Barefoot Hoofcare

By Kaya Femmerling (Dec.)

Horses are born without shoes. From day one they are equipped with the most magnificent ‘Life’-structure at the end of their legs, the Equine Hoof. With their natural hardy hooves, horses are able to cover 30– 70 Km per day, as they travel in their herd, foraging for sparse native grasses.
The horse is an animal of the wide-open steppes. The horse is a prey animal, and healthy tough hooves are needed for it to survive.
Remember the saying?! – ‘No Hoof– No Horse!’

Between the wild horse in its natural habitat, and our domesticated horses, having to live under artificial conditions, in confinement and in horse stables or small paddocks, yes, there is a big difference.
But, the horse HAS NOT changed genetically since man domesticated the horse!

Horses have evolved for millions of years on this planet, do you really think they can change genetically, just over the few thousands of years, since man domesticated them? The answer is NO.
Our pony in the backyard is genetically exactly the same horse as its cousin in the wild, and has exactly the same needs, physically and emotionally, as its cousin in the wild.

Most arguments against Natural Horse Keeping and Natural Hoof Care (barefootedness) are based on the idea of our domesticated horses and ponies having different needs to the needs of the wild horse.
But the ‘facts’ and statistics show a different reality. Most of the horse’s health problems encountered today are caused by not respecting and catering for the horse’s physical and emotional needs.
Horses and ponies suffer from colic, lameness issues, hoof problems, sore backs, laminitis, founder, injuries etc.
Where do these diseases come from?

However, horse/pony owners can make a big difference for our equine friends.
We can study and learn and inform ourselves, to provide our horses and ponies with as near as natural conditions as possible.
How about we model our ideal horse keeping after the healthy habitat of the wild horse, as nature intended horses to live?
You can also call it: ‘Create a little bit of Arizona in the middle of Belgium’…

What do horses and ponies need to stay healthy and happy, physically as well as mentally?

Our horse/pony needs:

• lots of space to move and run freely
• horse company / a herd of horses for emotional safety and the incentive to move
• shelter, in case of bad weather
• fresh clean water to drink
• water to hydrate its hooves (foot bath, dam, muddy area…)
• a diet rich in hardy fibre, low in sugar and starch, minerals and vitamins
• dry hard rocky ground to regularly walk on. When you look at the health of your horse’s/pony’s feet and hooves, you have to look at its environmental living conditions and its diet for they are linked. If you want your pony/horse to have healthy tough hooves, you need to look at ‘the whole horse’ and provide for its needs!

The Unshod Horse – The history of the horseshoe:

Horses have lived on this planet for millions of years and have been domesticated for about 8000 years.

They originated from areas that were rugged mountains, semi-arid regions, steppes and deserts.
Once the wild horses were domesticated and made their way into the hands of Northern European tribes of people, they found themselves in a much wetter, colder climate than they originally came from. They partially adapted to this climate.

By 700AD, when castles were built for security from their rival kingdoms, horses started to be kept in small paddocks and stables, standing in their own excrement.
The hooves, lacking proper circulation to form good healthy horn, and additionally weakened by ammonia, were no longer able to bear up to use on rocky terrain (in contrast to the hooves of those horses still kept in large open spaces).

It was the horses of the princesses and kings, who lived in the castles, that were shod to protect the hooves from excessive wear.
The horses of the vassals and the common folk, still living more naturally, did not have (or need) shoes. But, as in human nature, those things used by the ‘rich and famous’ quickly become more desirable to the ‘common man’…

Kingdoms became cities, horses became more useful and started to have ‘working lives’.
Horses started to be shod with metal shoes about 1000 years ago and since then it has become a common practice.
This means that the huge migrations of tribes and the endless cavalry warfare of early history (Ghengis Khan, Alexander the Great, Hannibal etc.) took place with riders on unshod horses, their horses/ponies crossed whole continents barefooted!

Stabling practices and metal shoeing were the beginning of the deterioration of the hooves of domesticated horses.
Once automobiles and tractors replaced the ‘working horse’ in the last century, and horses became ‘pleasure animals’, they remained in close confinement and still were and even nowadays are still shod with metal shoes.

