Condition His What?

Yes, his feet! This is the season for most horse related periodicals to feature various conditioning programs in preparation for the upcoming riding season. Yet most fail to completely address the conditioning needs of the foot. Rather the advice concerning hoofcare generally consists of contacting your farrier to have your horse shod in preparation for the season. While this is a viable option, it is not your only option and while many people would like to go barefoot, it is often considered unfeasible. In many cases, the difference between going barefoot and needing shoes lies in properly conditioning your horse’s feet. Your horse’s feet are very adaptive and will continually respond to his environment, for better or worse.

By harnessing this innate ability to adapt, you can elevate your horse’s feet to their maximum level of conditioning. Of course, the first step is to apply a proper trim which properly and efficiently loads the individual structures of the foot. As the structures of the foot are properly stimulated they grow stronger and subsequently function more efficiently. While a shod horse can benefit from some aspects of this methodology, the elevated and restricted nature of the shod foot limits the effectiveness of the program.

This approach to conditioning will benefit both the foot requiring rehabilitation and the foot requiring refinement to traverse harsher terrain. Basically, it is a systematic exposure to specific terrain in a controlled manner. The difference between rehabilitating a foot and refining one is the amount of time needed at each stage.

The first stage involves exposing your horse’s feet to sand or a similar surface. Exposure to this terrain benefits the frog, sole and bars by applying even pressure to these structures. Pressure and stress are both catalysts for growth when uniformly applied. The key at this early period is even pressure, pinpoint pressure at this stage would cause trauma and be counter productive. Begin with 15-20 minutes a day hand walking or lunging in cases requiring rehabilitation and/or riding when working on conditioning of a foot with adequate structure.

Once noticeable improvement is observed begin incorporation exercising and/or riding on asphalt or pavement. Regular exposure to pavement will stimulate wall growth, especially the innerwall increasing the foots ability to absorb shock. As stated before, the hoof is very adaptive, thus exposing the hoof to shock, in a controlled manner will stimulate growth of the structures responsible for dissipating shock. Like sand pavement is free of pinpoint pressure, thereby it stresses and stimulates, but does not abuse the foot. Again, 10-15 minutes a day will be enough to see noticeable results. Again, once noticeable result are observed begin introducing harsher terrain.

At this point, begin approaching terrain such as gravel using a conservative approach. In most cases, it is prudent to begin un-mounted and gradually add weight. If excessive sensitivity is observed, maintain the previous level attained for a greater period of time before reattempting. It is at this point when a clearer picture of a horse’s individual level of barefoot performance can be assessed.

Whether you’re goal is to rehabilitate, refine, or assess your horse’s feet, approaching it systematically will yield the best results. Additionally, it can be accomplished by simply incorporating the prescribed terrain into your regular training and riding schedule. Many times it only requires some forethought concerning the area you exercise and /or ride your horse. While this is not a comprehensive plan, I hope it does stimulate some thought about the adaptively of your horse’s feet and perhaps more importantly don’t neglect the needs of the foot when designing your conditioning regimen. Until next month, God Bless you and your equine partners.