An answer I would expect after asking most horse owners if they would consider pulling their horses' shoes then turn their horse out in a hard, rocky paddock. I agree it would be crazy, but that's exactly what many horse owners are about to do. It's a common practice here in the northeast and abroad for many horse owners to pull their horse shoes during the winter months. A sound practice, especially when you consider the slipping hazard a plain keg shoe poses, as well as, the dangers of "snowballing". While their are traction devices that can be applied to the shoe and pads to prevent snowballing, it is generally more convenient and least expensive to simply remove the shoes during the winter months. So what does this have to do with barefoot performance, after all we do not use our horses that much during the winter. This month I would like to explore this practice and the relationship it has to many of the precepts of Barefoot Equine Podiatry.
So, how is it possible that our horses can go barefoot all winter, then require shoes in the spring? Is it the terrain? Certainly some of the most extreme terrain our horses have to traverse is during the winter months. The lushest pastures become as hard as concrete and areas that were once mud transform into areas as harsh as any gravel our horses come across trail riding. Yet, our unshod horses, whether "year rounders" or "part-timers" are able to make it through the winter months quite well. How? One of the keys is that generally the terrain does not dramatically change as soon as we pull the shoes. The horses' feet have time to acclimate to not only being barefoot, but the changing terrain. A testimony to the foot's ability to adapt to it's environment and a point to ponder when considering the necessity of shoes.
Yeah, but what about the fact that we aren't riding our horses, therefore they don't have to carry all the weight of a saddle and rider? Certainly, that must make it easier to go barefoot. Initially perhaps, but by the dead of winter many of our horses have gained a measurable amount of weight with no ill effects on their feet. Many times when I remove a horses' shoes I will suggest a period of reduced riding or hand walking to aid in the healing process, gradually building up to the horses' previous performance level, which includes weight bearing. Much like the slow, or not so slow, weight gain many of our equine friends experience during the winter months. My point is that regardless of when and why the shoes are removed, gradually working back up to your horse's previous workload or in this example the amount of weight he carries most often yields very positive results. One last point about weight being a factor...if carrying weight is a reason to shoe a horse, why are most broodmares barefoot?
Is it because of the reduced workload? Certainly broodmares and our horses carrying a little extra winter insulation aren't being asked to do to much. Many owners opt to pull their horses shoes for this very reason regardless of time of year. It's not uncommon to hear, "Let's pull his shoes and turn him out for awhile" in the race horse industry. I will be the first to agree that the reduced workload aids a horse during the transition period. Yet, it is not the reduced workload itself that makes going barefoot possible long term, but the healing the reduced workload allows to take place. My point is that ultimately it's the healing that yields the results, the reduced workload is simply a vehicle that allows this process to take place. In essence, when you pull your horses' shoes for the winter, you are mimicking the process I would use to transition a horse to barefoot, regardless of the season. The problem is that when spring rolls around, on goes the shoes long before our horse heightened level of barefoot performance is recognized.
I hope this month's column has stimulated some thoughts about the reasons you choose to go barefoot. It is not a criticism of the practice of pulling your horses' shoes during the winter, on the contrary, I believe it is a valid and beneficial practice. Even more, I believe in many cases it is the saving grace for many shod horses. It is not uncommon to come across research within the farrier sciences realm that acknowledges the benefit of giving a horses' feet a "break" from shoes. Yet, that is the marked difference between the farrier sciences and barefoot advocates. If giving a horses' foot a break from the shoeing cycle is beneficial, why not exhaust all other possibilities before reapplying it? I believe the answer lies in the practitioners focus, certainly if the shoe is the focal point of your practice, then applying it would take precedence, thus the wide variety of shoes and pads employed to try and make it work. That's why a horse may start in a plain keg shoe, then 10 years down the road end up with an eggbar and degree pad, because the appliance is the focus, rather than the effect of it's application. Now enter Barefoot Equine Podiatry, shifting the focus to the foot itself and how it is created to function and centering our practices on aiding it to do what is intended to do. Shoes can be beneficial tool in some cases, they can even "fit" into many of the principles I use to treat the foot, but why shoe a horse simply to shoe a horse? While I concede, pulling a horses' shoes for the winter and going barefoot year round is not the exact same thing, it certainly does offer the opportunity to reflect upon some of the similarities and give you some food for thought before shoeing our horse in the spring. Until next month, Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless you and your equine partners and remember...Dare to go Bare.
