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Studs for trail riding the eventer

We moved to a place with 600 acres of trails. Some of them have flat rock paths going down hill a bit and my guy cannot stand to slip even a little. I thought about using road studs. Anything better?

I wouldn’t use anything more than the small flat road studs on rock. But you might want to check with the trailriding forum or see what endurance people use. AFAIK most don’t use anything.

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There is some overlap in the fall between my state’s Endurance/hardcore Trail riding org and some hunter paces and the territories they use. I have not any stud use, especially not on trails known for shale or ledge. The endurance and/or trail riders are usually using Scoot boots and the like.

I do about ~1500 miles of trails every spring-fall. I’ve ridden over exposed ledge, shale, rocky gravel mountain roads… Never used studs or felt they were necessary, but YMMV. You may be dealing with an entirely different substrate than I deal with in the rocky Northeast.

My friends who drive mostly on asphalt roads use shoes with borium.
This could help on your trails & AFAIK, wouldn’t interfere with riding off trails (i.e.: arenas).

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It isn’t the terrain, it’s the horse. He doesn’t like the feeling of sliding feet. He’s a warmblood, so…

What does he do if his feet slide?

I wouldnt use studs. Let him get uded to sliding a bit.

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Time to stop catering to the horse on this one. He’s got to put his big boy pants on and learn to walk more carefully if he feels a slide. You as the rider need to not choke up/panic if you feel it, as that may be a contributing factor. Let him have his head and work it out.

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Agree. I had an OTTB that was a total weenie about downhill and anything short of perfect footing. Would jump anything bravely…in an arena but on the trail, a simple log was a ferocious Jabberwocky.

To the point I had to dismount and walk him down hills and through mud and shale, he got so panicked. After a while, I just let him get left behind the group and he figured it out. Wasn’t quite the eventing prospect I was hoping for :roll_eyes:

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My late mare would get PISSED if she lost her footing. Tail wringing ear pinning and the whole bit. I just laughed at her and pointed her at more mud. Suck it up, princess.

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I don’t think I would use any studs on rocks/ rocky footing, not even road studs.
Asking for an injury…

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He stops and spins and tries to turn back.

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If he stops, spins, stomps around and has a fit, I would be worried about stepping on himself in studs.

I have ridden on some steep downhill shale & flat limerock in KY, never felt like I needed studs but that section of trail was on the way home and ain’t nobody gonna refuse to go in that direction. :grin:

My stallion hates slipping when jumping on grass, and is 10x more confident when he has studs. But I would never think to use them out on trails, some slips downhill don’t bother him a bit.

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I have used small studs, but prefer either borium or Dril-Tec instead. I have also used hoof boots extensively and do like them, as long as you can get a good fit. The studs were just not enough grip to keep my horse from sliding and he was much more cautious when I used them.

For those who do not understand the situation, you do not want to encourage a horse “to get over it” on rock. That is dangerous. The OP is doing the correct thing by seeking out traction for this horse on rock. If it is anything like the rock I ride on, it can be huge sections of solid rock. Horses can lose their footing and very easily go down, resulting in severe injuries to both horse and rider.

This is an example of the type of rock I am referring to.

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I wouldn’t do studs - they aren’t going to bite into the rock for grip and if he’s spinning in a dither he’s just going to hurt himself. You want something that will give you friction for grip so either a rim shoe where dirt packs in or borium.

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It’s not a traction issue, it’s a horse confidence issue. She said it was flat rock, slight downhill, which a horse should be able to navigate barefoot. I seriously hope the OP isn’t attempting to take a spinning horse over a shale shelf like in your pic.

I agree scoot boots can be a solution but putting serious hardware on a spinner is bad news. Maybe some handwalking is in order.

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It is a confidence issue because the horse is sliding. If you are on big enough rocks that a horse slides, you need traction. It is a safety issue.

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If you have the opportunity, ride on other trails without rock and allow your horse to become used to varied terrain outside an artificial surface. Once it is confident on easier ground, then use the trails with rock. Eventing expects a horse to be effective on different ground.

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Look we will just have to disagree here. My spidey sense is this is an arena queen horse that hasn’t seen real terrain and needs to balance. Maybe you come from a world where the horses grew up on something other than groomed grass and arena footing, and yea a sliding horse means time to up the traction. But in my world, a lot of horses just haven’t seen anything besides flat and comfy.

At any rate, I still recommend hand walking or ponying to see how the horse handles without weight or rider interference.

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My boy wears snow rims in the winter and a nice unintended side effect is that it gives him great grab for hacking on the roads. (Dry roads, I’m not that stupid)

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