My horse is an 11 yr old pinto of unknown breeding. I’ve had him since he was 2 months old. He’s always been barefoot. We tend to have hard ground here at my farm and he’s not done much his whole life, just light riding at home. This past year we started leaving the property and did a clinic, hacked around the local fairgrounds and just recently did a charity ride (following a hunter pace route) and then our first hunter pace. I think I am hooked on hunter paces!!
So his feet are good and he’s come through the last two events fine, but am I crazy to keep him barefoot?
I have always hunter paced barefoot (my horses, not me!). I too am not a high mileage rider, and we always did a few shows a year and maybe 4 hunter paces a year tops. If you know the huner pace has bad footing, you may want to consider at least front shoes. Just be mindeful of the footing and check your guy for any soreness or problems after to be sure he is doing well. I had an appy/lippizan cross and my current Irish Draught (had others too, but they were shod because I was at a show barn and they were in regular work in tough footing) and they are always barefoot.
I did a 15 mile ride over the summer on my barefoot horse and she came off sounder than I did. Quite frankly, I’m going to find someone else to jog her as I was only capable of a sideways wincing lurch.
My horses do fine everywhere barefoot - not saying all horses can, just saying that it’s certainly possible that yours will be fine.
I’m going to check with my farrier too and see what he thinks, but that makes me feel better. I gave him the day off yesterday (we did a hunter pace Sunday) and today I just gave him a quick trail around a hay field. He felt fresh and sound!
Totally depends on the venue for me. My OTTB is barefoot, and he’s ok on average ground, but for really rocky areas, I put boots on him. And in my area, it can be anywhere from nice sand trails to rocks galore.
My input to this thread is just be sure your horse IS truly fine barefoot. I have ridden with a few people riding barefoot horses that swear up and down that their horses are never tender footed while I observe their horses avoiding hard ground, gravel, etc. I’ve watched some horses always moving to the shoulders of the trail (not rocky footing) to be on grass or leaves, dragging their complacent riders thru branches. To me this is likely a horse who’s soles are too tender.
If you horse walks right down the center of trails that have harder footing (not rocks) willingly, without rider direction and doesn’t wander to the sides of the trail to get onto grass and leaves, then I would say you horse has toughened feet.
Also, if the footing at a ride has graveled or hardened crushed rock roads that you can’t avoid then your horse is going to wear their walls and soles down faster. Even sand will wear hooves down. I know endurance riders that keep their horses barefoot but use boots as needed because the wear to growth rate requires it.
So which is your horse? Does he happily go straight forward across most footing?
Nobody would expect a barefoot horse to choose heavy gravel or rocks over grass or dirt. But is your horse always seeking out the grass and leaves?
chicamuxen
One of my friends has a barefoot eventer and he does mighty fine !
One of my friends has a barefoot eventer and he does mighty fine ! 
I agree with everything Chicamux says.
I have very sound barefoot horse. We ride on VERY hard ground, that has a lot of rocks and gravel - we will head out for 15 miles on this, and she comes back sound (and never seeks the side of the trail like chicamux describes). I did have one that started that type of “soft ground” seeking behavior and he got shoes in the summer (our hard season).
Any way - yes, I hunter pace mine without shoes. I go on 10+ trail rides often without them. Trot, canter and gallop on the trails with out shoes - jump and school XC without them.
Absolutely. If, as Chicamux said, you can ride your horse on any surface and he’s happily moving out, go for it. If unsure, get boots!
I trim at an eventing barn and one is schooling prelim barefoot, the other schooling training. They have deep concave hooves and have no problems.
My mares have rock-crushing feet. All sizes of rock, no problem… stomp stomp stomp
I evented my Connemara/TB cross mare up to Prelim barefoot. I put shoes on her this summer because we were up in Washington in an area with very rocky trails, and she started getting some bruising and moving to the side of the trails. She grows tons of hoof and never got chips or cracks, but she’s unusual. You just have to watch them and see if they start avoiding certain terrain or change their way of going, but many horses can stay barefoot.
He doesn’t search out the sides and his feet never chip and break up. I’m reluctant to put shoes on because he’s been fine barefoot. I thought about the hoof boots but worry about them causing more harm the good. Do the rub? What about going through water? Seems like that would be uncomfortable? But saying that I know nothing about these newer hoof boots. Back in the day there were just those terrible old fashioned easy boots!
If you find he’s chipping, wearing down too fast or getting ouchy, get yourself a pair of EasyBoot Gloves for the front. For the price of one set of front shoes they’ll last YEARS and they stay on great. My guys probably don’t need them, but they give ME peace of mind on our hard and rocky footing.
My mare is fine barefoot, as long as she’s pounding away on soft, rockless terrain. I pulled her back out of semi-retirement for a pace not too long ago and I didn’t want to spend the $ to put shoes on for one 2-hour ride. On the advice of my farrier, I ordered and used Durasole for my mare (http://www.durasole.com/Durasole_chemistry.html) I didn’t follow the exact directions - I applied it twice a day for 10 days before the pace. My mare did GREAT - never took an off step the entire way through and this was over shale, gravel, rocks, etc.
My Arab has never worn shoes a day in his life. We hunt, do endurance rides, chase cows, do dressage, etc. all barefoot. If the horse has good feet and is truly sound on any surface (my guy will canter down a gravel road like its a groomed arena), I don’t see any real reason not to.
