[pnh]

first of all i am not trying to convert you one bit ok .. i promise.. what you chose to do is solely your choice and if you think its the right thing then i totally understand and support that. the reason i am posting this is because ( and i know its just off a website.. but a knowledgable persons website at that!) i was totally not aware of this.. AND i have seen the differences of barefoot myself.. with my own horse. so i am practicing what i preach!!! bt once again.. i promise this isnt to start wars.. just some new information you can absorb and either use.. or throw away if you want.. anyways here it is

Horseshoes Damage the Hoof

When we pull the shoes, nearly all horses are found to have substantial damage to the hooves. The time it takes to heal from this damage is what we call the "transition year." The occasional horse that doesn't have to go through transition, generally wore shoes only for a few months.

Horseshoes seem to have been invented in the Middle Ages in Europe, to keep the feet from falling apart when knights' horses had to live for months in slop-filled tie-stalls while the castle was under siege. At that time, the study of "anatomy" and "physiology" did not exist yet; therefore there was no way to study what the shoes did to hooves and legs.

Horses today are high-priced performance animals and valued companions, and are not kept in unsanitary conditions that rot their feet. A long life and lifelong soundness are important to most horse owners. Therefore, it is time to re-think the use of horseshoes.

There are more than a dozen ways that shoes are known to damage the feet, legs, and circulatory system of the horse. The worst damage comes from loss of circulation in the hoof, and loss of shock absorption.

Circulation: When the horse steps down on his foot, the cone-shaped hoof wall flexes wider at the bottom; when he lifts it off the ground, it returns to its narrower "closed" shape. This spread-and-squeeze acts like a pump, pulling blood through the foot with each step.

Horsehoes are nailed onto the foot when it is in the closed, off-the-ground position. With a shoe on, the hoof can't flex, so the pump doesn't work; sufficient blood and nutrients are not pulled into the foot. Therefore, the quality of sole, wall, and frog is poor; injuries are slow to heal; and the white line deteriorates over time and becomes stretched.

I once made a rough estimate that a medium-sized, barefoot horse pumps a gallon (4 liters) through its four feet in about 20 strides. If anyone has more accurate information I will put it here.

Shock absorption: In the tough yet elastic barefoot hoof, the flexing of the weighted hoof can absorb as much as 2,000 lbs. of concussion. But the horseshoe holds the foot inflexible, cancelling out 75% of its ability to absorb shock. Instead, the concussion goes on up the leg and damages joints and tendons that were not designed to take so much shock.

A third type of damage is that shoes contract the hoof. The hoof naturally grows in a cone shape; as the hoof wall grows, the base (the part that touches the ground) gets wider. But shoes hold the base to the size it was on shoeing day. The shod hoof changes from a cone to more of a cylinder shape. The heels of the cylinder are forced to curl inward, which puts incorrect mechanical stress on the hoof wall, and can show up as wall cracks, white line damage, or "navicular" pain.

An overgrown hoof that was not shod, showing how the hoof gets wider as it grows. An overgrown hoof that was shod, showing how the shoe made the hoof grow in a cylinder shape with "underslung heels."

The horse's feet keep growing till age 5, when he reaches his full adult weight. When shoes are put on a young horse, the coffin bone cannot grow wider, and the foot ends up small and often contracted.

For these and many other reasons, the barefoot horse has a lot of advantages over the shod horse, both in health and in performance.

Here is what Marco Polo noticed on his journey to China:

• "Afghanistan produces numbers of excellent horses, remarkable for their speed. They are not shod, although used in mountainous country, and go at a great pace even down deep descents, where shod horses neither would nor could do the like."

Can my horse go barefoot?

Many people ask me whether their horse "can go barefoot." Here are some considerations to help you make your own decision.

1) The first answer is that I believe, since horses have succeeded as a species for hundred-millions of years without shoes, any shod horse would prefer to go barefoot and feel the ground, if we had a way to ask them. A horse depends on his feet to escape from predators, and feels insecure if he can't feel the ground.

Some very old horses have gone barefoot successfully. I knew one with badly damaged feet that wouldn't have lived long enough to come through transition to a more comfortable condition, where the owner decided to leave him shod.

