The practice of shoeing horses to protect their hooves from wear and tear and to provide traction dates back to the middle ages. Today, steel shoes are commonly found on all horses, from working ranch horses, cometitive performance horses and pleasure mounts. A common belief is that riding horses simply must have shoes in order to function. There is a growing body of evidence, however, that nailing steel shoes on to horses' hooves does more harm than good. Steel shoes keep horse's hooves from wearing natrually and so the hooves quickly become overgrown. This disrupts the horses' natural gait and contributes to lameness. Steel shoes also cause the hoof to weaken and deteriorate and prevents the hoof's natural mechanical function as a shock absorber as the hoof cannot flex with a shoe attached to it. A shod hoof provides much less traction to the horse than when barefoot.
Your Horse Can Go Barefoot
With natural trimming at an appropriate schedule of 4 - 6 weeks and with lifestyle changes any horse can be ridden without shoes. There are increasing numbers of horses competing barefoot in different equine events, from barrel racing to dressage and even endurance competitions. Making changes in the horses diet and lifestyle are key in how well a horse transitions to barefoot. Getting horses out of stalls and into an environment that encourages more movement is necessary for weakened hooves to become stronger. A diet primarily of forage on good grass hay and a ration balancer of small amount of low carbohydrate grain rather than a diet of sweet feed and alfalfa is necessary to provide the correct nutritents to grow strong hooves. Limiting grazing on sugar laden, rich pasture grass is important also. Horses in the wild do not have access to lush grass, they forage on dry native grasses, and yet are well fleshed, have shiny coats and have rock crunching healthy hooves.