Why do we still shoe our horses?
In my practice, as a professional Natural Hoof Care Practitioner, I hear the following answers and arguments on a daily basis:

• ‘I want to protect my horse/pony from wearing its hooves’
• ‘My horse is a TB/ WB/ Arab/QH /heavy/ light… horse/pony and has flat/ brittle/ terrible/ club foot/ splayfoot / cracked/ split/ chipped etc. hooves…’
• ‘My horse/pony is a PERFORMANCE (!) horse … ‘
• ‘To get better traction’
• ‘My horse/pony is sore/tender footed and tippi-toey on gravel when barefoot’
• ‘My horse/pony needs shoes because my farrier/vet/instructor/dressage judge said so’
• ‘Because I always shod my horses and they seemed fine’
• ‘Because horses have always been shod and they will always be shod and that is the end of the story…’
• ‘Because I am too lazy/ don’t have the time to put on hoof boots every time I want to ride’
• ‘I don’t want to upset/lose my farrier, I want to be loyal to him’
• ‘My farrier is old-fashioned and says ‘all horses need to be shod’ ‘
• ‘I can’t find a qualified well educated barefoot trimmer in my area and my farrier is close-minded and doesn’t want to learn proper barefoot trimming, he says ‘a pasture trim will do’ ‘
• ‘My horse/pony doesn’t show the elevation while riding dressage’
• ‘The difference between a domesticated horse and a wild horse is that the domesticated horse has to carry more weight (a rider), that is why it needs shoes’(… ever thought of a pregnant mare ‘having to wear shoes’ because she is carrying extra heavyweight (her foal), or of shoeing a well-rounded pony at the end of the summer season with its extra heavy ‘tummy-bulk’ to survive the coming winter…?)

What if these answers are only old paradigms and excuses we have – because we have forgotten or overlooked the fact that the horse was born with all the footwear it ever needs and that horses were commonly shod only since the Middle Ages?
Horses however survived the last 55 million years without metal nailed to their feet and under much more difficult circumstances than in any domestic situation they have had to face in the past 5000 years since.
So, ‘domestication’ or the fact that horses are ridden is NOT a valid argument for shoeing.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could care for your horse’s hooves in a much easier, healthier way? Never to worry about a thrown shoe again?

‘Shoeing – the necessary Evil’ ?!
Ever since horseshoes have existed it has been noticed that, within a few years of being shod, the horse began to display sickness and diseases previously unknown in unshod horses.
This is why, even in the very first books mentioning shoeing (from the 17th century and earlier), the horseshoe has always been referred to as a “necessary evil”.

The harmful and damaging effects of shoeing

• Prevents hoof wall from wear, the wall grows longer than it ever would in nature, causing unnatural forces and tension within the hoof capsule, leading to cracks, chips, seedy toe, white line separation and abscesses.
• Stumbling horse, with a shoe the horse can no longer clearly feel the ground it walks on.
• Vibration and impact on weight-bearing destroys the hoof wall and damages living tissue.
• Impairs shock absorption and movement of the sole.
• Impairs the hoof mechanism and the circulatory pump (blood circulation from the hooves/legs back to the heart, the heart has to work 4 X harder).
• Pinching of corium and living tissues in the hoof.
• Unnatural strain on ligaments and joints.
• Bruising of navicular area (= heel pain) and hoof/heel contraction.
• Thrush, with the lack of blood circulation to the frog and sweat glands, may be
• disrupted severely enough to cause thrush.
• Unnatural weight and centrifugal forces on the hoof.
• Nails destroy the hoof wall.
• Nails conduct cold and heat into the interior of the hoof.
• Shoes have a negative effect on meridians, reflex zones, and electrical and magnetic fields of the hoof and corium.
• Increased risk of greater injury and damage, the horse, which is shod, can cause to itself, other horses and humans.
• Shoeing contracts and deforms the hoof over time, even the bones inside the hoof.
• Prevents proper development of a young horse’s foot.

