How many people's horses are completey barefoot?

[CosMonster]

I mean no hoof boots or anything. If yours are and you could give me an idea of the general type of riding that you do and the terrain it is on, I would appreciate it. I’m doing my own informal study here. I’d also be interested in any problems or improvements you have noticed since you’ve stopped using shoes or boots.

Also, sorry if this has been done before…I did run a search and couldn’t find it. I’m really curious as to whose horses are managing to do distance or trail riding without shoes or boots of any kind.

[twofatponies]

[QUOTE=CosMonster;4099570]
I mean no hoof boots or anything. If yours are and you could give me an idea of the general type of riding that you do and the terrain it is on, I would appreciate it. I’m doing my own informal study here. I’d also be interested in any problems or improvements you have noticed since you’ve stopped using shoes or boots.

Also, sorry if this has been done before…I did run a search and couldn’t find it. I’m really curious as to whose horses are managing to do distance or trail riding without shoes or boots of any kind.[/QUOTE]

Mine do trail riding completely barefoot (not huge distances, typically 3 miles a day this time of year, with longer 6-10 mile routes 1x or 2x a week.) Mostly on dirt/grass (farmland). I have to limit the amount of work on paved roads to a few miles a week - more if it’s at a walk - or the toes get worn off too much. I have boots, but don’t put them on unless I am going to be on a long road ride that will exceed the weekly limit…

[InstigatorKate]

I have 3 that are barefoot. Horse 1 is 3yo, just started work in stonedust ring and hacking on grass/wooded trails. Horse 2 is 6yo, never needed shoes, ridden 5-6x week on stonedust for about an hour, hacks on the roads, fields, and wooded trails, competing 3’ jumpers and about to get back into eventing. Horse 3 is a 22yo who wore shoes from the time he was 3, has had them pulled for just over a year. He gets ridden 2-3x/week in the stonedust ring and on trails. I usually boot him though if the ring is hard-ish or if we’re going on the pavement for longer than 100 yds or so. I noticed the improvement in my wallet right away! Around me a trim is $40, front shoes $90, and all 4 are $140. That means for 4 horses I’m spending $120 every 6-8 weeks intead of $420!

[SharonA]

My horse is barefoot for ringwork and for trail riding of up to 2-3 hours, depending on the terrain. In our area, there’s quite a bit of nice dirt footing, but it’s interspersed with gravel and rocky sections. After 2-3 hours on mixed but mostly good terrain, or right away if the terrain is rocky, she starts getting ouchy – nothing that makes her lame the next day, but I can feel a change in her way of going. I’m sure if we were both in better shape and were following a more consistent “get those feet in shape” routine, she could do more.

If we’re going out on what I know to be stoney footing or gravel roads, I put her boots on. The gravel roads where it’s small stones sticking up out of a base of dirt and gravel are particular hard on her feet.

[Melelio]

My App.QH gelding was barefoot most of his life until I got him in 2001, and put shoes on him…about 3 years later decided to quit, since I was never going to get out to show reining (and you need slide plates for that). So he’s been again barefoot, and we’ve started going trail riding again, once or less a week, and riding at home on grass.

He has rock hard feet (which are a REAL pain to trim in summer! :lol: ), but he’s lazy and likes to drag his toes, so he wears those off , but he’s never been off, even from the rocky places on the trails. He’d be the one I have that I’d never need boots for, but to trail ride my mare, she’d wear her boots.

[CoopsZippo]

Mine is 100% barefoot. Has been for 4 years.

I ride 10 miles at a time over some very nasty mountain terrain sometimes. I mean rocky trails. He is 100% fine. Actually the footing in Gettysburg was for crap going up behind little round top and my horse was fine while the others with shoes were having issues. One lost a shoes in the shoe sucking mud. They had no traction over the large flat rocks littering the trail.

The only surface he hates is very large gravel.

To get an idea of the type of trails we ride you can see here.

http://rickspix.smugmug.com/gallery/558222#23219663_eRhYs

We tend to have to share our trails with mountain bikers and they like to rearrange rocks on the trail.

[clipclopclip]

![](y Belgian/Percheron mare has never seen shoes. Her feet are so tough I have to soak them to trim them. She is kept in a Pete Ramey style trim, and hasn’t had an issue with it. We ride in the arena and also on ROCKY mountains trails. I trail ride for about an hour on rocky soil in the Colorado Mountains 1-2 days a week.

