Why do i feel so bad?

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Redsara

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My horse didn't have shoes on when I bought her two years ago so I looked into the barefoot thing and found a barefoot trimmer. She has been fine with light off road hacking but now I've moved yards!
I am progressing with her and am looking to do endurance work, which many at the new yard do. Most of the routes here are quite beautiful country lanes or farmers tracks with very little soft going and her feet are wearing much more than I've noticed before.
The other riders are lovely but I am holding them back as they don't go as fast on the Tarmac when I'm with them. Also I'm worried she'll go foot sore and I won't be able to ride her at all-I have a weeks camp in June and a week by the coast with her in sept.
All my other horses I've ever had were shod so why do I feel so guilty now about getting her shod???? Am I the only person who's ever been in this situation? Any comforting words of wisdom?
Thanks
 
Yes there are boots but I'm not that evangelical about being barefoot. That's the stupid thing. It seems just too much expense and faff to try and get boots that fit and more trouble to put them on each time
 
Hoof boots are great. You can do some work without them and some with them. It works out cheaper than shoes and you have all the benefits of being unshod but protection when you need it. Your horses hoofs may adapt to doing more and more work unbooted over time.

ETA sorry I didn't see your reply. In that case just shoe then, the horse won't care either way as long as she doesn't have sore feet.
 
Any horse needs to be gradually built up to new terrain whether or not it is shod. My horse does over 100km a week barefoot and none of that is soft going. She should be fine on tarmac. If she's not, then I would want to sort that out, and I don't mean with shoes.
 
Your horse, your decision. If you think she's getting footsore why not just shoe the fronts and see how you go? TBH I don't have an opinion one way or the other about shoeing, I just want my horses to be comfortable and cope with the work they are getting, for my competition horse it's shoes fitted by my excellent farrier (who incidentally, is more than happy for horses to be barefoot) for the retired TB, it's barefoot and his feet look fab but he'd never cope with a lot of work without shoes, at least on the fronts! My opinion, my choice. No need to feel guilty.
 
Personally for HER i would try boots before shoes. But only because she has been bare for so long, and i would hate to mess with that.
 
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