Barefoot/Natural Horse Trimming Vs. Shoeing

*Looks around for someone who actually knows something about Natural Trimming to show up and explain*

Like I said I learned to ride and train horses with people who put on shoes this natural horsemanship thing is new to me too. I just found it interesting and wondered who used it as opposed to shoeing.

I think its important that the horse gets what is best for them. I am not an advocate for either side because so long as it is done properly and that's what the horse needs, then both barefoot and shoes are wonderful tools. Most of my horses are barefoot year around simply because they are retired and turned out to pasture. I do like to leave all my horses barefoot in the winter just because of the traction issue, but, all of them are sound barefoot too. However, in the summer, our using horses have to have shoes because they need to protection from some of the really rocky areas that we ride (sometimes at very high speed).

I think it's wonderful that you found a farrier that seems to mesh well with you and your horses. If you think that Indy can benefit from being barefoot, then by all means, just stick with this guy for a while and see what happens. The good thing about farriers is that if you don't like the results you are getting, you can always try another.

I definitely prefer barefoot, my quarter is very sore when riding on rocks and just was not acclimating. We tried easyboot gloves and they were a very bad fit.
Now we have Orange Renegade boots that are Amazing!!
They are so easy to put on and stay in place perfectly with no twisting.

I prefer barefoot, and will make extra accommodations to transition my horses to ride barefoot. (such as boots). But I am also a believer that there is no one size fits all solution for every horse, anywhere in the horse world, and that goes for feeding, handling, training, and hoof care as well.

I do NOT believe every horse out there can go barefoot. I purposefully purchase horses I believe CAN. Since I do my own barefoot trimming, it's not only a preference, it's also much more cost effective for me to have barefoot horses.

I do personally believe barefoot trimming has some advantage over shoes, but I also believe there are some hoof issues that can only be managed/resolved with shoes on.

Just my $.02