Re: barefoot horses: wearing faster than they grow?

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:03:06 GMT, una@xxxxxxx (Una) wrote:

Yvonne, quoted by Cindi, wrote:
Actually, the idea that healthy hooves could possibly wear down by
doing a one hour ride in sand per day is really funny!

Ocean of Nuance <lizzardwomanRMOVE@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Bull***.

Yes, sadly. Shows how little Yvonne knows about working barefoot.
I think you have to remember that the ideal barefoot hoof looks very
different than the traditional shod foot. I have read Yvonne's
stories through the years, and I think she lives in the dessert and
does put lots of miles on in the sand. I don't think what she has to
say is bull*** Sharon--she has always been a straight shooter. I
wish we had a sand arena versus hog fuel then I could provide
anecdotal info. Our problem is not enough abrasion with the hog fuel
to wear down the hooves--so we have lots of hoof growth versus natural
wear. Our now deceased trainer did have a sand arena, and she was a
person who rode hours and rode dressage. She had horses with rock
hard feet and she extolled the virtue of sand for barefoot horses.

I know there are some top level competing dressage horses who are
barefoot, and it would be interesting to know what footing they train
in. There is a research project for you Sharon. You could email them
and ask and report back to us. The gal who does reining and sliding
stops barefoot--Stacey Westfall--must put lots of abrasion on her
horses feet yet they seem to do well. Once again, I think it is
something that will work for lots of horses, but not for every horse.
One would have to experiment with it. And once again, it would not
work unless you did a conditioning routine with the horse, and that is
too labour intensive for many horse owners. You cannot pull the shoes
and start riding for an hour or two a day doing performance work
without doing the conditioning required to strengthen up the hoof, and
that is something that many horses don't have the time for--thus they
will say "my horse can't go barefoot or he gets sore". But once the
conditioning is done and the horses have some firm ground to roar
around on daily the hard part is over. That conditioning took months
for us and included lots of road walking with our horses. The young
horses didn't have to go through all the conditioning as they were
raised on firm paddocks and had lots of movement with the herd from
day one. The older ones were shod all their lives and came with a
myriad of hoof issues. So they took months of conditioning work.
Laurel
.

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