So my question is basically that, can a horse successfully be a cart horse (just driven dressage and pleasure driving) barefoot and stay sound?
Reason I’m asking is my mare has wonderful feet, never been shod in her life, and the farrier barely has to touch her feet. Just super strong hooves that wear down evenly. But, I’ve never seen a driving horse barefoot…
Its possible but not something I personally would advocate as a general principle. I’ve actually got 11 horses currently unshod, all with excellent feet and in ridden work but when they go back to driven work, they’ll be shod.
I’d say that in many ways its more important that a driving horse is well shod and you’re less likely to get away with poor trimming and shoeing. (though in reality I don’t really believe you can get away with it in a high performance riding horse either! And I’m one who thinks that farriery is either right or wrong, good or bad and I personally class mediocre as poor)
The more accurate answer is probably it depends because of course driving is done at all sorts of different levels.
However some generalisations I’ve always taken into account. First off when horses are pulling into collars they become more developed front end and particularly in the shoulders, which can cause problems in the lower neck and wither area. Traditionally, many of the carriage horse breeds and types are bred with upright pasterns in front, causing jarring from ground level into an upright shoulder, which compounds problems in the wither and shoulder area.
Additionally driving horses do not have as much engagement from behind in their action because they don’t have rider’s legs pushing them on, so unless they are ride and drive and doing good correct ridden and other schooling or such as interval training hill work they are likely to be more “front end developed”.
Furthermore the driving horse can’t ever bend to the same extent as a riding horse - he’s restricted by shafts and so when moving over on a tight turn he will half-passe and so mustn’t have long toes and big shoes to catch or strike into himself.
(For the previous 2 comments, PLEASE don’t try to come back and tell me that a driving horse should engage from the hind end or that they should do shoulder in, half passes etc etc. Appreciate I’m speaking from a position of knowledge with training and riding and driving high end horses and I’m talking about “relative to a riding horse”)
Then they tend to do more “high impact” work. e.g. extensive road work at trot or extended trot.
Also they use britching and if put to a 2 wheeler they are without brakes (or even with a novice/poor driver whose not using brakes properly on a 4 wheeler) they may be constantly using their britching to keep the carriage from running forward and if driving down hill may virtually sit back on their britching to hold the weight of carriage and load. So don’t want them having their back legs pushed from under them and which is a most common accident. So back shoes must have traction - not too worn and as I said I use tungsten road studs (which are permanent into the nail head).
Foot balance is of prime importance in the driving horse, as bad trimming, bad shoeing or studs worn or uneven can create problems and particular when its in the shoulder with lameness or jibbing or resistance to work in draft and can also cause sore shins by the inevitable concussion in front.
My drivers are all on varied terrain and we’ve some really good hills and I NEVER want them losing their footing or doing themselves damage because they’ve not got good traction. So for my driving horses its always appropriately shod and with tungsten road studs.
My Haflinger pair are barefoot at the present time and they’re fine with that as long as we’re on our home turf which is mainly level and sandy. However if I take them to a situation where they may be asked to work for extended periods on gravel or pavement and/or hilly terrain, I don’t hesitate to have them shod. Mine have good, tough feet and I have a farrier who puts a nice trim on them every four weeks but I would not force my horses to work hard on difficult surfaces just so I can keep them barefoot. I’m also not one to fool around with hoof boots, although I do own some. I always find that just getting the horses harnessed and put to is enough work for me without also having to worry about getting hoof boots on them.:eek:
Common sense and the goal of keeping your horse’s welfare uppermost in your mind is what should guide your decisions about shoeing, IMO.
I have a friend whose ride/drive horse is barefoot. She uses hoof boots for gravel or long drives. He does fine.
My pony was barefooted until her feet were wearing down too much.
It part, it depends on how much you are driving, under what conditions.
I drive my two driving horses barefoot. When I go leave the farm for organized drives, such as going on roads and/or gravel surfaces, I put on the old mac’s on the front. I never have a problem.
Easy Boots
Two words: Easy Boots
Our horses are barefoot except when driving on blacktop or gravel.
To those that are driving horses unshod…
Can you say what they’re actually doing?
e.g.:
What sort of vehicle? Brakes/britching? load?
What sort of driving ? (fast work? cross country? etc etc and esp terrain and surface)
Duration and frequency of drives?
I drive my mare unshod. She also has excellent feet, in fact the description you gave of your horse could be talking about my own mare.
We get along just fine. The only time I will need to put shoes on is when we start driving over 10 miles 4 times or so per week which really hasn’t happened lately :(. By that time her feet are wearing down faster then they are growing.
Duration and frequency?
As I already stated in the beginning of my post.
"The only time I will need to put shoes on is when we start driving over 10 miles 4 times or so per week "
So anything up to and including the 10 miles 4 times or so per week. We are barefoot. 
so light pleasure driving then?
Well I drive almost daily on varied terrain. Yesterday it was conditioning work in the woods; today we did roadwork at walk and trot; tomorrow is a lesson; etc. etc. and my kids are barefoot - but they are ponies. We’re getting ready for a couple of CDEs and then a pleasure show or two and I don’t anticipate having to ever shoe them.
Different story with the horse 
He wears his feet down rather quickly so needs shoes all around. Our stallion had pony feet - strong and correct and hard as a rock! If we had driven him I’m sure he could’ve gone barefoot. Sure is a lot cheaper.
I think Thomas and I already had this discussion on a thread elsewhere, but… HRH Avery does VERY light work (put to a road cart… walk only with the odd trot across any busy intersection or around any sharp corner where we might get hit by a truck!) on flat terrain. He goes BF behind b/c he has some hoof wall delamination on his LH and we can’t keep a shoe on it.
I did perforce keep him BF behind when we were doing the pleasure shows and driven dressage, and yes, we sure did have traction issues when the going was sloppy. BF behind when driving on slick wet grass is NOT fun. You can’t really ask for impulsion in a situation like that.
Sorry I haven’t been on to reply, for some reason COTH doesn’t like to come up for me, it always times out.
Thank you all for the advice. I would like to keep Fancy barefoot for as long as possible, but if it becomes an issue, I’ll of course shoe her. Her well-being is of utmost importance.
What sort of driving are you doing? Terrain? vehicle etc?
Thomas,
I will only be doing light pleasure riding on flat ground with soft dirt (but not deep). We hope to get a two-wheeled cart, I would like a road cart, but I may end up with my friend’s antique gig (we are currently only at the drag phase, winter was so bad every training area is closed due to flooding). We don’t have grass at my barn and carriages are not allowed in the arenas, only on the cross-country course. I have a friend that competes with Clydesdales and her Clyde is currently bare and has no problems with footing.
Now in the future, if I decide to get more involved, maybe more into combined driving, yes i will shoe her, as an ex-eventer, I know how important studs can be.
When you have three different farriers tell you to never shoe your horse since her hooves are so strong naturally, I very much would like to keep her bare.
When I lived in California, my horses were always shod to ride and drive…decomposed granite, maybe? I now live in Florida. My Freisian cross CD/Pleasure driving horse has never had more than front shoes. She has shown all last year in ADT’s and Pleasure, been driven on limerock roads, and has not needed any shoes for this type of work. I am now showing a connemara in the CD’s. She has been barefoot all of her life. But…she is so fast in hazards that she slips. So now she has shoes all the way round with studs and she is not slipping. After Live Oak, she will be barefoot again as that will be my last event of the season.
