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16 Posts
Hello All and thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Of course the issue of to shoe or not to shoe has been discussed a lot here, and I have read much, and now I want to ask about my specific circumstance.
I live in Costa Rica and stable my two horses.
They have been with shoes for years. We ride mostly on unpaved roads with plenty of gravel and rocks on it.
They have some time to graze in grassy fields, but not enough, and this is why I am moving them to a place that has constant access to the outside fields.
This new place is also right by a very long and nearly deserted beach.
Yes, it is paradise...zero complaints here.
My questions is about my want to let them go unshod and more specifically, the best procedure to do this.
I am new to all of this, and have owned my horses for just about three years now.
Here are my things:
1) I'd like to give them a life without shoes...let them go natural
2) It will be great to save the time and money (this new place is more out of the way, so getting a farrier is possible but not easy)
3) The woman who owns/runs the place keeps all her horses without shoes and does a simple file job to keep their hooves "shaped right"...her words.
4) They will spend 95% of their time on grassy fields with a small river running through it
5) Except for a few hundred meters/yards of connecting roads(stable to field etc) that are unpaved gravel, they will be ridden on either the beach or a sand road, or grass.
So my questions:
1)Sounds like a great environment to NOT need shoes, am I right?
2) They just got their new ones last week, and I am moving them soon...I read it is better NOT to take shoes off a recently shod hoof, correct? How long to wait?
3) Once they are removed, what is the waiting period like? I am sure it is different for various horses, so what to watch for to decide?
4) Care after they are unshod? She, the owner of the new place, seems to have good luck by simply stepping their hoof on a wooden board and using a file to get a "good shape"...if her horses "seem fine with this" is their any reason not to think mine will be ok too?
I'd love to apprentice with a farrier if that is possible here, and this is a new plan for me...so I will get on that today and see if I have any success...not sure I can get a good one for unshod hooves in that area, so I believe it will be up to the owner, and perhaps me.
I guess the big question really is: In the environment I am describing, are my unshod horses hooves going to go natural and be easy and the right thing to do?
Thanks very much all.....oh, and for any professional farriers out there, maybe this is a good chance to come on down and see about some barter for services....hosting a creative "natural farrier" sounds like a win/win to me...
Ok, thanks again.
Mark in Costa Rica
Of course the issue of to shoe or not to shoe has been discussed a lot here, and I have read much, and now I want to ask about my specific circumstance.
I live in Costa Rica and stable my two horses.
They have been with shoes for years. We ride mostly on unpaved roads with plenty of gravel and rocks on it.
They have some time to graze in grassy fields, but not enough, and this is why I am moving them to a place that has constant access to the outside fields.
This new place is also right by a very long and nearly deserted beach.
Yes, it is paradise...zero complaints here.
My questions is about my want to let them go unshod and more specifically, the best procedure to do this.
I am new to all of this, and have owned my horses for just about three years now.
Here are my things:
1) I'd like to give them a life without shoes...let them go natural
2) It will be great to save the time and money (this new place is more out of the way, so getting a farrier is possible but not easy)
3) The woman who owns/runs the place keeps all her horses without shoes and does a simple file job to keep their hooves "shaped right"...her words.
4) They will spend 95% of their time on grassy fields with a small river running through it
5) Except for a few hundred meters/yards of connecting roads(stable to field etc) that are unpaved gravel, they will be ridden on either the beach or a sand road, or grass.
So my questions:
1)Sounds like a great environment to NOT need shoes, am I right?
2) They just got their new ones last week, and I am moving them soon...I read it is better NOT to take shoes off a recently shod hoof, correct? How long to wait?
3) Once they are removed, what is the waiting period like? I am sure it is different for various horses, so what to watch for to decide?
4) Care after they are unshod? She, the owner of the new place, seems to have good luck by simply stepping their hoof on a wooden board and using a file to get a "good shape"...if her horses "seem fine with this" is their any reason not to think mine will be ok too?
I'd love to apprentice with a farrier if that is possible here, and this is a new plan for me...so I will get on that today and see if I have any success...not sure I can get a good one for unshod hooves in that area, so I believe it will be up to the owner, and perhaps me.
I guess the big question really is: In the environment I am describing, are my unshod horses hooves going to go natural and be easy and the right thing to do?
Thanks very much all.....oh, and for any professional farriers out there, maybe this is a good chance to come on down and see about some barter for services....hosting a creative "natural farrier" sounds like a win/win to me...
Ok, thanks again.
Mark in Costa Rica