilliant but not really in to the modern stuff, he's quite old school and keeps it simple. Will have a proper re read of the posts, i forget them as soon as i start typing again
 
Horse do still slip studded.

I hunted and SJ in very slippery conditions and never had an issue with loosing grip once his feet were good when I first transitioned he couldn't canter properly on hard / very soft ground, studded horses strugged with the ground at the SJ comp.

Was it the slippery going that caused the issue at the last fence or was the horse not well balanced / good approach etc?
 
Oh yes I know, I was just surprised OP brought it up, I quite happily hunt mine bare but am not sure that I would want to be doing competitive show jumping on grass.

OP I do know someone who shod to go to hoys and took them straight off again without any real issues I don't think. How about shoe for teamchase then take backs off for rest on winter?
 
ester said:
Oh yes I know, I was just surprised OP brought it up, I quite happily hunt mine bare but am not sure that I would want to be doing competitive show jumping on grass.

OP I do know someone who shod to go to hoys and took them straight off again without any real issues I don't think. How about shoe for teamchase then take backs off for rest on winter?
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Ah gotcha.

Can't see an issue with popping some on for one cycle / couple of weeks now and again. Being honest, if you only want them on for the events then although it feels like a slightly odd thing to do, it actually isn't odd at all only to put them on for the events themselves. My farrier advised putting them on about a week before competing as it can take them a little while to get accustomed to them again, but no reason they can't come straight back off the day after!
 
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