71. Unbiased Viewpoint on Barefoot Transition...

It's now day 18 of Spices abscess and it is still draining ever so slightly from the hole which the vet made but i noticed when taking off the poultice today that it now seems to have sealed over with a whitesh yellowish film...from what i read this is good and means it is healing over and within 5 days or so there shouldn't be any reason to keep applying a poultice as by this time the hole will have healed over enough to resist getting punctured. I have read however that it is advisable to wait a further two weeks before taking her onto roads which could have sharp stones.

Having read many articles on barefoot transition i have found that most tend to be quite biased and i thought that since i am embarking on this journey it would be wise to get an unbiased viewpoint which is likely to be more realistic. The following article i found is perhaps the least biased article i have read so far...

Barefoot Transition

Horse owners who own a shod horse and wish to pull the shoes and allow their horse to go barefoot will experience what is known as a barefoot transition period. This is the period during which the horse becomes accustomed once again to going without shoes. During the period when the horse was shod, the shoes and the way the hooves were trimmed hindered the function of the hooves. Since the parts of the hooves respond like muscles, the parts that were unable to function became weak and atrophied. This led to hoof deformity and may have resulted in hoof and lameness problems to one degree or another. When the shoes are pulled and the hoof is left alone, eventually the parts of the hoof will begin to function naturally again and will strengthen. If left alone, the hoof will naturally shed the deformity through the processes of flaring, splitting, cracking, chipping, and breaking off. This is not cause for alarm but is Nature's way of shaping the hoof so that all parts can perform their functions. As the hoof begins functioning normally once again, the parts that atrophied will grow back and regain their strength and functionality. This is most important for the internal hoof structures...the parts of the hoof that you can't see. When the hoof deformity has been shed and all parts of the hoof are able to function normally again and when all structures of the hoof have regenerated and recovered their functionality, then it is said that the horse has made the transition from shod to barefoot.

It is vitally important to realize that this process takes time...it is equally important to realize that hoof structures that have been chronically weak and underdeveloped for years as a result of shoes, improper trimming, or detrimental environments may never be able to fully heal and regain full functionality. In other words permanent damage may have been done to the hoof structures. In this case a horse would be said to have made the transition when the hooves have recovered as best as they can. This will be the case for the majority of horses who have been shod for a number of years or who have lived, especially the first months and years of their lives, in stall or paddock confinement.

There's a lot of talk going around now about barefoot horses, and most of it concentrates on a certain kind of trim, usually referred to as a "natural trim" or a "barefoot trim" or a "mustang trim." If you've been influenced by the barefoot trimming/natural hoof care movement, you may have the idea that the transition period from shod back to barefoot will be relatively easy and short....the shoes are pulled, the hooves are trimmed a certain way every four or six weeks, there will be rapid improvement in your horse's hooves, and after five or six months, you'll have a barefoot horse that you can ride wherever you want to. It all seems so easy...it seems that this certain kind of "natural trim" works magic on the hooves. After all, isn't that what happened in all the success stories you read or heard about? Having a barefoot horse seems to be all about this "magic trim," and it is promoted as being able to work wonders, as being able to take a horse with severe hoof deformity and severe hoof weakness and turn it into a horse with rock-crushing hooves within just a few months.

But, unfortunately, for most people, it's not going to work out that way. In reality the "magic trim" proves not to be so magic, and depending on your particular horse, the transition period may not be as easy and quick as those in the barefoot trimming/natural hoof care movement may lead you to believe. You might soon realize that the success stories which are so publically bragged about are in fact well-chosen success stories...and maybe that's why barefoot gurus are branching out and have signed hoof boot endorsement contracts.

I've received numerous calls from people who've tried the "magic trim," fully expecting it to work wonders changing their horses' hooves into rock-crushers...but whose experiences have been somewhat less than expected. Initially most were convinced the problem was that their trimmer was not doing the "magic trim" properly, and if they could just find a trimmer who REALLY knew how to do the "magic trim," they could experience the magical results. The exaggerated claims made by the barefoot trimming/natural hoof care movement about the magic trim have caused problems for hoof care professionals from all corners, for, intentionally or not, they have led many horse owners to believe that ANY horse can magically have rock-crushing feet in just a few months with the application of the magic trim. And when it doesn't work, whose fault is it? Well, of course, it's the trimmers fault! The trimmer obviously didn't know how to do the magic trim properly.

