My gelding has never had shoes on (he's 7 later this month). His feet have always kept their shape very well and as i dont ride him on roads that often my farrier advised me he was fine without.
With us doing more ridden shows this year does anyone find any problems being un-shod? i.e slippy on grass? Or am i best shoeing?
If you are happy with your boy unshod - don't chnage it. I have shown all my horses bare foot and never had a problem. The only time you may get a bit of sliding is when the ground is very hard - but shod horses will slip too!!
Hi Jane My horse is the same age as yours.He has never had shoes and is ridden daily on all surfaces including tarmac. The more wear he gets on his hooves the faster they grow.He has better grip/traction than any shod horse I've ever ridden. If he's doing ok and he were mine I'd leave him bare,but then I'm a bare hoof fan and I'd give any horse a chance to be bare hoof. It's all down to conditioning to how your horse will cope.Good luck
I totally agree ~ even though I've not shown Chlio, I can honestly say that she has as much grip as any shod horse I've known on slippery surfaces and the PLUS of not having her shod is the AMAZING difference in ACTION. Without shoes she simply FLOATS and I can honestly say that since I've taken the shoes off ALL mine now, they have stopped banging their feet down as they can FEEL what happens if they do and they ALL move far move lightly.....even the COBBY MR CARROTT !!!!!
Topic Locked 
England
Posted - 02 Jan 2006 : 5:58:03 PM
