Do it Naturally! Trimming for barefoot performance horses.

Jaime Jackson joined up with Equine Wellness on a great article for performance horses. This article helps you understand which horses can perform barefoot, and other situations that allow you to have a happy barefoot performance horse.

Jaime Jackson has answered quite a few questions in this article from Equine Wellness. The first question that everyone asks is: Can horses successfully perform barefoot?   His reply was basically barefoot, or fitted with hoof boots , each horse can perform barefoot. Just removing the shoes, however, doesn't mean success right off the starting line. You also need to take into consideration the trim, the diet, and of course training. However, the major consideration or the first step is removing the shoes.  

Jaime talks about the trim, and he clearly indicates that each different performance horse does not need a different trim based on the discipline. What must be taken into consideration is the horse itself and that a natural trim works for all performance horses. All horses should be trimmed regularly. Naturally trimmed horses, whether at liberty or mounted, are able to move more naturally than when shod.

The article also talks about shoeing farrier, vets and trainers that have remained uninformed or misinformed of, or are resistant to the barefoot movement. It is astonishing to Jaime that this group of people and riders still have the "farrier culture" even after many books,  journals and articles regarding what shoes do to the hoof.

Shoeing weakens the hoof and causes hoof deformity. The horse isn't born with this deformity of weak inferior feet.  Weak brittle walls,  soft hypersensitive soles,  less than optimal circulation can be attributed directly to shoeing. Jaime emphasized that we haven't bred the hoof out of the horse, it is still there. Turn a domestic horse loose into the wild and it will develop the proper hoof form. The hoof is not adapting to the wild, but returning to its' natural state. Even if a horse has had shoes most of his life, he can make the switch to barefoot, his natural hoof is still waiting under the shoe.

So if you have a performance horse and wish to go barefoot, you can. Using EasyCare boots can help during the transition, as well as for riding.  We have numerous testimonials from barefoot gaited horse owners that have indicated that their horse's gaits have actually improved once the shoes were removed. Our Easyboot Epics have also been used in barrel racing, but the best performance horse story is one in the Old Mac G2.    Click here to read that story and then find the September/October 2008 issue of Equine Wellness magazine to read the rest of this great article.