Barefoot horses

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History

Iron horseshoes may have been invented by the Roman legions^[1] as there is a lack of references or artifacts on which to rely for an earlier date. They were clearly used in Europe during the Middle Ages.^{[citation needed]} Before that time domesticated horses, including the war horses of ancient cultures such as Greece, Babylon or Egypt, seem not to have been shod.^{[citation needed]} Xenophon's manual on the care and training of Greek cavalry horses included the instruction that their hooves should be toughened by putting a cobblestone area in their paddock. Domesticated horses of Mongolia and those in some parts of South America are unshod to this day.

The structure of the hoof

When horseshoes were first used on horses' hooves, the scientific study of anatomy and physiology had not been invented yet.^{[citation needed]} Horse hooves are weakened by the lack of movement that comes with being kept in stables.^{[citation needed]} Horseshoes can also produce damaging effects, especially in conjunction with poor or infrequent shoeing or an imbalanced trim.^{[citation needed]} This is something careful observers have always noted; shod horses tend to incur excessive lameness such that many horses have been and are euthanized at shorter than normal lifespans when their feet become too painful for the horse to be used.^{[citation needed]} Currently researchers are taking a new look at horseshoes and studying how they affect the shape, structure, operation, and cellular health of the hoof.

The impact of horseshoes

Shod horses that are returned to a barefoot condition can, after allowing time for internal healing of the hooves, gain noticeably in surefootedness (because the horse can feel the ground better), stamina (because the flexing barefoot hoof acts like an auxiliary pump which assists the heart) and quality of movement or agility (the presence of an iron shoe prevents constant wear of the horse's continuously growing "fingernails" to the best shape for athletic movement).^{[citation needed]}

  Due to damage from horseshoes — both to internal tissues and in a gradual distortion of hoof shape — hooves are often unsound at first when horse owners decide to "go barefoot" if they have had bad farrier work in the first instance. It can take as long as an entire cycle of hoof growth (new horn growing from the coronet to the ground) before the horse can be worked without protection for its healing feet, a transition period that can take from eight months to a year, depending on how fast or slow the hooves grow. In the meantime, the horse can be fitted with hoof boots which are put on when the horse is ridden on hard, frozen, rocky, or gravelly footing and taken off the rest of the time to allow full ground contact for the hooves. A variety of hoof boot designs are available.

Controversies over the barefoot movement

Those who question the basic beliefs of the barefoot movement suggest that the decision to shoe a horse or not is largely dictated by the conditions under which the horse is used. While agreement is usually found on the issue that wild horses have quite healthy feet, advocates of traditional farrier methods argue that this is due largely to the fact that they are not being overstressed by abnormal activity. Horses which are domesticated on the other hand, are routinely put through abnormal levels of activity, stress, and strain, and their hooves undergo excessive wear and shock. Stable-kept horses are not exposed to the same environment as wild horses, which can affect their hoof quality. Additionally, humans sometimes favor certain traits over hoof quality (such as speed), and will breed horses with poor hoof quality if they are exceptional athletes. This can lead to overall decreased hoof quality within a breed and riding horses in general. Thus advocates of traditional hoof care suggest that shoeing is needed to protect the hoof from unnatural destruction, that the horseshoe and its various incarnations has been necessary to maintain normal hoof function under extreme and unnatural conditions.

On the other hand, advocates of barefoot horses argue that use of shoes does damage to the horse: to the suspensory system by both overloading it with shock, when the shoe prevents the hoof capsule from deforming as it was meant in order to absorb the shock of impact, and the damage done to the limb by the weight of the shoe and by how that weight changes the trajectory of the hoof in motion.

Benefits of barefooting

Barefooting began among "backyard" or pleasure horses, with many owners learning to trim their horses' hooves themselves, as the trim may need to be renewed as often as 2 to 3 weeks in some climates.^{[citation needed]} As the health and movement benefits of barefooting have become more apparent in horses that have completed transition, horses are being competed barefoot in various sports (including by 2005 flat racing, steeplechase racing, and trail and endurance racing), often placing well due to the increased stamina that barefooting can give the horse. (Please note, this is purely anecdotal)^{[citation needed]} Some livery stables have gone barefoot because it substantially reduces their horses' "down time" from lameness.^{[citation needed]}

The barefoot trim

  The style of trim that is used on most barefoot horses differs in several important ways from the typical "pasture trim" that is done on horses that are de-shod for the winter season (ironically to "improve their feet"). Barefooters emulate the efficient, naturally worn hooves of feral horses ("mustangs" in the western United States, "brumbies" in Australia) as well as of wild zebras and unshod Mongolian ponies.^{[citation needed]}

Important to the success of the trim is 1) shortening the hoof wall and heel to the outer edge of the concave sole for best hoof conformation, and 2) applying a rounded bevel ("mustang roll") to the bottom edge of the wall to allow for a correct breakover (the moment when the foot tips forward as it begins to lift off the ground) and to prevent chipping and flaring of the wall.^{[citation needed]}

An intriguing side-effect of removing horseshoes and using this wild-horse style of barefoot trim is that foundered horses and horses with navicular pain have recovered from these severe lamenesses when they were trimmed in this style at 2 to 3 week intervals over a period of months, and have become fully rideable again — an unusual outcome.^{[citation needed]}

Hoof health and overall care of the horse

Proponents of keeping horses barefoot have observed and strongly advocate that the equine hoof stays in notably better condition when horses are kept in a herd situation so that they are free to move around 24 hours a day, as wild horses do, permitting good circulation inside the hoof day and night.^{[citation needed]} Unlike humans, horses only sleep for short periods and naturally keep moving through the night as they graze across the prairie — and their hooves seem to require this continual movement.

A change in diet is very important too, based on free hay (without alfalfa) and some mineral supplementation, with very low grain ration; a high grain or alfalfa ration correlates with high risk of clinical or subclinical laminitis and with other hooves health derangements.^{[citation needed]}

The barefoot horse movement has taken off in recent years, mainly in America, due to the influence of the World wide web, as well as the action of organisations such as The American Association of Natural Hoof Care Practitioners (AANHCP),^[2] horse care practitioners such as Jaime Jackson, Pete Ramey^[3], veterinary research and practice such as that by Dr. Hiltrud Strasser^[4], and academic veterinary research such as that by Dr Robert Bowker. ^[5]

Footnotes and References

1. ^ British Museum Website: hipposandal. Retrieved on 2007-08-23.
2. ^ The official website of the AANHCP
3. ^ Hoof rehab web site
4. ^ Strasser Hoof Care
5. ^ Barefoot research at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University

See also

• Horse care
• Horseshoe
• Hiltrud Strasser
• Jaime Jackson
• Laminitis
• Navicular syndrome
• The natural horse on wikiquote