Would you be put off buying an 'unshod', barefoot horse?

dominobrown

dominobrown

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My little project pony, chunky connie, who is a poppet is currently getting broken in then I will sell once she has 'done' a bit.
However she is unshod, or barefoot or whatever you want to call it!
She has one slight crack in her front foot that would trim out but otherwise you cannot fault her feet. Even when leading her with the other ponies down to the field is a little bit of a pain as when I am trying to lead a few at once she is the only one who is not footy (maybe because I don't feed mollassed chaff etc? while the others do?) she steps out beautiful on hardcore/ gravel/ rough going, quite happy and confident.

However there have been a few comments on the fact she 'needs' to be shod to be sold and the fact I don't have shoes on looks like I am scrimping or she is 'bad' to do. She is no bother to pick up her feet or trim but instead of being a selling point it seems it might put people off buying her as she has never been shod.

Would it bother you? Would you put it against her?
 
Agree with both previous posters - wouldn't put me off in any way, lovely to see a horse who is happily working barefoot with good little rock crunchers :)
 
I have sold ponies that have not been shod, I do usually shoe horses before selling if they are aimed at the competition market but ponies I tend to leave unshod and have had no problems selling, I currently have a Dales in to sell who was shod in the past but due to doing very little his owner took the shoes off, we plan on keeping him unshod and selling him without shoeing unless he doesn't cope with the increased workload.
I think it depends on the individual buyer, some will be more than happy, others may be a bit suspicious or even scared of a barefoot pony if they are used to everything being shod regardless, I would see how it goes when you put her on the market I certainly would not shoe until she either needs it or the market shows she does!
 
I would not worry I would want your assurance that you had not tried to shoe her and failed or had her shod and removed them because of a problem but it would not put me off .
However I know lots of people it would put off .
 
Quite the opposite, I'll be actively looking for an unshod horse when I start looking next year.
But it's still not seen as normal for a horse to be barefoot, most people seem to shoe just because, well horses wear shoes don't they?, with not much thought about whether the horse actually needs them or not.
It's changing slowly though, I'm not evangelical about barefoot, if a horse needs shoes he should have them, but I'd much rather buy a sound barefoot horse, that way you know they're truly sound, and not just sound in shoes, which to my mind is actually unsound.
 
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mmmm.. I'm currently looking for a horse and in principle wouldn't object to something that was barefooted.

BUT, but, there would still be a vague suspicion that if something was "unshod" that that might just translate as "unshoeable" i.e. difficult with the farrier, and I would want to probe a little bit about how the horse actually behaves whilst being trimmed. My instinct would be to ask the seller if I might speak to the farrier for myself - even better, if it were possible, to actually witness the farrier doing the horse for myself, that would certainly ease my mind, whilst appreciating that this wouldn't be easy to arrange.

But that's probably my suspicious mind working overtime.........
 
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She is registered pure bred Connie under 14.2HH, so bepositive I would agree if she was a TB or WB competition horse abut shoes. Obviously I will see how she copes but at the moment it just seems like a waste of money!
Also once she has shoes on (sure some barefooters will agree!) it would kind of wreck her feet to go barefoot.
 
She is absolutely no bother to trim, I suppose if someone agreed to buy her but shod it would be no bother to do.
Shame that some people would feel the need to shoe just for the sheer hell of it. I am not an 'evangelical' barefooter either but I would only put shoes on when needed, surely its common sense!?
 
Wouldn't bother me but then I evented my horse barefoot, had him shod when we moved yards as he couldn't cope with the stony driveway and it was the middle of the competition season, he went lame with foot problems a few months later now rehabbing him barefoot once more.