I am a big fan of keeping horses barefoot if at all possible. It has worked for me very well, and we don’t have soft dirt around here.

Trails:
[IMG]http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u64/clipclopclip/TrailrideApril007.jpg)

[IMG]http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u64/clipclopclip/TrailrideApril009.jpg)

[IMG]http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u64/clipclopclip/1-16-09014.jpg)

Her hoof:
[IMG]http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u64/clipclopclip/2-23-09025.jpg)

[Painted_Horse]

I have two geldings and two mares all barefoot.
1st gelding is 15. he wore shoes (Easter to Thanksgiving) from 3 to age 12

2nd gelding is 6 and has only had shoes for one 6 week period last fall.

1st mare is 14 and had shoes in the summer from age 6 to 12 except for 3 summers that she had a foal at her side.

2nd mare is 5 and never had any shoes.

We only trail ride. My horses do not ever see a sandy arena.

I can ride just about anywhere for one day. My horses get a little tender if I try and ride them 2-3-4 days a row on the trails. If I boot them or put shoes on them, they will crash down the trails at almost any speed. If barefoot, they walk slower and watch where they put their feet. They are more inclined to get off on the side of the trails vs staying in the middle of the trail.

We rode in Bryce Canyon last week. All day ride with no boots. My friends had been there for 3 days and rode their horses barefoot all 3 days.

If I were riding in an arena or grassy pasture, I wouldn’t worry about boots. But the stuff I ride kinda needs some protection. It’s become a real question to me if it’s worth it. Yes I save money triming my own. My farrier has been very generous to occassionally stop by and make sure my trims are correct. And if I was willing to just mosey down the trails, they’d be fine. But If I want the horses to foxtrot down the trail with no cares about footing. they need protection.

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2009/Bryce/Bryce-Canyon-2009-022.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2009/Bryce/Bryce-Canyon-2009-051.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2009/Bryce/Bryce-Canyon-2009-077.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2008/Granite%20Basin/100_0049.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2008/Granite%20Basin/100_0072.jpg

[matryoshka]

I’ve got a warmblood who is totally bare, sound for trail riding on all surfaces. If the sugar gets high, then he gets ouchy, so I have to watch his diet.

Young Arabian mare. Was sound on all surfaces, but she’s got one very flat foot, and now that we have increased our mileage, she’s going to have to wear boots. I do not want to risk pedal osteitis. We’re moving from training to conditioning for 25 mile competitions.

Last year I leased a totally barefoot Arabian, 18 years old, who I was conditiong for a 30 mile CTR. He’d been barefoot for almost 4 years following founder. He could WTC on rocks and gravel just fine. We did 5-10 mile rides several times a week. Then he got kicked and broke a splint bone. Surgery, no more distance riding.

[acoustic]

My horse was barefoot for 7 years. I do live in Florida, so it is mostly soft surface, although in all that time, I have definatly ridden him on pavement, gravel, packed dirt, swampland, and sugar sand. He’s my little trail warrior. Arabian gelding.

He is shod now for barrel racing (couldn’t get a grip without them), but when he retires from competition, I’ll happily pull thoses shoes again. If the horse has the right hooves with the right conditioning, they can handle quite a bit!

[Petstorejunkie]

OTTB
completely barefoot
eventing with strong emphasis on dressage
mostly grassy fields with the occasional ride on gravel, asphalt, m10/sand
we took about a year in epics to go completely bare but my horse moves better now than he ever did in shoes (was in aluminum wedges). I do think that he has more spring to his step with the hoof boots on but i also use the easyboot pads in them… i run better in my sneakers too

[foggybok]

OTTB, Paint/TB cross and TWH, all 3 are barefoot.

Currently ride on the road (asphalt or gravel), logging roads and dirt trails (with LOTS of rocks). Rides last a couple of hours. No problems except the TWH, who gets ouchy on gravel, so wears boots for that. She’s new to me, so I don’t know how she’ll be in the long run.

Had the Paint and the OTTB down south in CA before we moved to the wet NW and rode on asphalt, dirt roads, gravel roads and decomposed granite trails barefoot. They did great down there on rides usually lasting 1-4 hours . Mostly walking, with some trot and canter mixed in.

