I’ve also only used studs behind when showing hunters or equitation on grass.
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This article is awesome. I have a barefoot jumper that turns out 14 hrs plus, trail rides on various terrain, and is always ridden on grass except for when we go to trainer’s once a week to jump (bc they don’t have a grass jump field). During the winters here a lot of the shows are on grass. When the horse moved up to 1.15-1.2 m (end of last winter season), I tried hoof boots with studs (flatted/trail rode a few times in them first) and he was very spooky/backed off from the jumps. This horse has always been very brave so it caught us all off guard. We think it was due to the boots, but it was end of winter season and didn’t get a chance to try again at that height without the hoof boots on grass. After discussing with the farrier and trainer, we are going to try this winter to show on the grass without the hoof boots. Granted, again, this horse gets tons of turnout and is primarily worked on grass and other footing,and is very sure footed, careful about himself. I gallop him on grass and turn and haven’t had an issue.
My farrier brought up his concern for people over studding and interfering with the natural slide, leading to increased injuries and since then I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Similar to the people interviewed for that article, he prefers to keep things as simple and natural as possible and says, “even though it would be better for me financially, I will not put shoes on your horse, he’ll never need them” and feels, at least for my horse, he is better off and has better traction and less likely to slip when his feet can feel the ground naturally, as he is accustomed. We just won’t trim him right before he shows on grass. I guess time will tell.
Sorry for going off topic, I just really found this article fascinating
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I’m still somewhat convinced that poor studding on grass partially contributed to a hind-suspensory injury that one of my show hunters suffered last year.
Exactly!
Or turnout in nylon halters, or trailering in rope halters, or using non-cotton leadropes, or using tie-downs, or using nylon haynets, or… or… or…
The older you get and the more experience you’ve seen the more this list grows. 
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Especially if you’re more careful than lucky! Plan for the worst, hope for the best is the horseperson’s mantra
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It’s not just a tippy top thing though. Tons of kids will be doing 2’-2’6 on the grass at Fairfield Hunt Club this week on ponies and schoolmaster horses. It’s just how it’s done, gives a bit of traction and support, no harm no foul.
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He’s not wrong, and choosing the proper caulks AND shoes for the footing and the job, is an art. There’s a difference between no studs and having a good chance of sliding to the point of injury, and too-large studs “just in case” and ending up causing torque issues because the foot couldn’t slide just that fraction it needs to in a great many cases. Toe grabs on shoes are the same.
The risks involved don’t mean it’s go big or use nothing, because those choice also bring risks.
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The other one that always makes me cringe is seeing buckets or feed tubs hung with those elongated C shaped hooks instead of snaps. It seems like a perfectly good idea until you see a horse with one of those things hooked through its nostril or eyelid.
If you don’t know, now you know.
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I hate those, carabiners, and the wall mount hooks that look like this. I know a horse who caught his eye somehow on a wall mount hook and ripped off part of his eyelid down to his jaw.
Another thing you don’t know until you know: if you hang up water buckets by double end snaps, or hay nets by double end snaps clip the snaps inward (facing the wall) so that the knob you compress down with your thumb is facing the wall. I’ve seen horses get their halters stuck on random objects because the snap facing out snags ont hings.
I ended up removing all of my metal bridle hooks, halter hooks, and wall mounts that shared overlapping space with horses. Even our halter hooks, which are right along the fence line, are rubber now.
Horses truly find the most bizarre ways to get hurt.
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I had a horse slip in slightly damp grass hand-grazing the day before he was getting vetted. He tore both branches of a front suspensory. Had a horse rupture his peronius tertius in a perfectly safe pasture that was a touch wet from some light snowfall. Lots of freak things happen with horses, just the nature of the animal, and not in any way related to the known relatively unsafe practices you listed above.
Risk of a hunter going around quietly on grass on small studs is pretty darned small, but as I’ve said to a prior poster, it’s your horse and your risk to accept. I don’t think comparing the risk of eventers on XC to hunters on manicured turf is 1:1 in any way, though.
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Yes- studs that are too big and stick or “punch through” as one poster said above are definitely a contributing factor to soft tissue injuries.
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They are unbelievably creative, in a bad way.
The other thing that makes my eye twitch is the sight of anyone leading or holding a horse with the lead rope draped over their shoulder.
Just. Don’t. Do. It.
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I’m sorry to hear about your horses, and agree they find crazy ways to hurt themselves.
I have to correct this: putting studs on without leg protection is a known risk factor. Just because it hasn’t happened yet to you, does not mean it won’t happen or doesn’t happen to other people. The rest of what you’ve said I totally agree with. Horses are horses and with horses, everything is hunky dory until it isn’t.
I’ve seen strike injuries from studs first hand. They happen and they can be very ugly.
The risks involved, like JB said, don’t mean never do it – it just means you have to have a certain risk tolerance (and understanding of said risk) when deciding to do these things.
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Thank you. I am the queen of horses with freak rare injuries, those two are just the tip of the iceberg unfortunately. The most recent one had had a stroke, along with eosinophilic enteriis and bronchitis, completed unrelated, diagnosed on necropsy. I have stories for days, and they are all literally once-in-a-blue-moon kind of thing completely unrelated to doing anything remotely risky.
Horses, man.
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The other one that seems like an absolutely unimaginable fluke is when a horse manages to catch a bar shoe on the clip of a martingale attached to a stud girth over a jump. It seems absolutely impossible to think it would happen, except I have seen multiple videos of it, and it generally does not end well.
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I was thinking of that example, too… or the horse at Rolex who caught his shoe in his throatlatch.
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I remember hearing about the horse at Rolex, but I did not see it. Are there any pictures or videos of it? That one seems extra crazy. Especially for an event horse.
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That is awful. I’m sorry. I don’t even think I’ve ever had experience with eosinophilic enteriis. 
I love horses, but they seem to really test the morphological limits of their existence in… well, every which way. I’m really sorry to hear of you loss. 
@MHM I shared this on COTH before but I had a horse catch his incisor in the O-ring of his running martingale. He nipped at a fly and the ring somehow hooked around his teeth. He instantly went straight up, and the even more miraculous part of that freak accident was that when he reared straight up, my stirrups fell right out of their keeper and I landed behind him, with my feet on the stirrups, standing in the grass.
Once he landed he realized he couldn’t go anywhere but he was still panicking. Unfortunately it was a 5 point breastplate the martingale was attached to and you don’t realize how many buckles that is until you’re in an emergency situation. I was terrified he would panic again while the breastplate was half-off and he’d drag my saddle underfoot, since you have to unfasten the girth just to take the breastplate off. Thankfully he was a good boy and stood with his head to his shoulder until we got the breastplate unfastened – but it was a very unnerving experience and now I don’t even use 5 points anymore either. Lol.
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Wow!! Thank goodness he reacted that way instead of freaking out!
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That’s because it literally does not exist in horses. The necropsy report was quite the read… “we never see this in horses, but in humans there have been a few reported cases…”
I honestly almost never use martingales because I live in fear of something getting loose or something getting caught in it. You’ve reconfirmed my fear hahaha.
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