2) The next answer is "Every horse could go barefoot, except for the ambitions of its owner / rider." There are situations where the horse would be better off barefoot, in the long run, but the rider is on an unforgiving schedule that allows no "down time" in case the transition happens to be a difficult one; for example, a teenager campaigning on the show circuit where there is an age limit.

Once a horse goes lame, the schedule is no longer a consideration and the barefoot method would be the fastest route to complete soundness.

Hoof boots, plus the "white line strategy" trim, make it possible for most horses to transition with no difficulty.

There are situations where shoes are used to extend the horse's abilities beyond what nature provided. An example is stadium jumping, where the horse must have shoes with corks in order to get around sharp turns at high speed. The corks give the horse traction, but having traction on tight turns overstresses the ligaments and joints in the legs; no-one expects these horses to be sound and rideable to the age of 35 or even 15.

(The Swiss Horse Boot was designed for competition, and can be fitted with corks. This allows the hoof itself to remain healthy, though ligament and joint stress would still occur.)

3) A few horses work in situations that require hoof protection. For example, a carriage horse that works all day on very abrasive roads may wear his feet faster than they grow. We can use hoof boots to protect the hoof; this is one situation where you would use boots on all four feet. A benefit of boots is that they can be used just for some percentage of the work, such as two days a week, allowing the feet to self-trim at other times and the boots to last longer.

4) Some horses are described as having "bad" or "weak" feet that "would not do well barefoot." But horses get "weak feet" in the first place, from reduced circulation in the shod foot; or, going back farther, from not getting enough movement on firm footing, as foals. ( my friends arabs feet were awful.. they chipped off and he always lost shoes.. having to nail far up up in the hoof etc and they were just crumbly.. she gave barefoot a try and her horses feet were absolutely strong as rocks!!! his transition time was about 6 months before she could ride on gravel without him being sensitive.. where as mine was shorter because my horses feet were stronger and didnt have that damage.)

When we use hoof boots during the transition year, these horses are showing us that they grow new, tough hooves just like any other barefoot horse. If you look at this kind of hoof several months after pulling the shoes, you'll actually see a line where the new hoof wall growing down from the top is thicker than the old wall below. (you dont have to use boots.. most people dont and it is still ok.. this can be a completely free process i promise)5) We are seeing a few horses get a thin, soft sole (squishy to thumb pressure), I think on account of the very wet year (2003) in the northeastern U.S. They are very sore and in fact there is danger of breaking the coffin bone should they land hard on a sharp rock. Two that I have watched went sound immediately with shoes and pads. I have already heard of one such horse that was able to go barefoot again successfully after several months shod.

anyways people... i hope this informed you a bit more.. dont take it personally if you do shoe your horses and thats what you prefer.. this was just an informative post

this info came from this website.. www.barefoothorse.com
love pnh

[cassidy]

wow i have to say that is very very interesting

thank you for sharing it!

i however actually have my horses shod as i like to hack out alot an do quite a bit of road work

however my pony now only has fronts on as i dont do as much with her as i used too!

my youngster who is 4! is ony just about to have his fisrt set of fronts an wont wear back shoes till hes doing full time work out on raods ect

i personally feel better that my horses wear shoes as i worry about them without

but as many people on this forum its a personal decision

but your article has enlitened me an made me think twice thank you!

[SpiritSaddle]

Very nice! I agree with it very much. Very very informative post!

[pnh]

i completley understand where you are coming from.. for most its peace of mind right... BUT there is an alternative and the people i know who use these SWEAR BY THEM! theyre called old mac boots .. heres the link if you wanna have a read

http://www.oldmacs.com/Horse_Boots/Default.asp

alot of people chuck them on if theyre going for a long ride over gravel and stuff or on the roads... and they actually do work believe it or not!
you can chose to buy just one pair - thats what msot people do - or four if you want. it ends up being cheaper than having to shoe every 6-8 weeks and they last a long time!
anyway if your interested check it out...

