Barefoot riding is such a special way of riding, plus it's healthier for your horses.
We have plenty of hoof boots for you to choose from in our hoof boot shop, they are great to ride in and we have all different types to suit your discipline of riding.
If you are new to barefoot horses, and are thinking of taking the shoes off, remember it can take a while for your horses hooves to adapt.With metal shoes on the hooves are rigid and cannot pump the blood properly as they are designed to do,so their circulation has to come back into their feet, this takes time and is known as the transitional period. This is when you may need hoof boots if you want to ride your horses.
It is well worth sticking with it, because when the healing process has finished your horses hooves will be stronger and healthier.
When our horses have metal shoes on their feet they can never be grounded as the metal prohibits this, that`s why so many horses have leg and hoof problems. Ever wondered why there are so many hoof supplements on the market? Knocking nails into horses hooves is not a very nice thing to do and then they have to carry lumps of metal on their feet. Try walking with metal on your feet, very slippy and no grip especially on metal roads. Well dodgy.
Ever since it was first invented, the horseshoe has been called a "necessary evil"
To this day, it remains a topic of much controversy among horse owners and riders, though scientific facts and findings rarely enter into such discussions.
It is often said as an argument that horses have been shod for thousands of years. However this is not true if you read one of the oldest, well know descriptions about horsemanship and hoofcare by Xenophon a 4th Century BC Greek author, philosopher, student of Socrates, politician, historian and cavalry commander - he describes the way in which horses` hooves are kept healthy and fit for even the hardest of use
Xenophon writes.
The same care which is given to the horses food and exercise, to make his body grow strong, should also be devoted to keeping his feet in condition. Even naturally sound hooves get spoiled in stalls with moist (urine) smooth stalls. He mentions strengthening the horses hooves by letting the horses stand on round stones, standing on these would be as good for him as travelling a stony road for some part of every day. The stones also strengthen the frogs.
Xenophon always writes about toughening the hooves, never of protecting them, or applying shoes. His instructions focus on the creation of natural strength and wear resistance.
For more informative reading why not read `Shoeing: A Necessary Evil?`
Research shows that the nailed on horse shoe first appeared sporadically in Europe at a time when the nobility began to live in castles on hilltops. This is the first time animals were caged in small, enclosed spaces, whereas before, they had been kept in fields and open areas. For the first time horses were "stabled" and thus exposed to the harmful effects of their own excrement (i.e., ammonia, the moisture Xenophon said "spoiled horses hooves") and lack of movement causing poor circulation in the hooves leading to reduced horn quality. Horses still had to carry their riders or pull their loads up and down the mountains. This proved to be impossible and led to the need for hoof protection - the horseshoe - which, however, still required over five centuries to come into common use in Europe.
Bracy Clark writes.
"He who first began the practice, whoever he may have been, little suspected he was laying the foundation of more animal suffering than ever it fell to the lot of one man to originate; for not only have countless myriads of feet, during the twelve or thirteen centuries or more that this practice has been in use, been injured with the suffering, which in a greater or less degree must necessarily attend it from the changes and reduction of the feet that we have pointed out, but chastisements also for offences in going, still more hard to endure, it not being their fault, are to be added to it along with the cruelly severe bittings, or gaggings rather, and unmerciful usings up attended with scourgings and cruelty, of a description almost too atrocious and cruel for any pen to describe."
If we want to make it a better world for our equine friends we have to say `NO` to bits and metal shoes. Horses should not have to endure cruelty at the hands of man.
If you would like to chat more about barefoot horses why not give me a ring or email me.
email - sjandtj@btinternet.com
phone - 01974 831 009
