Everyone wants to tell you why going barefoot will not work. Our friends at High Performance Hooveshave listed below some real world reasons you will fail!
1. Don't trim your horse's hooves at 4-6 week intervals. - Save lots of money not shoeing your horse and go barefoot. Then don't get them trimmed. You will never transition to barefoot. You are basically shoeing your horse by letting the hoof get too long and lifting the sole and frog off the ground.
2. Don't buy hoof boots. - Without boots to help your horse when you ride over ground more rugged than their own pasture you are setting you and your horse to fail.
3. Don't allow your horse to move. - Keep your horse in a stall 24/7. Everyone knows barefoot horses can't move anyway. Movement will develop your horse's feet and help heal pathologies.
4. Keep your horse on very soft ground. - Again, barefoot horses are weak and soft. Your horse needs pea gravel around the water tank and rocks in it's pasture.
5. Shoe your horse when you go trail riding. - Those pussy foot barefoot horses can't go on trails. You just cost yourself time that could have been used to develop your horse's feet and reversed much of what you are trying to accomplish. Plus, you will never have a true barefoot trimmer as your trimmer.
6. Save time and don't clean your stalls or paddock. - A little manure never hurt a horse. Manure and urine will help your horse develop thrush and fungus. That's your goal right?
7. Feed your horse a high sugar, high trans fat diet. It's cheap. Horse's feet are a reflection of their diet. They don't need sugar. They need low sugar grass/hay, water and the minerals that are missing in their forage.
8. Hire a shoer/trimmer. - We always have the shoes to fall back on. Everytime a barefoot horse can't walk across a bed of nails or crush beer bottles without pain we can slap shoes on him. Good luck with that!
9. Stay ignorant. - The trimmer knows everything, right? That's what you pay them for. A knowledgable client is a barefoot client for life. After you learn the dangers of shoeing you will never go back to shoes again.
As you can see, the ways to fail at going barefoot are all about the owner, not the horse or the color of the hooves. Lazy, cheap owners that want to go barefoot will never make it. It takes an owner that is willing to get involved! Shoe your horse if you are not willing to do what it takes.
If you do want to succeed at transitioning to barefoot, EasyCare has lots of ways to help you. Our hoof boots such as the Easyboot Epic, Easyboot Bare and Old Mac's ,as well as our Comfort Pads are a must have. We also offer numerous articles on hoof care and transitioning to barefoot. If you have any questions on going barefoot please call us at 1-800-447-8836. We are here to help!
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