A Barefoot Journey Part 1

Keeping horses barefoot is becoming increasingly popular within the equestrian community. Although still labelled "alternative" the movement attracts more and more followers each year. This year around Christmas, a friend of mine persuaded me to try it on one of my horses. He is a 10-year-old gelding with a rather sad history who was mostly sound without shoes in the arena but had terribly contracted heels and elongated hoofs. He was also prone to thrush in winter as the climate here is moist and warm. He's kept outside and rarely gets a dry spot under his feet in winter. I'm a very traditional horse person and thought as the majority of horse riders probably do: "Shoes if the horse needs them, none if he doesn't". Which does seem very logical to me. The idea that my flat-footed TB could be barefoot was completely dismissible as well as the thought that any horse could be barefoot. Surely thorough breeding would have eliminated any "hearty" traits that our horse's wild ancestors possessed. All my competition horses are shod, as the constantly changing footing during events would have made them sore or lame. I had to find out though! I could not just let that discussion go past me without having given it a chance. So I gen my journey into the barefoot experiment. The rest of my horses are still shod and will remain so until I have been proven wrong, and if that's the case, then I might just consider becoming a barefoot advocate!

The first I heard of barefoot was years ago as a child, when a lady in Germany called Dr Strasser made headlines. My family and equestrian surroundings dismissed her immediately, saying that her methods were extreme and unnecessary. The next I heard of barefoot was from a lovely lady in the UK, but due to an injury and old age she had given up riding years ago. I was already aware paddocked and only groundworked horse were able to be barefoot. One of my top dressage horses was barefoot, but she only worked in soft indoor and outdoor arenas and her precious thrice insured legs would never ever get in contact with hillsides, roads, or worse, gravel!!! The lady who finally persuaded me to try barefoot trimming made me read a book by gentleman called Pete Ramey. He is quite a good-looking fella, so I didn't exactly mind reading his book. Just like the guy from Savvy Touch Products NZ, not only does he sell awesome horse grooming products, he also looks the part. What a pleasure spending money! So back to Pete Ramey... his book is easy to comprehend and read with simple and good illustrations and it makes sense. Surprised as I was, I visited his website and read my way around the barefoot world. More confident now that I understood some more, I agreed to my first barefoot trim.

That day, I brushed and gave my little gelding loads of love and attention even though it was only the barefoot lady coming around. My farrier had already given me his opinion on the "barefoot folk", so as you can imagine, I was not very happy. Moreover, it did not get any better as the barefoot lady turned up with big, high school chemistry goggles and an angle grinder! That was really not what I had in mind! I've seen angle grinders being used by the big Quarter Horse Studs in the US, but that was a time saving way to shoe and trim 250 horses in a day or two. I did call her out though, so I had to get it over and done with. My little gelding didn't mind the angle grinder at all and stood patiently and still through the entire procedure. Not one flinch although that grinding thing was only a foot away from his belly at times!

What I learned that day (and through all my previous research on the subject) is that most farriers do a so-called paddock trim which leaves the hoof flat and ready to be shod again. This is ideal really, as most horses will be shod when they come back into work. A barefoot trim is a performance trim that enables the horse to walk on all sorts of terrain without needing shoes. The reason most horses need shoes is not due to a so-called flat foot, but because the paddock trim often leaves flares and makes the hoof wall a weight bearing surface, which it really shouldn't be.

I didn't take pictures of my pony before his first trim, but this picture illustrates a horse that has been paddock trimmed after having his shoes removed and then left for 8 weeks. As you can see, his hoofs are very long and the white line (here seen as a sort of a black line around the hoof) has been stretched due to flaring. The hoof wall itself is attached to the insides by the laminae which act like a velcro. Live velcro on the inside of the hoof, dead velcro on the inside of hoof wall. If the wall is left too long, it will flare and start growing parallel or upwards to the ground and cause the laminae to separate. This is extremely painful and part of the reason most unshod horses are lame on gravel. The other important factors are the coffin bone and sole. If the sole is not properly calloused, there is sometimes only millimetres separating the coffin bone from the actual ground. The sole callous can only be built by letting the horse move barefoot and getting rid of flares. The third factor, which is really rather overlooked is thrush. Most horse owners know thrush but no one realises how painful it actually is to a healthy horse. Thrush is a bacterial/fungal infection that thrives in dark, moist and warm airless areas such as the frog. Even a little bit of thrush, (the horse in the above picture has thrush quite badly) can cause the horse to limp and be sore without shoes on.

This picture is of my gelding after 8 weeks of continuous barefoot trimming. As you can see the black hoof was more thrush infected and didn't de-contract as much as the white one did. He is on and off sore on his black foot, as the de-contracting of the heel makes live tissue grow and therefore makes the hoof tender to gravel. He has got a pair of EasyGloves to enable him to go for long walks to build up his sole callous and toughen his lateral cartilage, which acts like a cushion.

So what do I think about those first 8 weeks of barefoot trimming? I'm annoyed that my horse is sore every now and then but I saved a lot of money on farrier bills. My horse is happier, his stride has changed to the better and the quality of his hoofs is astonishing! I'm still not convinced but I will definitely continue to see what will happen, it's not called a journey for nothing! I hope you will stay with me to part 2 of this series, which will focus on the hoof and explain mechanism, function and build.

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