Here are a few questions to think about:
• Should we really be jumping our horses on slippery ground, which necessitates the use of studs, if we want them to keep jumping for us in years to come?
• Do studs make us feel safer than the horse and give us a misplaced sense of confidence?
• Is a certain amount of ‘slip’ engineered into nature’s mechanism for protecting the ligaments and tendons in the leg?
• Do studs stop that natural ‘slip’ protection so that the whole system has to absorb the increased concussion, force and jarring?
• Do studs imbalance the hoof and therefore the whole system of the horse?
• Is successful riding over jumps really about balance not studs?
How you answer those questions is going to depend on your view point but is that view point based on what you think or what you know and have experienced? At the end of the day the decision will be down to you, the owner, and be about choices. If we have one piece of advice to help you it is to encourage you to base your choice on understanding the effect studs can have on the lower limb. Jumping barefoot might mean that sometimes you slip. It might mean that you consider the conditions on the day and decide to go home, putting your principles before your competitive desires! Will this be more trouble to you but less trouble to your horse long term? We’ll leave you to decide by letting Robbie Richardson, RSS tell you in his own words and pictures, on the next page, what he thinks are the draw backs to studs. This information was taken from his book ‘The Horse’s Foot and Related Problems’. Then, once you’ve read that, we encourage you to go out and let your horse tell you whether it needs studs, so far ours tell us they are just fine bare!
