New barn means hearing lots of new opinions so I wanted to find out from people here as well - what are your opinions on riding on pavement? Will you trot? Canter? Gait? Barefoot, shod, studs, boots?
I’ve never had any objection to riding on paved roads provided my horse has had enough slow exposure on hard surfaces to build up feet & legs - but apparently there are riders who insist that any horse who goes faster than a walk on pavement will always pop a splint or develop ringbone. News to me!
I absolutely believed to go no faster than a walk on pavement as a teen. I understand now it isn’t as bad as I thought but I still am not comfortable with it. However there is little pavement in my itinerary. I don’t count doing a brief trot to cross a road.
I use pavement here and there to work on my horses gait…I can hear the footfalls better on pavement to make sure its more of an even 4 beat gait and less of a stepping pace. I don’t have an issue with a few minutes of trotting or gaiting on pavement, provided it’s not slick/wet/icy. My horses do go barefoot though.
Standard practice here in the UK to ride on paved roads, frequently used as a means to get horses fit. Walk and trot is fine, keeping an eye on the surface and how slippery it may be. If the horse is doing a lot, then borium tips are useful. Cantering is not recommended, though it frequently happens out foxhunting.
Walk, trot- all good. I don’t canter on pavement. I won’t ride pavement without either barefoot, boots, poly shoes or borium
Our horses were all shod with iron when I was a teen and needed those shoes for the extensive rocky trail riding. I think it was not a bad thing that we all believed we’d ruin our horses going faster than a walk on pavement because we were all committed to cantering everywhere we could ,
and we did cut through a lot of suburban streets in between green belts and trail systems and the mountains.
Now our horses are barefoot or hoof boots but there is far less pavement on my various routes. None at all at my home barn, a short country road at my Covid sanctuary. The horses will sometimes choose pavement over a gravel verge but pavement now makes me nervous for the slip factor and I try to minimize my time on it.
I walk only or trot briefly if I have to. I used to run on pavement but then I had running shoes to absorb some of the stress on my knees. Years later I feel the effects. I think it would be the same for our horses, but they don’t have the shoes.
I don’t worry about WT barefoot or booted, but I’m not going to trot for miles either. Plain shod shoes walk only after I had a horse go down in front of a bus.
Mine are barefoot, booted on rocky trails. I’ll do any gait on asphalt, but not for any length of time. A brief trot or canter isn’t too much for a solid foot, but I wouldn’t run all day. I am finding that Gloves are the boots that offer the most cushion on hard trails. I have a new horse who is pretty sensitive. He does well in Scoots, but he is obviously happier in Gloves on a hard surface.
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