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Sparklin Cowgirl
Posts: 4379
  
| I have a younger horse (5) that I have started on the pattern and am starting to enter. Right now he is barefoot and is doing just fine. At what point do you like to put shoes on a young horse for traction? Do you even worry about it if the horse has a good foot? Right now we are running in indoors with nice footing so protecting the foot isn't really an issue. Just curious what everyone's rule of thumb is on shoes and youngsters.
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  That's White "Man" to You
Posts: 5515
 
| My rule is - do not put shoes on them until they need it. |
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Sparklin Cowgirl
Posts: 4379
| Whiteboy - 2017-02-15 10:22 AM My rule is - do not put shoes on them until they need it.
What qualifies a need for you?
I am thinking about shoes for him because I think he needs something behind to help him with his stop. I feel like he just sticks in the dirt with his hind end right now.
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 Whack and Roll
Posts: 6342
Location: NE Texas | I don't have a shoe on a horse on my place. Only reason i'd put shoes on mine is if they were getting sore footed from gravel or what not, but they aren't. I keep durasole, Rickens, or Keratex on hand, but rarely need it unless it's been a wet year. The current gelding i'm hauling hasn't had a shoe on in over 2 years with no issue with traction or anything else. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Why put shoes on him he sounds just fine without them, I use to keep shoes on all of mine but now they are all barefooted and their feet are better then ever.. |
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That's White "Man" to You
Posts: 5515
| Gunnin to Play - 2017-02-15 10:24 AM Whiteboy - 2017-02-15 10:22 AM My rule is - do not put shoes on them until they need it. What qualifies a need for you?
I am thinking about shoes for him because I think he needs something behind to help him with his stop. I feel like he just sticks in the dirt with his hind end right now.
If they get sore. |
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 Too Skinny
Posts: 8009
Location: LA Lower Alabama | Gunnin to Play - 2017-02-15 10:24 AM Whiteboy - 2017-02-15 10:22 AM My rule is - do not put shoes on them until they need it. What qualifies a need for you?
I am thinking about shoes for him because I think he needs something behind to help him with his stop. I feel like he just sticks in the dirt with his hind end right now.
What about a shoe makes you think it will help unstick his feet? Do you mean you want him to slide more like a reiner when you ask him to stop? |
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 Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | If you put shoes on he will stick more. Shoes build dirt and the best traction for dirt...is dirt. Unless you put sliders and those are horrible unless you are in a reining show. Not a bit natural or good for their hind end...and neither are sliding stops unless you are again, in a reining show.
I never shoe unless we are going to moving cattle where we know it is rocky or if I am competitively hauling a barrel horse and know I will be warming up in crappy gravel and staning around in gravel parking lots. We had one that just had soft soles and would be sore so we kept him shod in the summer when we were using him. It was a PITA. |
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 Ms. Marine
Posts: 4641
Location: Texas | I don't. I like my horses to be barefoot. |
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 Witty Enough
Posts: 2954
Location: CTX | I prefer to keep them barefooted. The only one right now at our place that has shoes is the gelding I am running. He broke a huge chunk of his front feet a couple of years back (we have a lot of rocks on our place) and I had to put him in shoes to be able to keep running him. He was sound but didn't want to chance him making it worse so hence the shoes...
But the 2 year old and his mom are barefoot.
If we move to a place with more sand/ less rocks I will probably pull the shoes from my 8yo as well and keep all of them barefoot, unless absolutely needed.
Edited by cranky B4 10am 2017-02-15 11:48 AM
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Sparklin Cowgirl
Posts: 4379
| cowgalsissy - 2017-02-15 11:10 AM Gunnin to Play - 2017-02-15 10:24 AM Whiteboy - 2017-02-15 10:22 AM My rule is - do not put shoes on them until they need it. What qualifies a need for you?
I am thinking about shoes for him because I think he needs something behind to help him with his stop. I feel like he just sticks in the dirt with his hind end right now.
I don't want him to really "slide" I just feel like he has a hard time really sitting on his butt and stopping right now because he just sticks in the ground. He has a nice stop and puts his rear under him but it feels like he is getting stuck in the ground when I ask him to stop hard. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 575
| Gunnin to Play - 2017-02-15 10:47 AM
cowgalsissy - 2017-02-15 11:10 AM Gunnin to Play - 2017-02-15 10:24 AM Whiteboy - 2017-02-15 10:22 AM My rule is - do not put shoes on them until they need it. What qualifies a need for you?
I am thinking about shoes for him because I think he needs something behind to help him with his stop. I feel like he just sticks in the dirt with his hind end right now.
I had always put shoes on one if they weren't getting enough traction. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| I feel like if he's "sticking" on his stops that shoes won't change that, I could be wrong though. I notice the smoothness of my stops are usually more directly related to my cues and how well I set them to for it.
We officially went shoe free last fall. Hoping to see it improve some issues such as thin walls and contracted heels over time. And I won't walk out the morning of a race and have to make an emergency call to the farrier since 4 of them couldn't figure out how to keep a shoe on my little horse. I'll invest in hoof boots for sketchy ground situations if it comes to that, so far so good. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | We don't put shoes on unless they need it. (Traction, foot stability, or if they are very soft soled). Otherwise we run all our rodeo horses barefoot. Where I live it's all topsoil and clay based so in wet seasons keeping shoes on can be tricky.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 690
Location: Georgia | Whiteboy - 2017-02-15 11:22 AM My rule is - do not put shoes on them until they need it.
Same |
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 Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | We have 5 horses we compete on and a younger gelding that isn't ready to enter yet. Only 2 have shoes.
One has had terrible feet all 16 years of his life and they will just fall apart without shoes on. We tried all forms of feed and supplements. His feet just suck.
The other is 15 and gets sore barefoot. I tried to go that route bc my horseshoer suggested it since he has good feet. He was fine as far as running, but ended up with some nasty bruising on his soles.
The rest go barefoot. Some have had shoes at some point in their life but do fine without.
The youngster has great feet so I don't see shoes in his future. |
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