“The first time I thought about not having my horse shod was when I couldn’t do an organised ride because he’d lost one shoe sometime in the middle of the night and I had to WALK for 4 ½ hours behind the group acting as the gate opener! I began to look around for an alternative method and stumbled onto a web site about barefoot, which I was immediately taken with but, being new to horses, I decided to ask some of my friends who “knew” more than I did and do a bit more investigating of my own.
The overwhelming point of view was that if I took the shoes off my horse I’d best get another because I wouldn’t be riding him much for the next couple of years! This went on for about nine months until I found a picture of a thermograph on the Internet showing the difference in temperature between a shod and unshod hoof. It was the final push that I needed.
I contacted a qualified barefoot trimmer and not a farrier because I knew there was a whole different approach to barefoot trimming by them, as well as the moral support that I knew I’d need to keep me going when others were shaking their heads at me. She came took the shoes off and I’ve never looked back. She warned me there would be ups and downs, with times when I’d really consider putting shoes back on, but urged me to stick with it because eventually the hoof would become a different shape and become tougher than ever. She was right as well because when your horse is struggling on rough tracks its hard not to feel as though he really, really needs those metal shoes!
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