shoes vs barefoot

Hoof boots are great. I bought some for Biscuit because he has a split I am working with to grow out. He chipped it bad on a rocks on a ride last month. It was mostly a sandy area but we went down some logging roads with rocks and it chipped it out. So Boots that were in the trailer went on the front feet.

Barefoot horses are natural - shod is not. I understand some horses have bad feet but alot of that has been caused by shoeing. My former horse had tender feet and I spent a fortune on shoeing him. Biscuit is tender footed to a certain degree so if I will be in a rocky area Easy Boot Gloves are WAY cheaper than farriers. I now trim Bicuit's feet myself and I know that farriers work HARD but this I can do myself and I work with Biscuit's feet weekly to keep them in check.

Learn to do your horses feet yourself and get the EBG. You will save yourself a ton of money and keep your horses feet in tip top condition at the same time.

OP, if you are thinking of buying hoof boots (as has been suggested by so many) do not just buy a certain brand because someone here loves them. Not all hoof boots fit all feet. Measure your horse's feet carefully and do some research. If your horse's feet do not work for say easy boots then do not buy them and expect them to be wonderful. EasyCare even says that if your horse's feet do not fit with in the confines of their sizing charge (width to length ratios) then their boots will not work well for you.

Yep, very important. The best boots for your horse are the ones that fit the best! I too love Gloves for eg, but they are really only suitable for pretty decent feet that are going to get frequent maintenance, so generally not best for, say a flared or stretched foot or for a horse that only gets a 6-weekly farrier trim.

Easycare have a lot of info re fitting & suitability of types on their site.

Wow! Great information from everyone. Our horse is boarded at a theraputic riding facility in Ga, so although she is ours, the program director makes most of the decisions, like feed and farrier. She has always been on Strategy feed but this is our 3rd farrier not including the barefoot farrier. Ironically, with each new farrier we are told something different. Should I look for certain credentials when choosing a farrier? Now that you mention it, I have been told that she is flat footed. The pastures are mainly a work in progress and mostly dirt right now. There aren't a ton of rocks but there are definitely some. I have spent 2 weeks picking them up.
Can the boots be bought at Dover or some other store? Do they have a certain name? I will look into this, Thanks!
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If someone else is making the decision about shoeing or not shoeing then it is not the farrier to blame here.

I would guess that the BM did not want to have to deal with your horse being too lame to be useful for their program so shoes were an option so your horse was less likely to get stone bruises.

I would not invest in boots before consulting with the barn manager.

Wow, its amazing how expensive it is for shoes these days. I ride at a farm where no horse has a shoe, boot, or polo on, ever. When I'd moved to this farm I'd asked the question of- WHY? It seemed so strange and my new trainer simply told me "What did they wear in the wild?" If a horse is over stepping, or one toe is short its what connects the foot to the horse that's at fault. Or in your case its the intake of what vitamins your horse is getting. I've always had bad nails until I started taking iron, iodine, and selenium. Now their almost unbreakable and I no longer have bumps in my nails and they grow more. Think of your horse's hooves as nails and you'll understand more. A horse supplement that I use for my horses is called Red-Cell and it has an amazing amount of vitamins that our horses love, retired and performance.

Another "yep". One of my horses has Gloves & different sizes from front-to-back.

Gloves will never in this lifetime fit the other horse so he ended up with Boas.

Best to have a farrier/trimmer experienced in boot fitting help, if you go that route