The hoof care industry is really a commercial venture, and it's full of personalities. I got a call from a woman with a horse who had previously foundered and who she suspected was a chronic founder horse. She had been through all the farrier/vet recommendations, with the wierd shoes, chopped-off toes, and high heels...and, as is usually the case, her horse hadn't done so well. But, this woman had a lot of money, and she eventually contacted one of the personalities in hoof care who came up and got rid of all the junk her horse had been fitted with by the vets and farriers...and the horse naturally showed some improvement. At that time, the horse was not in a founder state, and the symptoms it was showing were not in fact from the founder at all, but the results of the conventional founder treatments that had been applied. So, when she went with the natural hoof care guy and discontinued the treatments, naturally her horse improved. Anyway, it was going to be impossible for this personality to continue regular hoof care on her horse, so she needed to find someone locally. The problem was that this guy had basically convinced her that he was one of only a handful of people in the entire United States who understood horses' feet and who understood how to do the "magic trim" properly, and that the only way her horse wouldn't plunge back into lameness was that if he could instruct someone in the area exactly how to maintain her horse's hooves. You see, he convinced her that it was this "magic trim" that had saved her horse, and he also convinced her that only he and the people he instructed knew about this "magic trim." So, she called me to ask if I would be willing to come up and let this guru enlighten me and bring me out of the deep darkness of ignorance about hoof care and then take over care of her horse's feet. I politely told her no. It wasn't only that I had no intention of being a groupie around a personality in hoof care, it was also that I realized that if she did indeed have a chronic founder horse, the horse would eventually founder again, and when it did I would be the one left holding the bag, as the conclusion would be that I wasn't doing the magic trim properly....that I was not doing it as well as the guru did. And that is in fact what happened...the horse eventually foundered again, and the poor guy who did agree to be enlightened by the guru and took over the hoof care got blamed for the founder incident....because, you see, it MUST have been that he wasn't doing the "magic trim" properly. It HAD to be that way, because the guru had "cured" founder with his magic trim, so if the horse foundered again, there was no other explanation than that the trimmer was not doing exactly what the guru had told him to do.

I've just seen so many people who got taken by the gurus, who believed the stuff about the magic trim, who didn't realize that the success stories were well-chosen success stories, and who believed that having a barefoot horse was going to be that easy. And then I've seen what happened as they experienced the reality of the promises made by the barefoot trimming movement....eventually they became disgusted, believed barefoot riding to be impossible, and went back to horseshoes.

Now, I like barefoot horses and don't like to see people get disgusted and go back to horseshoes. I've worked with a lot of people who were genuinely trying to get rid of the shoes and the problems they can cause and ride a barefoot horse. But the fact that the barefoot trimming/natural hoof care movement has sort of taken over the whole area of barefoot horses in an attempt to sell and prmote a certain kind of trim has created a lot of problems for those who realize that there is a LOT more to having a barefoot riding horse than just a "magic trim." It's caused so many unrealistic expectations among horse owners. Barefoot riding IS possible, but your success or failure with barefoot is not going to hinge on the magic trim. In fact, in many cases, the magic trim may actually contribute to barefoot failure. And, depending on your horse, the transition period may well be a lot longer than the few months the barefoot trimming movement talks about...and even with the magic trim, you may never experience the results you read about in the well-chosen success stories. So let's look briefly at what does matter if you want to transition a horse from shod to barefoot.

The most important thing is the condition of your horse. A horse that's been shod and maintained with an abnormal hoof setup for years is going to have pathologically weak and underdeveloped hooves. This will be true not only for the structures you can see, but most importantly, for the structures inside the hoof that you can't see. Everything will be thin, weak, and underdeveloped, and it will have been that way for years. In order for you to have success riding this horse barefoot, that entire hoof, inside and out, is going to have to change....become strong and well-developed. That's not going to happen in a few months. Realistically it might take years, and the fact is that on an older horse, who's 10 or more years old, it may never totally happen. In other words, no matter what you do, that horse may never have hooves like it would have had without the years of deformity the shoes caused. No doubt you'll see improvement, but such a horse may never be like the barefoot riding horses you hear about in the success stories.

