ARTICLES

 ARE YOU READY FOR BAREFOOT?

Just about everyone has heard about ‘barefoot’ by now.
 We’ve heard the horror stories, success stories; heated denials that horses cannot be ridden without shoes and vehement affirmations that they can.
 Until now this has all been ‘other person’ stuff.
 You may have listened, disbelieved, hoped or wondered.
 If you are reading this you may now be at the point where you are thinking about ‘trying this barefoot thing’.
 Before leaping your horse off the deep end there are a few points to consider to help you make a decision on whether you are truly ready to take your horse barefoot.
 Riding without shoes is only a small portion of a much larger picture when it comes to having a sound, healthy, barefoot horse.

Are you willing to implement possible changes to your horse’s lifestyle in order to facilitate the potential for maximum health?

It is a documented fact that confining/stabling/yarding/restricting a horses movement has an extremely negative effect on the health of a horse.
 These creatures of movement need to MOVE.
 How ludicrous of us to assume that an equine athlete can jump, gallop, pace, perform high school movements etc to the best of their ability when they are left to spend up to 80% of their time confined to a stable or yard.
 How many of the world’s top human athletes are couch potatoes?
 So is your horse confined?
 How much space does your horse have to move?
 Does it have the company of other equines to encourage movement and socialization?
 

The wild horse is the barefooters model.
 The healthiest specimens live in sparsely vegetated areas.
 They have to move.
 These horses are extremely healthy. Their exceptional movement and agility comes from this movement. They don’t need to be ‘pretty’ or have perfect conformation in order to excel athletically.
 Their lifestyle brings this out naturally.
 You don’t need 1000-acre paddocks to have healthy horses though, small paddocks can be transformed with a little imagination to help encourage the daily mileage that is so helpful in producing equine health.

If your barefoot horse is not ridden or led daily for mileage it is possible to set up the paddock either with tapes or permanent fencing to create roomy winding ‘pathways’ from a food source to a trough.
 If on a dairy farm a disused race can give a horse loads of natural movement on a surface that will help condition and wear hooves as the horse moves from a food source, up the race, to a trough in another paddock.
 
 Creating a hard pad with gravel is hugely beneficial to horses living on soft paddocks.
 This could be placed in areas that the horses naturally rest or around a trough, in the gateway or under trees.
 If they have to stand on the firm area to eat hay in the winter they will be conditioning their hooves at the same time.
 
 Wild horses with lots of movement loving on soft terrain develop a hoof that has responded to this soft footing.
 Wild horses living on hard rocky terrain develop a hoof that has responded to this hard footing.

What do you want to ride your barefoot horse on?

Are you a competitive rider or a pleasure rider?
 Do you want to be able to hack out with friends over all terrain including gravel?
 Do you mostly ride in a sand arena?
 Are you jumping in deep footing or mostly road riding?
 
 These are questions that need to be looked at closely so that you can make changes to your horses lifestyle, if necessary, to be sure that you are giving your horse the very best opportunity to develop the kind of hoof that will make it easy to adapt to the demands your type of riding places on him/her.

Can you change the way you feed and what you feed your horse?

We now know that feeding the horse above ground level can cause extreme dental issues so feeding at ground level is a must.
 The types of food you feed can be causing problems with your horse.
 
 Horses are designed to eat 16 hours a day.
 Having grass or hay always available causes less digestive problems.
 The feeding of fancy highly processed foods, beautifully packaged, full of flavourings, preservatives and additives is the equivalent of giving our children junkfood.
 You are what you eat. The horse is no different.

Going back to the wild horse model, these animals live in some of the ‘poorest’ land on the planet. Places that humans find hard to farm.
 These wild equines have adapted to their environment extremely well and flourish in the most arid areas.
 
 Our domestic horses would benefit from a variety of herbage, leaves and tree branches.
 Generally a horse will not eat toxic plants unless it is starving, even so it would be wise to become familiar with different plants, grasses, herbs, shrubs and trees so that you do not allow your horse to eat something that is poisonous to it.
 As for other food sources a simple rule would be, is it how nature made it?
 The more highly processed foods we put into our horses the more likely they are to have issues.
 Just like our children.

Are you willing to wait?

It is more than likely that your horse already has damage to the internal structures of its feet.
 With the rapid hoof growth rate in New Zealand, the soft, non-abrasive ground and the general lack of regular hoof trimming that our horses receive, horses feet distort quickly and damage begins.
 
 Even our own free living wild Kaimanawa horses can be at a disadvantage if the area that the herd grazes in doesn’t have any hard abrasive areas.
 
 It can take 2 weeks for a foal born with healthy hooves to begin to develop hoof distortion that very quickly leads to internal hoof damage.
 
 With damage inside the hoof capsule your horse will need time to heal.

This does not necessarily mean you cannot ride your horse. It will depend on the amount of damage there is and it can come to a shock to some owners to see their formerly ‘sound’ shod horse carefully walking around the paddock.
 The horse had damage, the shoes where masking it.
 Time, trims and movement will heal an amazing variety of damage.
 With each stride the horse takes, nourishing blood is pushed through the unshod, trimmed hoof, protective hoof boots can be used to keep the horse comfortable enough while he is healing to be ridden. 
 Extreme cases will need hand leading to speed up the healing process.
 The hoof needs to wear or it has to be trimmed-monthly. 
 Any longer and the hoof can go from being perfectly balanced to having excess hoof horn that will lead to distortion.

Could you cope with leaving your horse un-covered?

Wild horses live in all parts of the world without covers.

The horse has a very elaborate thermoregulatory system that keeps them at a constant perfect temperature.
The hairs on the body will rise or lay flat whenever they need to warm up or cool down.
This self-regulatory action stimulates their immune system aiding their health status.
Horses will also move to sheltered areas when wind, rain or heat dictates. 

By comparison when our domestic horses get double/triple rugged, hooded, tail-wrapped to keep out the cold their whole system comes under stress.
While there is good argument for covers on occasion i.e. sickness, horses that have no protection from the extremes of weather-no hedges, trees, gullies or open walk in shelters, maybe even greys in the summer to minimise the risk of melanoma, generally our horses are better off left to heat and cool their bodies as they see fit.

Removing the shoes from your horse’s hooves and trimming them according to natural hoof care guidelines is only part of the barefoot equation.
Natural hoof care is one part of a more holistic approach to horse care and by being aware of other factors that you may need to change you will have a greater chance of successfully and easily taking your horse from shod to barefoot.