‘Orthopedic’ or ‘corrective’ shoeing is not possible.
Shoes cause so much damage inside the hoof that it can’t be used for healing, shoes reduce the blood flow inside the hoof, but any healing needs to be supported by strong blood circulation But then why, if shoeing truly has these adverse side effects and causes all this damage inside the hoof, are there still any shod horses out there that are labelled ‘sound’?On its own, any harmful effects of shoeing may go unnoticed for years. The damage, of course, is still being done inside the shod hooves. But the horse is sound, despite this, because it is actually unable to detect the damage since the nerves in the affected areas are unable to function properly, they are literally ‘numb’. The horse can’t feel its pain…

What are the functions of the Hoof?

Rather than simply a lump of dead horn at the end of the horse’s leg, the hoof is a very complex organ that performs a variety of functions vital to the horse’s overall health and survival.

*Protection from external mechanical forces.
*Traction, secure footing on all terrains
*Shock absorption
* Heart-supporting circulatory blood pump (healthy hoof mechanism)
All of the above-mentioned functions of the hoof are clearly impaired if metal shoes = metal cages are nailed onto the living hoof.

What is the alternative? Natural Horse Care and Barefoot Trimming!
Nowadays more and more people are starting to realize that a change of keeping and shoeing their horses is needed – and possible!
‘Natural Hoof Care/ Barehoof Care’ is a new term, being used to describe the care and use of barefooted horses in all disciplines including high-performance horses. Nowadays some endurance performance horses successfully complete the Australian 160km Tom Quilty Cup barefooted!

Natural Hoofcare is not just a trimming method, it is also a complete care system that allows a horse to remain barefoot through its entire life.
The same system can be used to rehabilitate horses from many degenerative lameness problems, incl. laminitis/founder and navicular disease.

A proper ‘Barefoot Trim’ is a ‘physiologically correct’ trim, which respects the internal structures of the hoof and provides proper hoof mechanism and function, to not only maximise circulation to the inner structures of the hoof but also – like muscular movement – to assist the heart in pumping blood.

A ‘Barefoot Trim’, based on the wild horse’s hoof, is different to the ‘normal’ farrier’s ‘Pasture Trim’.
A ‘Pasture Trim’ is a hoof trim which is the PREPARATION of the hoof for a shoe to be nailed on, but, in the end, the shoe is not nailed on and the horse is left barefoot.
Can you expect a hoof to stay sound which is just trimmed in one flat plane? No.

A proper ‘Barefoot Trim’, modelled on the wild horse’s hoof, has distinctive characteristics:

• short toe.
• low heels (level with base of frog and base of heel bulbs)
• arch in the quarters
• frog is left thick, wide and weight-bearing
• strong curved bars (non-weight bearing when the horse is stationary)
• bevel (roll) at the base of the hoof wall (the famous ‘Mustang Roll’) that allows perfect breakover at the toe and prevents any impacting rocks from creating cracks
• good sole concavity, healthy solar vault
• no flares/ no toe pillars/ no cracks
• dense well connected white line
• thick tough sole callus at toe, protective sole
• Every domesticated horse/pony should have its hooves regularly barefoot trimmed at approximately 4-5 weekly intervals.

Transition period:
Now, if you decide to take off your horse’s shoes, your horse will go through what is called a ‘Transition Period’.
This is the time between shoe removal and your horse comfortably walking on hard rocky ground.
You can’t expect your horse to walk comfortably instantly after shoe removal.
Most hooves are so degenerated, the soles are so thin, that they need some time to heal and adjust and again grow a strong protective sole callous.

This period can take between a few weeks and several months, depending on the individual horse.
Meanwhile, to make your horse comfortable and encourage it to walk a lot, your horse/ pony can be fitted with hoof boots. It is that easy.
 
What else can I do to help my horse?
Natural Hoof Care is ‘preventative care’…
Environment:

It is important that your horse, in its daily life, living in its paddock/yard, is exposed to the ground it is expected to be ridden on.