A second factor is how the horse is used. The hooves will adapt themselves to the environment which the horse lives on and to the stresses they encounter on a daily basis. This means that if your horse lives in a grass pasture, its hooves will become adapted to the grass pasture and not the hard, rocky trails with tree roots that you normally ride on. If you house your horse on grass pasture and ride for extended periods on severe terrain, you probably won't have much luck barefoot. If you house your horse on terrain similar to what you ride on, it'll be better, but keep in mind even then....your horse is used to walking over that terrain without your weight on his back. When you ride, you are putting different stresses on the feet and changing the way the hoof mechanism operates. If you ride often, the hooves will adjust to that, because your riding is part of the normal, daily environment and normal, daily stresses the feet are exposed to. But if you just ride only occasionally, you'll have to take it easy if you want to ride barefoot.

There's a third factor. The growth and renewal rate of the parts of the hoof exposed to wear will depend on what the horse is exposed to on a daily basis. A shod horse will have a slow growth and renewal rate. When you pull the shoes, the rate will speed up, but that takes time and will be as a result of necessity...in other words, the feet may show signs of increased wear to the point it may alarm you, and as a result, the horse may be sore. If you house your horse in a soft grass pasture, this probably won't be an issue, but if you house it in more varied terrain, it may....because the shoes have insulated the hooves from the rougher terrain, and it will take time for the hooves to adjust to this terrain after the shoes are no longer there. Eventually, if you can have patience and realize what's happening, the growth and renewal rate will catch up and provide what the horse needs for its daily wear....but this won't happen overnight.

Regarding the magic trim, it's very important to realize that your horse is not living in the same environment that the wild horses lived in who were the foundation for the so-called barefoot model. It's also important to realize that your horse's daily routine is different....it's not running 25 or 30 miles per day over rugged terrain. So....don't expect your horse's feet to ever look like that mustang model. Horses' hooves are the product of the environment and daily stresses they're exposed to. Nature knows how to adapt each horse's foot to what is required for that particular horse in that particular environment. Your horse does NOT have to have feet that match the barefoot model in order to have natural hoof function. In fact, since your horse lives in a different environment and its feet are exposed to different stresses each day, if you allow someone to take nippers and a rasp and force the feet to match the barefoot model, you will HINDER natural hoof function. A natural hoof is not dependent on looks, but function. To read more about this, please refer to the articles on A Natural Hoof and Natural Hoof Care.

There is no doubt that shoes and/or stall and paddock confinement result in hoof deformity that often leads to lameness and hoof problems down the road, as the horse ages. This is the reason for the increasing interest in barefoot. You can take any horse and transition it to barefoot. BUT....the barefoot trimming movement has somewhat misled people, because it is a commercial enterprise that has something to sell--trimming services and trimming education, and lately, hoof boots. They have been very good at promoting themselves and the boots for which they have endorsement contracts....after all, if you do an internet search on barefoot horses, you'll mostly get results about a certain kind of trim, and it may seem that this trim will allow you to transition any horse to barefoot with just a short, easy transition period. This makes it seem like having a barefoot riding horse is all about a certain kind of trim. But that is absolutely not true. Just because you can transition any horse to barefoot does NOT mean that you will be able to do exactly the same things with it barefoot that you did when it was shod. It'll be different....especially on an older horse who had a lot of hoof deformity, it may be unreasonable to ever expect that horse to develop rock-crushing feet. On any horse who's been shod for a number of years, and on any horse who was born in and lived the first part of its life in stall or paddock confinement, you can expect a lot of hoof deformity, especially on the inside where you can't see. The transition period for such a horse will be a lot longer than just 5 or 6 months, and you probably won't experience this smooth, magical transition you might expect from reading the well-chosen success stories.

The most important factor in determining how much trouble you can expect during a transition period is the condition the horse's feet are in when you begin. On a younger horse with little pre-existing hoof deformity, expect a relatively brief and easy transition. But on a horse who's 8 or 9 years old and has lots of hoof deformity, expect a longer and more troublesome transition. And please realize that no trim will give a horse magic feet....you probably won't be able to keep a horse standing in a grass pasture for a month and then ride it barefoot on a 4-hour trail ride over harsh, rocky terrain...and no trim will change that.

