[drivingpairs] barefoot for years
- From: "Anya Getman" <agetman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 09:27:05 -0500 (EST)
At home my horses do really great barefoot, even though we're in a mudpit.
The barn itself, which they are free to walk into 24/7, is up on a
clayhill, where they can dry out. With no nailholes, the rate of absesses
is really low, and my main culprit was the first year after one mare had
come from a mudpit she'd had to stand in non-stop outdoors. Lots of tiny
little absesses, but they eventually all grew out at my place. Here they
have 10+ (also some of the neighbor's land) acres to walk around on, and
they like to use their crushed stone road (that gors form gate to gate --
which helped alleviate the gate-bog effect), so they wear well. I live on
a dirt road, which is part gravel, so that keeps the ridden horses nicely
level. I can easiy go 8 weeks between trims, and often longer, depending
on growth and wear rates. I trim all of them when, out of 8 horses, one
looks like they need it. Generally it's the 24 yr old, who stands around
a lot :).
The first couple years I had my eventing mare, she kept sucking the shoes
off her feet here in Mudland (Michigan), where we boarded, so I left them
off when we came home. It means I don't (up top) event in extreme mud
(and withdrew once because of it), but then I've still seen horses in
large spikes slide right into the obstacles when it's that bad (they were
prelim, and I was training, and I was to go over the exact same jumps, so
I withdrew). It just wasn't worth risking both of us anyway. If it's
light mud, my mare automatically moves over to a spot with better footing
to jump from. If I were a really serious competitor, I'd probably shoe,
but I don't have enough faith in my ability to ride her right in heavy mud
to risk it.
How good at staying on are today's generation of EZ boots (and
competitors)? They used to be really borderline for jumping years ago
....
The first time (or first time in a long time) I've ridden my barefoot
horses along the RR track, on the large stone, I'll get off and walk.
Next time we walk very slowly. They might still get bruises for a day or
two, but they callous them up quickly. Then after that, they are golden.
Unless you are walking on shards of glass (which you shouldn't anyway),
barefoot is fine for every surface I've been on. My mare always liked to
gallop in shoes on wet blacktop (she was magnetically attracted, for some
reason), so I'd have to carefully find a gentle way to slow her up and get
her back off to the side of the road. Barefoot I could care less.
Two horses that are mildly clubfooted on one foot (that I don't own ;))
have been barefoot at my barn, and they have done very well. The farrier
just followed the growth rings. Shoeing was always a little more
difficult for one of them that I've known, and she'd have to be reshod
often.
So even the horses with bad feet elsewhere have done fine barefoot with
me, in a muddy environment, and on RR track stone. Both blue and pink
hooves. I couldn't be happier.
_________________________________________________________
To Unsubscribe, change to Digest or Vacation mode go to:
http://www.drivingpairs.com/dpmem.html
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Other related posts:
- » [drivingpairs] barefoot for years
