I would like my gelding to stay barefoot for the riding season problem is his feet wear off faster then they grow. I only trail ride six days a week 3 to 4 hours a day. The ground is rocky in places and just hard packed sand on most trails. We share the trails with four wheelers who rip around at full speed.Iv been having him shod all four and after seven weeks shoes are worn out like broke in half or paper thin. So would it even be possible to keep him barefoot or am iam just going to need shoes. We do alot of trotting i say out of three hour we spend two and half of that trotting. Our horses are super fit not an ounce of fat on them. My farrier says their what he calls racing fit or he calls them the lean mean running machines. Right now their not being riden much do to snow but in the next month or so we will be riding again.My gelding has good feet no cracks splits and they get trimed regular all year round summer every 7 weeks winter every 10 weeks.Sometimes in summer i have them done every 6 weeks because the shoes wear out. Any help would be nice thanks.
Kevin, you know what im saying. Dont be snide. I have more tools in my arsenal than just a trim which many other trimmers seem to be ignoring. I dont need to use or apply metal shoes. I have NO desire to forge or wrestle with metal and I have, and will, happily refer a client to a traditional farrier when necessary. There is room for everyone and you might take note that I actually recommended this person stay shod, albiet in a non traditional shoe. I dont know any farriers who use alot of soleguard without a shoe. I have great success with it however on bare feet. The last horse I did kept his on for 4 weeks in the mud.
OP, the Easyboot trails are made for people who only ride up to 25 miles a week. I dont use them because I frequently ride longer than that. I prefer these when i have a choice and I replace the lower velcro with a buckle strap. the mud does not do well with velcro.
I dont know what was used but the horse did have on shoes. All i know is iv got to get this shoe or not shoe thing figured out. Come may we will be riding every day again and i dont want a repeat of last summer. Stone bruises abcess and weeks of time off from horse being lame. That is my horse not my daughters horse i did look up loosies sight on hoofs lots of info need to read through it again. They are barefoot for 7 months out of every year so not wearing shoes all the time.
^^ That's pretty cool. I'd use that in a second if it was comparable price wise. I'd really like to use it in the winter but I wonder if the cold would effect it.
I really like the idea of the polyurethane/plastic/rubberized shoes, my biggest problem is that they all come in one single shape. They expect each and every horse to have the exact same shaped feet. IMHO, putting a shoe like that on a horse is no different than those backyard whack and tack farriers who put shoes on straight out of the box and then rasp the hoof to fit it.:?
I do agree though that those molded shoes look very interesting.
smobs, the GC shoes I use linked above can be nipped to any needed shape and the nails placed anywhere in the shoe as needed. Wider feet can use a bigger shoe and be cut down to a proper fit with the nippers and rasped clean. Ive never set one without custom fitting it to that horse. It is very cool with the clear shoes because you see exactly where the nail is going and can place it anywhere in the nail channel and indeed the shoe itself. You are not limited by nail holes. We cut a set down to fit a standard donkey once using just the inside of the shoe with the nail channel cut away so he could have traction on our wooden stage floor. My complaint is they dont make them in enough sizes or colors lol. I like variety.
I won't say what you should do about your horse. That's someone only you make the choice on. A person makes their own choices for their own horses, so you do what you feel is best. No matter what it is there will be someone who agrees with the choice you made and someone who doesn't. So do what you want and be happy, because that's what most of the rest of us are going to do.
I will state that in the 70's Gordon Naysmith rode unshod from southern Africa to central Europe and of course was told not to ride unshod, but did it anyway. It's an interesting story, but for another time. He did say that when he finished the journey he gave the horse to a farmer who complained that a grinder had to be used to trim the feet (or something like that, because the hoof had gotten so hard from the riding....it's been a long time since I read Gordon's account, but I'd recommend if you want to read about a really tough journey on horseback). I'd say that with the miles that he covered on that trip (central Europe is a long way from southern Africa), over often brutal terrain, he pretty much put the nay sayers to rest on the need for horses to be shod for hard riding and hard terrain.
Back in my teens and early 20's (around the same time Gordon was making his epic ride) I worked cattle and did some distance riding (30-40 miles a day, but never had enough free time to ride more than 2 or 3 days) and obviously rode on the highway. Like Gordon I was constantly told (well for a few years) by my vet and some other folks that my horses were going to have problems because I wouldn't shoe them (the hoof will wear too much, split because I ride on pavement, etc, etc, etc,). The vet finally stopped after so many years of my horses never having any foot issues (unless you count getting really hard an issue). 40+ years later I still have never had a shoe put on any of my horses and the only hoof problems I've had to deal with were problems that came with new horses (most of which were shod before I got them).
Ok, now everyone can tell me how if I rode on their terrain I'd need something protecting the feet
I'll concede that I haven't ridden everywhere. Not above the Artic Circle (but I've lived in New England and rode there....it got pretty cold, snowy and icy), or in Death Valley (but I rode in AZ when I lived there....some very rocky terrain there and does get pretty hot on the pavement). So I'm not sure what terrain I've missed that my horse would have to have shoes for? Certainly don't need them here. It's some of the softest ground I've dealt with. I have to ride on the paved road to toughen the hoofs up.
Nobody's saying your horses can't go barefoot. We're saying not ALL horses can go barefoot. Even the barefoot trimmers are saying that. I'm gonna ride my horse Gator to the North Pole and visit Santa Clause. I constructed some special "roller-skate horseshoes so we can just roll down the highway. If my calculations are correct, I figger we should reach speeds in excess of 130 mph going down a big hill. I made some stoppers that fasten to the back of the fetlocks so when he leans back, they'll produce drag and slow us down.
(Did anyone else click on the SARAHBELLBAREFOOTTRIMMING ad because she looks hot in the picture)???
Iv pretty much come to the conclusion hes not going to be able to be barefoot the wear way exceeds the growth. Not sure boots are the anwser either would need boots for all four. If i made him go barefoot after two weeks of riding he would be so sore wouldnt be able to walk.
Thanks to everyone who replyed. Iv decided to go with shoeing him its in his best interest so he not sore footed.After all he deserves only the best hes been my riding partner for 7 years. Hes one awsome horse to ride gives 110 percent every ride so i owe it to him to give the best care money can buy. Heres a pic of him my pride and joy of going on 9 years.
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