That said I bought a horse and had to send her back as we couldn't take her shoes off even with sedation let alone put more on so as above I'd want to talk to trimmer about how the horse was and would pick up foot, tap with hoof pick etc to check I could shoe if necessary in the future..
 
i would love to have a horse that was capable of being unshod and sound..... i would have slight reservations as to whether it was difficult to shoe, and would prob want to see it being trimmed if poss. however if it was a pony i would be less worried .i would think you will be ok as yours is 14,2 and people seem to be able to accept unshod ponies more easily...(including me)
 
splashgirl45 said:
i would love to have a horse that was capable of being unshod and sound..... i would have slight reservations as to whether it was difficult to shoe, and would prob want to see it being trimmed if poss. however if it was a pony i would be less worried .i would think you will be ok as yours is 14,2 and people seem to be able to accept unshod ponies more easily...(including me)
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Um....... your little mare sounds gorgeous OP: whereabouts in the country are you??? Just wondering ;)
 
I've sold five BE affiliated eventers and a six foot hedge hopper all five star vetted and with no shoes on. Nobody batted an eyelid. It's more of a problem of it's only one horse that has no shoes on and others with the same owner are shod.
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Oh b@gger!!! WHY why oh why are the decent horses always the other side of the country or "Oop North".

Dammit. Yours sounds like such a little treasure too. Ah well...... (sighs wistfully).
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ALL the best things are oop north. It's the biggest secret in the country. They don't tell you because we don't want everyone else coming here. :D
 
It wouldn't bother me on the assumption genuinely sound and I was t going to be forking out on a vetting for a footsore horse.
However, once sale was agreed I would expect to see the horse being shod before handing over the money
 
Both my horses I specifically wanted barefoot. With more experience now I may consider buying a shod horse and removing shoes. But back then I didn't have enough knowledge to help a horse transition. So I only looked at barefoot horses.
 
Another who'd see this as a positive thing. Shoes are so so expensive these days that i'd actually look for a horse thats barefoot now if i was looking to buy.
 
if she was a connie I wouldn't care if she was unshod but I would want her tested for HWSS. That would be far more important than whether she was shod.
 
No as long as the pony was not being managed or worked in a way that would be different to what I was able to offer and wanted to do.

If the pony is on light work on soft ground and was not proven to be able to cope without shoes if in more heavy work on stony ground and someone knew that they were going to be doing a lot of work on stony ground and they may need to shoe then it might put them off if they did not know if the pony was going to be good to shoe or not. Not everyone wants to use hoof boots.

However if the pony has been proven to fine without shoes in medium work including on stones and roads without any special management then it would be a good sign for a lot of people.
 
My TB mare is unshod - she has absolutely cracking feet. If I was selling (I'm definitely not) I'd describe as currently unshod, and explain to buyers that she doesn't need shoes for the work she does with me (flatwork and hacking) but has been shod before and is fine to shoe (all true). She was unshod for years before I got her, had shoes put on for the vetting, hinds came off to turn her out with new horses, and the fronts followed at the next farrier appointment.

Totally irrational of me, but as a buyer I'd possibly be just a tiny bit put off by the word "barefoot" - which can means all sorts of good things, but can also - sometimes - mean a nutty owner. If it's a non-native, some sort of explanation (ie doesn't need shoes for current work type) would be useful, to show it isn't just the owner being cheap, or the poor animal isn't forced into working without shoes when it's uncomfortable.

I like to keep horses without shoes where possible, but it isn't a perfect world and some may need them - in which case, they should get them. As long as that philosophy is reflected by the seller, I'd be quite happy with something unshod / barefoot. I'd be very happy for a buyer to witness a trim, less so to wallop shoes on unless a sale was confirmed.
 
I currently have three horses, two unshod and one shod. I prefer unshod, whenever possible. My friend has just shod her stunning highland pony for the first time in order to sell her. I think she was silly. However it's how some people think. My farrier is of the view that whenever possible barefoot is good. He is helping me take my Clydesdale barefoot. All my friend did when she rode him ( the Clyde not the farrier ;) was to keep on about getting him shod, like it was the right thing to do, like I couldn't ride him appropriately if he wasn't shod. It maybe those great big feet will need fronts but so far he is coming along fine and his feet are getting stronger every trim. I just think people shoe because they think it's what you do and never think any further then that.
 
I was at a County Show recently and I was quite surprised at the number of ponies that were either totally unshod or only had the front shoes on.

I used to ride and hunt my 12.2 pony without shoes.
 
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