If the Shoe Fits

The farrier came out today. He’s a nice guy and has been trimming the lesson horses here for years. He’s one of those “old school” types. You know the kind. Our horses are trimmed every seven weeks. Of our twelve lesson horses, only two have front shoes. The rest are barefoot and have great feet. The farrier tells me that once upon a time all of the horses had shoes all the way around, but with budget cuts and the economy the shoes slowly went away. In my opinion, they never needed to be there in the first place.

I realize that the shoes vs. barefoot debate is always a hot topic in the horse world. Both Darwin and Poppy are barefoot. When I got Darwin off the track he had just had his racing plates removed and was sore on hard surfaces. I would have gotten him shoes if I had the money, but I was a poor college student that could barely afford self care board, let alone $150 every six weeks for shoes. Turns out it was good to be poor. Fast forward four years. Darwin has hooves like rocks and will happily trot over any surface you put in front of him.

I don’t believe horses should have shoes if they don’t need them. I also don’t believe horses should be barefoot if they would be more comfortable with shoes. Sometimes there is a fine line between the two that only a good, honest farrier and a discerning horse owner can determine.

At the last barn I managed, there was a farrier named Fred*. Fred was one of those hard core natural bare foot farriers. Oh, I’m sorry. He prefers to be called an equine podiatrist (snort). After examining the horses, Fred scathingly informed me that I was riding and training them incorrectly. He could tell this by the way their feet where wearing. Who knew? Because Fred wasn’t allowed within ten feet of my horse and because the owner was a sucker for swindlers, I bit my tongue and watched as Fred came out every two weeks (charging an arm and a leg each time) to trim the horses. After three months of this the horses where sore and looked like they hadn’t had a good trim in… well, three months. The owner switched back to the old farrier (who was just fine with being called a farrier) and all was well.

Do people slap shoes on when their horse would be just as happy barefoot? Sure they do. Can you compete and ride horses who don’t have shoes just as rigorously as those who do? Yep. So do your research, don’t jump on the latest bandwagon, and get a farrier who a) knows what he/she is doing b) can explain what they are doing in a way that makes sense and c) is always open to trying something different.