[ChocoMare]

Clyde/Standardbred cross mare. Ride 2 -3 times a week, grass fields, concrete path at times, rocks, roots, mud, sharp gravel. Not an ouchy step in the five years I’ve owned her. Rock crushing feet. http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2554211140015305252LiAcjx

Percheron mare. Ridden once a week now but will be increasing to 3 X a week. Spent a year recovering from laminitis. Now healed with new HARD hooves. Same ground exposure as the Clyde-X without a wince.

[pines4equines]

Hay

My horse is completely barefoot all his life. He wore Easy Boot Epics but I’ve dispensed with the boots for a bit. Basically, he stepped on one with the other foot and ripped it all apart. I’m waiting for a new pair.

One thing I’ve noticed is I switched this horse to TC Complete with a bit lower sugar and he seems sounder on gravel surfaces. I’m wondering if there is something to this sugar relating to mild laminitic episodes in their feet. This horse has terrific feet but he always had those slight rings in his hooves. I always wondered about those and switched feed last fall.

I’m going to hold off on the boot purchase to see if maybe he can stay bare?

[Cashela]

My girls are currently barefoot, they have been barefoot since October. Not a long time bare footer. We will have to put shoes on for a ride in August as it is 7 days of riding.

How do you guys prevent your horses from wearing down their hooves? One of my girls wears down her hind hooves something fierce. My other mare has worn off her front toes in what I guess I would call a straight line, like squared them off. Her back feet have barely been worn down at all.

Mind you the longest we have ridden so far this season is two hours over varying terrain. We have some pretty rocky trails here in New England.

[BigHorseLittleHorse]

My Arab is barefoot and has amazing feet. We ride 4-5 days a week on grass and dirt trails, with small stretches on gravel and paved roads. W/T/C at distances of 5-15 miles.

We did an LD earlier this spring (25 miles), and I put lightweight steel shoes on the front. I’m glad I did, because he was able to trot over gravel and crushed stone for miles without ouchiness - he probably would have gotten bruises if we had tried to do that barefoot. But I pulled the shoes after the ride, and we’re back to barefoot.

I like the way he goes without shoes much better - he’s much more careful about where he puts his feet, so he trips a lot less. And I don’t have to worry about him slipping on paved roads. Also, I noticed his shoulders got really tired after about 8 miles when he had the shoes on, because he wasn’t used to having that extra weight on his feet. I think I’ll try boots for our next LD…

[CoopsZippo]

I too have noticed that my horse is more sure footed then our riding buds with shoes.

We can ride through downed trees off the trail… We don’t get caught on vines and etc. I have seen several horses get their shoes caught on stuff.

I will admit we are not doing more than 4-5hours worth of riding. And we go at a leisurely W/T/C pace. But we are doing challenging terrain in the Blue Mountains. Mud, rocky trails, single track, steep trails.

[JetsBuddy]

Both of my horses are barefoot. I have an 18 year old Mexican Mustang who has really hard feet and is extremely surefooted. He had worn shoes for several years before I got him but had contracted heels, thrush and was lame just before I got him. He’s been barefoot in the year and a half that I’ve had him and I trim him every 3-4 weeks. We do trail rides on varied terrain from grit to hills and rocks. He never takes a wrong step. My daughter does gaming on him (barrel racing, pole bending, etc). She competed in 7 classes this weekend and was Grand Champion for the Youth Division on him. I also have an 8 year old TWH gelding that is barefoot. We also trail ride him on the same terrain and he does some ring work and has been ridden in gymkhanas. He gets ouchy on large sharp gravel but is fine otherwise.

[Thomas_1]

I’ve currently got 11 that aren’t shod.

In the main they’re native breed ponies: connemara, highland, welsh mountain ponies but also a T/B and a t/b cross sports horse.

They’re all ridden on average 5 days a week and between 2 and 6 hours a day. So work it out at about 8 minutes at walk per mile. All turned out 16 hours in 24.

The going is good just now and so it’s pretty firm ground and when they’re ridden out it tends to be on lanes and on the grass verge.

[middy]

I have 11 yo old Iberian Warmblood Mare that does absolutely everything completely barefoot. We trailride and foxhunt as well as some low level eventing and have never had any problem with her. She has hunted first flight up in Northern Virginia where ther are some rocks and noone slows down. We have trailridden in the Virginia mountinans and we move forward. She has the absolutely best feet!!! When she came to me thay told me that she was barefoot and I figured that I would have to put shoes on her since she wasn’t going to be just in the ring anymore. But nope after almost a year I have never had to put shoes on her at all.