Put rocks/gravel around your water and feeding troughs, and cover areas where your horse normally walks through with rocks (in gateway areas), to give the hooves a chance to harden and toughen up.
Movement:
Walk and work your horse as much as possible, movement brings blood into the horse’s hooves and allows for strong healthy tough callus growth.
Diet:
Feed your pony/ horse only low sugar feed, lots and lots of fibre, limit fresh grass intake (unless it is native grass) and cut out any sweet feed, grains, molasses and fruit.
Hoof Trimming:
Take care that your horse/pony is regularly trimmed by a Natural Hoof Care Practitioner who is trained in proper barefoot trimming, or ask your farrier to familiarize him/herself with, and learn proper barefoot trimming techniques.
Say goodbye to farriers who don’t want to update their trimming skills and who put barefoot trimming down as a ‘fashion frill’.
Your horse has the right to have its hooves trimmed by a trained professional.

Barefooting takes care and commitment. It WILL make your horse/pony healthier, sounder, perform better, have less pain and it will help it to live a longer and happier life.
Once your pony’s/horse’s hoof starts to look like a wild horse’s hoof, it will start to act like one!
Your horse will thank you.

Still unsure?

I recommend the following books for reading:

To learn how to become an Equine Hoofcare Practitioner click here

To find a Certified Hoofcare Professional in Australia Click Here

Natural Hoofcare Articles

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The Art and Science of Feeding Horses with Carol Layton - Feeding horses is both an art and science so Carol Layton of Balanced Equine explains how common mineral deficiencies can be solved with Balanced Equine Minerals available in our store here. In this video presentation, Carol looks at two common horse nutrition problems: Faded or sunbleached coats, and dry cracked hooves.

Seedy Toe – the quick fix and long term solution - Seedy toe (also called white line disease) used to be the one ongoing issue all my horses had many years ago. That was before I refined their diet and introduced a balanced custom mineral mix which changed everything. In the process of healing their hooves, I discovered there is a quick fix to kick-start the […]

How to Avoid Laminitis - The two most dangerous times for laminitis are in the spring and autumn, depending on where you live. Cooler climates and high altitudes can increase the potential for laminitis as the day and night temperatures fluctuate, along with the amount of sunlight and daylight hours. For example, if you live in the southern states of Australia, northern […]

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Make Your Own Safe Hoof Stand - This safe and easy to make hoof stand was put together from items you can find at most recycling shops or even from around your own place. To start with you need a removeable agitator from the centre of an older style washing machine – the larger ones are better as they have a larger, […]

Hoof Abscess – when being ‘kind’ is cruel - While reading the book ‘Perfect Partners’ by Kelly Marks (an excellent book by the way) I was struck by a very true statement she made…. “Well meaning is not the same as well being for the horse”. One of the ways we tend to show good care for our horse is to provide plenty of […]

A CURE FOR SEEDY TOE - Seedy toe seems to be one of the most common afflictions to a horse’s hooves and can best be described as a fungal infection that enters through the white line where it has been weakened either by excess hoof growth, horseshoe nails or sub-clinical laminitis. It gets its name from most commonly being found in […]

Easy Hoof Bath to Make in Minutes - With the current drought a hoof bath for daily soaking will not only keep your horse’s hooves healthy and supple, but easier to trim too. Here is an inexpensive version that takes minutes to put together once you have the following materials on hand; 4 poles or ‘sleepers’ – 2 long ones approx. 2m and […]

Donkey Hooves — A Hoof Trimmer’s Perspective © Glenn Wilson - “The best way to forget all your troubles is to wear tight shoes”. The donkey and horse version of the above is, “If my feet hurt then I feel like crap”. The reality is that too many donkeys and horses suffer bad hooves – and they needn’t – so their behaviour is affected. It is […]

Carla’s Rescue by TAFE Hoof Care Course – Oct. 2007 - Fortunately for Carla, the 12 year old shetland pony mare, her condition was discovered just prior to the TAFE Hoof Care Course. Her sad situation provided the ideal opportunity for the students to observe how to assess, trim and treat a pony whith hooves in such bad shape. Carla’s hooves were first x-rayed by vet […]