Shortly after bringing Hoss home from Death Valley, I pulled his shoes. The reasoning was to try to keep him from ramming around too much while recovering. Still, in the back of my head, I was thinking, this guy could and should be barefoot.
I've had a history of problems keeping shoes on Hoss. I've been unhappy with how I have to set up his feet in order for him to keep his shoes on. If I trim him where his feet should be, he pulls shoes. I don't like the way I have to trim his feet to keep his shoes on. I think it increases the odds of injury. I can't be entirely sure his hock injury wasn't related to the way I had to set up his feet.
Hoss started needing shoes while he was in training. His toes got painfully short, and it was evident he'd need shoes to complete his training. I suppose I could have gotten him boots then, but I doubt Beth would have thanked me for it. Her time is valuable enough without me requiring her to dink around with boots on my horse! Additionally, I hadn't yet seen a boot that I really liked.
While volunteering at Warner Springs, I got a close up look at the EasyCare Glove boots. At Descanso last year, Hoss wore one for the last half of the ride after losing a shoe and becoming sore. It stayed on well, didn't collect a bunch of garbage (stuff got in there, don't get me wrong, but it didn't harm him), and he completed sound. Previous boots I've seen I've not liked for one reason or another. The Gloves, though, I like. They are simple, no hardware, fit closely, and stay on well. I still don't like that they only come in one shape. I mean, seriously, anyone who has looked at front and hind hooves will know that there is a difference in shape.
Having a layup for an injury seemed like a good time to try transitioning barefoot. I pulled Hoss's shoes and just rounded the edges of his feet. I did no trimming whatsoever, just took the sharp edge off so he wouldn't chip up badly. After two weeks in the corral, it was time to start the hand walking phase. Our roads where we walk are dirt and hard. If there's a test for soundness for barefoot, this is it. Never once has he shown any soreness or discomfort on our walks.
The true test was getting on and riding him the three mile loop, again on our hard packed dirt roads. Hoss came home with no sign of soreness, stepping out nicely.
So we will continue on this path. I do want to buy him a set of Gloves. I really can't see him going straight to completely barefoot over every trail, and I don't believe for an instant he'll ever be able to, either. There are just some places he won't be able to handle barefoot. Additionally, it takes a year to completely condition the feet. In a year, he'll have grown a whole new hoof. Between now and then, he will always compete with boots on, and we'll do as much conditioning as he can handle barefoot. After that, we'll only use the boots on an "as needed" basis.
Of course, there is always the possibility that this won't work out. While it looks to me that he is moving significantly differently than he was while in training, there is nothing to guarantee that he won't someday need shoes again. This may not work. I am in hopes that it will.
I will surely catch hell as soon as my farrier colleagues find out about this. I will be viewed as having gone over to the dark side or something. There has been so much vitriol thrown back and forth between farriers and the barefoot community. Of course, the secret truth is, farriers would much rather trim horses than shoe them. We are, after all, inherently lazy. And, there is so much less overhead in a trim, we make a pretty significant profit on them. So if the barefoot advocates were right – that every horse can and should go barefoot – we'd be gleefully jumping on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, they're not right, and steel horse shoes are never going to go away.
Boots have given us another option. It's a beautiful thing. Before if a horse became sore doing his job he would then necessarily wear shoes. Now, that same horse can wear boots only when he needs them. It's less expensive for the horse owner, and more profit for the farrier. I don't believe shoes are inherently harmful, or that barefoot is inherently healthier. The idea is to use the method that works best for the horse and owner. Some owners are not going to have the wherewithal to use boots, and some horses can't walk from their feeder to their water bucket without soreness. Other horses step out fine barefoot on 90 percent of the trails they are used on, but that other 10 percent is a problem. Well, with the boots, no longer do the 90 percenters have to choose between not using the other 10 percent of trails or shoeing. They can use boots! Boots aren't a solution for every horse. The horse has to have a hoof that fits well into the options available. Of course, having looked closely at the boots available, I think most horses can use boots, provided they are otherwise able to go barefoot.
As a farrier, I find the boots not a threat, but another tool in the box. Fewer horses wearing steel is a good thing for the rest of the world, too. Recycled steel is used to make horse shoes. When we as farriers fail to recycle the shoes we remove (and I know more farriers who don't recycle than do), we risk raising the price of steel, which is already through the roof as it is. So, to me, the advent of easily applied, functional boots has the potential to not only improve my bottom line as a farrier, but to help reduce the amount of steel that is removed from the steel market. Love it.
I will surely be considered to be off my nut because of this!
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