When I talk to someone about the possibility of barefoot, I tell them first of all to stop and think and use their instincts and common sense. The barefoot movement has largely become a commercial enterprise, and the promoters have developed sort of a barefoot establishment around their magic trim and most of all around themselves, so that "barefoot" has basically come to mean the application of their magic trim. The existence of that establishment has basically shut out any discussion of barefoot that does not recognize that trim as primary. Their monopolization of the subject of barefoot has in itself lent credibility to their claims and promises. We live in a society where we are not taught to think critically, not taught to question, but rather to believe what we're told.....if someone has certain credentials and has published books and leads seminars and has founded an organization, then we don't question what they say. I talked with a woman who recently retired from teaching on the college level. She said that where our educational system has failed is not that we don't teach enough science and math, it's that we don't teach students to THINK...to think for themselves. Instead, we basically teach them to believe what they're told. This is apparent in the society as a whole. On the political level, we don't need the details, we don't need to know what happened....."Trust us...we know best." On the medical level, we don't need to know the details and intricasies about our diagnosis and treatment options, we only need to know a broad-brush summary from one perspective and then are expected to blindly follow the recommendations..."Trust me, I know best." If it's in print and/or if the person saying it has credentials, we're conditioned to not question. Who are we to dare question? But really, I have faith in my own instincts and common sense, and I try to teach other horse owners to have faith in their own instincts and common sense...even if it means going against those who have made themselves into personalities and have amassed credentials. That's hard to do....but I think that to understand hoof care, and horse care in general, we really have to step back a little and take some time to just think, and let our insincts and common sense guide us.

Barefoot is undoubtedly best for the horse. But it may not be best for all horse owners. Whether or not your horse can go barefoot is really not dependent on your horse, it's dependent on you, on what's important to you. There are no horses who "need" shoes for themselves, there are only horses who need some form of hoof protection because of what their owners do with them. So YOU are the determinant of whether of not your horse "needs" shoes. Some horse owners' main concern is the health and well-being of their horses, and they will adjust how they keep their horses and how they use their horses accordingly. Barefoot is suited for them. But some horse owners' main concern is being able to use their horses for whatever uses they want whenever they want to do it. For those horse owners, being able to use their horses is more important than the long term well-being of the horses. If that describes you, then barefoot is probably not right for you. That doesn't make a moral judgment, it just describes reality.

I got a call from a very nice couple who wanted to keep their horses barefoot. They had two horses, both around 15 years old, who had been shod all their lives and who were used occasionally for trail riding. They had seen the hoof deformity that the shoes had caused, and they were attached to their horses and cared about them, so they had tried barefoot. But they had believed the success stories from the barefoot trimming/natural hoof care movement and expected a short and easy transition to barefoot and then to have two horses who could stand for 6 weeks in a grass pasture and then be ridden barefoot over hard, rocky trails for 6 or 7 hours. It didn't work out that way. Their horses had severe hoof deformity and very weak hooves, and after a 5-month period, their horses still couldn't walk up a gravel road without being sore. They tried the hoof boots that the gurus endorsed but didn't feel they were suitable for their horses. My heart went out to them, because they really didn't know what to do. They had these two horses, who they wanted to be able to ride occasionally...that's really the reason they had them...but at the same time, they were genuinely concerned with their long term well-being. They first wanted to be mad at farriers, but I tried to remind them that a farrier's job is to make a horse rideable, and that a farrier can't really be blamed for the lameness problems shoes might cause, because after all, a farrier is just responding to customer demand, and it should be clear to a horse owner that nailing metal shoes on a horse's hoof is not good. There's a trade-off....you chance sacrificing your horse's soundness down the road so that you can ride today, so that you can do with your horse what you want to do with it. I told them that, considering the age of their horses and the condition of their feet, what they wanted to do was asking too much....you can't take two older horses with severe hoof deformity who stand in a soft grass pasture and expect to be able to ride them barefoot occasionally over harsh terrain. It just isn't reasonable. But yet from what they had heard from the barefoot trimming/natural hoof care movement, they thought they could...after just 5 months. And they ended up feeling betrayed and going back to horseshoes....but at the same time feeling guilty, because they knew the shoes were harming their horses' hooves. Sometimes it isn't possible to have it all; sometimes we have to make a choice. What's more important to us? That's a question that every horse owner must answer for him- or herself.

For a realilstic and extended discussion of how to choose and maintain a barefoot riding horse, as well as to learn how all wild horse feet do not match the mustang model, please refer to the manual Maintaining a Natural Horse.