Comments for
when a horse is left without horse shoes can you still ride them as often without wearing down the hooves too much, or is it not a problem?
My oldest horse is fifteen years old and is still shoeless. I have four horses and not of them wear shoes.
Do not ride or pavement or a lot of rocky terrain and you should be fine.
Have a good farrier check out your horses feet, to make sure that he has good solid feet. Look at my horse hoof care page to read more about it.
shoeless by: JIm B
I have a 4 yr. old walking horse stallion that i have had since a weanling, had him shod at 3 several times, not always a good experience. I have ridden horses shoeless before but not ridden hard as they will get tenderfooted if ridden in gravel for a long period, but if ridden on ground and not a lot of rock i never had a problem, now my stallion is doing better without shoes for over a year now. he is ridden on trails and mostly in pastures, alongside roads, and so on. With proper attention paid to his hooves, and frequent inspections, I have yet to find a problem, I do need to point out that I wear out before he does, meaning he isn't ridden hard. Maybe if he is going to be worked hard and or worked in gravel a lot I will put shoes back on but if I keep riding the way I have been he won't have shoes on again. Jim
Leave horse shoes off by: Horse Lover
You can leave horse shoes off if you clean the hooves before riding.
horses without shoes by: Anonymous
my horse has not had shoes on her in 2 years. Over time her feet have hardened and it is ok to ride for an hour or two on pavement. but if they're feet are cracking bad and the horse is limping do not ride without shoes. and gravel is not the best idea because the stones can bruise they're feet.
mental midgets by: Anonymous
you people have no clue about barefoot vs shod horses................of course your horse does not need shoes..shoes were made for a problem centuries ago and have become commonplace today but as science turns to equines we find more and more that shoes cripple horses.....simple fact......it reduces blood flow from reduced expansion..decreased shock absorbtion.....increases breakover causeing less contact with the ground per foot fall.....mechanical damage to hoof wall from nails.........thinning of the sole....lowered P3 position....unnatural distribution of wall ie..peripheral loading...not to mention causing navicular, digital cushion damaging, and tendon stress (Cited)(simons-lancaster 2004) (colles 1989) Dhyre-Poulson, Smedegaard, Roed, and korsGaard 1994) (Ramey 2002) (Bowker 2007a-Bowker 2007b)
Barefoot is best! by: Anonymous
Hi. I have a 4 year old Andalucian Gelding who has never been shod. I bought him as a 2 year old and spent the first year and a half walking him twice daily to improve the hardness of his feet. If he got footsore I was doing too much and rested him for a couple of days. We now ride out 3 times a week on all sorts of terrain with no problems. My other horse is currently in transition from shod to barefoot. He had poor, soft hooves with a lot of damage from shoes (with previous owner). It has taken about a year but his hooves are the best they have ever been. We use hoof boots when riding out for more than half an hour and definitely for rocky terrain. I think shoes are restrictive and outdated and the hoof boots are brill.
