Barefoot horses

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Do you shoe your horses or use the barefoot method.We've been letting ours go unshoed after we went to a horse mgmt seminar for the 4h kids.The farrier said not to shoe if the horse was on pasture and trails only.Just needed shoes for pavement and esp gravel.Found this site Barefoot Horses Haven't had an opportunity to peruse it, but thought you might be interested. What do you think?

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2001

Answers

Mine have always been "barefoot" except if a longish road trip was planned.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2001

Both of my horses have mostly been unshod. Neither got/gets much work, certainly not on hard surfaces. The first horse had hooves of iron (apparently), but did have shoes to help her when she got arthritis. Julie will no doubt have more to say on the subject.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2001

Yup, that's me...more to say about horses....

Most my horses have gone barefoot, but there are some times when you need shoes, even with a horse that works on dirt and turf. Albert, my oldest QH, HAS to have shoes (and sometimes pads) to keep his feet from cracking away to nothing and laming him up. He's roping stock bred, and bulks around 1100-1200 lbs (I try to keep him lighter to relieve his feet) at 16.2 hh, and was bred with little bitty feet -- those QH people mucking things up. The farrier kept pestering, saying that it would be better for him to go barefoot for a while, I kept saying 'no', finally, I think he thought he'd be sneaky and 'didn't have time' to do his shoes, just trimmed him. He was lame inside of two days, the edges were crumbling off, and I called him up and said he had to come and make time to get his shoes back on. Now he doesn't give me any hassle about not keeping Al shod, and Al stays sound.

My jumper also has to have shoes if she is going to be working, it's too much force on her feet when she lands (she has 3 white hooves), and that's on dirt and in arenas. Otherwise, if she's kicking back and relaxing she's fine barefoot.

Likewise, a friend's horse is mildly navicular, and age 21, and he has to be kept in pads and egg-bar shoes to keep him sound, with working dirt arenas and out on pasture.

At the riding stable where I worked years in the past, they tend to shoe just the front feet on the horses. They work on dirt trails, but with the miles they put on, they really need the shoes to keep their hooves from wearing down too fast. Some of the horses had bad quality hooves and needed shoeing all around.

I keep my horses on Stride and it really does seem to do their hooves a lot of good. The farrier never tells me that my horses need anything for their hooves (like all the people trying to feed biotin, etc.). If your horse has a healthy hoof and can go barefoot, it's definitely more beneficial, however, one of the horse magazines recently ran a photo article on natural feet, having casts of actual feet of range mustangs that they compared to the casts of feet of horses kept on soft surfaces like pasturing broodmares. What a difference! The pastured feet were wretched, neglected looking, dished out, and not 'tight' at all, compared to the mustangs, who'd broomed them off on rocks and gravel etc and were fabulously angled, groomed, and sturdy.

Of course, they didn't have any life-casts of the mustangs who might have been eaten by predators because their feet were all broken up and they couldn't run away....

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001


I'm uninvited here, but Julie, have you tried feeding your horses corn? I really believe that is what ended the hoof problems my horses had. Two of mine were bad to have sand cracks until I changed to feeding them straight corn. Neither horse had any cracks the last two summers, which here in TX have been near hell. Last summer we had four months without a drop of rain and temps over 110 for two weeks. The ground was dry as can be, and we had to haul water for the horses, so there surely was no moisture spilt on the ground. None of mine had any hoof problems, although we didn't use them either. There was no sense in risking giving them a heat stroke. Just a thought.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001

great to hear from you Ava!!! I am glad that you are here.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001


Yes, Ava, there is corn in their grain mix that they get twice a day (less corn summers tho). Al's problems with his feet are largely due to the bad breeding trends that the QH industry slavishly followed for too many years, wanting big bulky bodies on tiny peg-like feet. My farrier says it warms his heart every time I say to him "Can't you make his feet BIGGER?" to support his body weight, when all the QH showers are asking him to make their horses feet tinier. Al's a good sized boy, and needs bigger feet than what he got genetically to support the weight. He was also fox-hunted years past, and his old joints do better with the support shoes too.

Gabby's white feet are just not as tough as some others. Joy mentioned her old QH's feet and they were tougher than tough, she was a dark-brown colour, and her feet were very very hard, blue-black hooves, and judging from the foals she threw, she had a high percentage of primative colouration genes (buckskin/dun), which is usually a more durable hoof.

I think I notice far more chipping on their feet in general when it's been dry around here. We have sandy soil, and it sucks the moisture and flexibility out of their feet, not to mention that also seems to be when the flies peak, so they're stamping more.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001


Hi Julie,

I just ran across this forum and saw your post about dry hooves. I lived in So Ca for years with the very dry sandy soil and my mare had very dry hooves. The farrier was always picking on me about it despite my painting moisturizers on them all the time. Then I read an article in Western Horsemen about linseed meal being great for hoof moisture. I started adding about a cup 3-4 times per week to her feed and when the hoof grew out POOF nomore dry hoofs. It also handled her skin dryness and gave her the most gorgeous shiny coat. I now have a QH breeding farm in OK and give it to all my horses for their hooves and their coats. No dry hooves despite last years 90 day no rain over 100 degree temps.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001


Hi Stacia -- I used to use linseed meal years ago, and I can't quite remember anymore why I stopped (that was about 20 years ago). I don't know if they didn't find it very palatable, or if I was just worried about the impaction possibilities. I never had any problems with impaction with it, I'd just read about it. I may have to look into it again! Thanks for the idea.

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2001

I agree with the farrier... I wouldn't shoe a horse that's on pasture and 'soft' trails either. Why pay the extra $$?? If there is a lot of 'hard' sand and gravel, yep...

Watch the hooves though... If they get too dry they will crack, presenting more problems than.....

A once per week application of veggie oil, crisco-type shortening, or neat's foot will prevent this. Or, you can just do it every time the hooves start to lose their color (like wood furniture that hasn't been cleaned in a while). I used neat's foot, but money wasn't a concern. Crisco type products work just as well, and are quite a bit cheaper.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2001


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