[SeaSide81]

Wonderful info! Thank you for sharing it. Whether you like BareFoot or not, it is always interesting and informative to hear both sides.

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by pnh

i completley understand where you are coming from.. for most its peace of mind right... BUT there is an alternative and the people i know who use these SWEAR BY THEM! theyre called old mac boots .. heres the link if you wanna have a read

http://www.oldmacs.com/Horse_Boots/Default.asp

alot of people chuck them on if theyre going for a long ride over gravel and stuff or on the roads... and they actually do work believe it or not!
you can chose to buy just one pair - thats what msot people do - or four if you want. it ends up being cheaper than having to shoe every 6-8 weeks and they last a long time!
anyway if your interested check it out...

But you can't use old mac boots, or any other kind of boot like this in competition...unshod horses that may use these boots at home, like eventers would most likely end up very foot sore after a comp with shoes of no sort, especially with some of the terrain on x country.

The other thing is that with shoes, a farrier will fit them to YOUR horse...not 1 shoe fits every horse. I understand with old mac boots they do come in different sizes, but I doubt very much that they would comfortably fit every horse in the world.

I shoe my dressage horse, but all the other horses are unshod. I get him shod because he is in full work, working 5-6 days a week. Every 6 weeks when he gets shod his shoes are looking very worn...I would had to think that if I had him unshod that he would've been wearing his hoof wall, or even worse his sole instead of his shoes.

Just my opinion.

I have read similar articles (like yours) before. And just because I continue to shoe horses in full work, doesn't mean I don't find the info interesting. I think its great that you posted that, so that people that aren't aware of some of the affects from shoeing can learn a thing or two.

[devilishjumper]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

eventers would most likely end up very foot sore after a comp with shoes of no sort, especially with some of the terrain on x country.

actually not true! I thought the same when i took on Red as a project. He has been barefoot all his life never had a shoe on his foot. Last december i took him on as a project and i'm training him to event. We've competed Beginner Novice 2'6'' and school Novice and some training level up to 3'3''. He has never shown any signs of being sore infact other horses at the barn who have been doing the same work turn up lame and he has been perfectly sound as far as being barefoot goes. When i fist started with him i wanted shoes on him and i was worried but now i wouldn't have it any other way.

This is a great post and i was never aware of any of this! I agree with a lot of this since Red is barefoot and it explains a lot. A lot of people at our barn have their horses go barefoot in the winter and they do go though that lame month or so when barefoot. Also there is a HUGE difference in how a barefoot looks and a shoed foot. Red's feet are huge they haven't been trimed in years that i am aware of. While some shoed feet are very tiny!

[harli36]

I am a barefoot person as well but there is a lot of biased information in here. That isn't entirely correct in all the situations in which we put our horses.

[pnh]

yep obviously every horse is different. JFYI old macs are fitted to each horse.. not made specifically for your horse (likewise with shoes) ... but someone does come and fit them to your horse to make sure they wont rub etc. also people are now doing 180km rides barefoot with no problems.. over rocks, mountains, water - anything!
there are also just as many different shoeing and barefoot methods as there are trainers (well almost lol) so there will always be bias oppinions etc.. as i said.. this is just one article off one site. but it is definatly true that no matter what method you believe in that it cant do any harm to be aware and informed of both.. and i found this article really interesting so i thought i would share it is really good to hear both sides etc...
also im not putting you down or anything.. lots of horses perform at top level with shoes but id just like to say that yes the shoe is fitted to the horse but it is fitted when the hoof is off the ground... preventing the pumping action of happening and contricting the hoof.
annnny hooo! keep both 'sides' coming... its interesting good to hear peoples oppinions
love pnh

[Asfaloth]

I just read the entire barefoothorse website yeateday. I learned so much. Fantastic information and well writen clear and helpful. My horses have been barefoot for a long time now and have not had any foot problems with my Appy at all since going barefoot 10 years ago. I do ride him on the road now and then with no problems. Baby has been barefoot for 2 years and is finally toughening up but we have had to correct her angles so it is taking longer. She has too much toe which makes breakover all wrong putting stress on the coffin bone. I am planning to discuss this trim witn her farrier.