Return to the Wild: the Barefoot Option
These days more and more horse owners are turning to more horse-centered practices; pastures and turnout are designed for movement and interaction, training methods are focusing on understanding the psychology of horses to develop a willing partner and many people are trying to feed in a more natural way (focusing on forage instead of hard feed). It stands to reason that this renaissance of “natural” horsekeeping would extend to hoof care; what could be more natural than allowing a horse’s feet to care for themselves, without the presence of shoes?
In the following series of articles, barefoot or “wild” trimming techniques and rationale will be discussed in the following sections:
I. Hoof and its natural function
II. Evolution of horseshoeing
III. Barefoot trim or “wild” trimming
IV. The case against barefoot trim
V. Tools and how to get started
Although this series will lean in favor of the
barefoot, or wild horse, trim, providing information and resources to understand the hoof and its function and helping you get started on the transition, ultimately the decision to go barefoot rests with you; pulling shoes and trimming naturally is only one part of the change that should also include ample turnout, close-to-wild feeding practices and an overall program of holistic horse care. Only you can decide if these practices will benefit your horse.
In this second section, we will discussion the evolution of horseshoes, and common reasons for them.
Part II: Evolution of Horseshoeing
From the beginning, horses have run free without covering or protection on their hooves. In his ancient writings on horse training, Xenophon made no mention of horseshoes when writing about care of horses in the military, nor did the Digesta Artis Veterlnariae by Vegetius Renatus, one of the first guides to veterinary medicine written in AD 480 (which did speak of making iron items in relation to the army).
The horseshoe came much later; Ancient Romans appeared to have created a type of leather sandal to cover the hooves of working animals, recognizing that some horse’s feet seemed to show excessive cracking and wear in certain conditions. There is no real evidence of a widespread use of horseshoes until AD 910, when a written reference to "crescent figured irons and their nails" appears, and by the Crusades, horseshoes seemed to be more widely used and accepted as a “standard” feature in equine care. Some horse historians posit that this rise in horseshoeing could be attributed to the fact that more horses were kept stalled in their own waste, with very little movement and thus had greatly weakened hooves that could not stand up to the business of crusading!
Reasons for Horseshoeing
Some of the reasons given for keeping horses shod deal mainly with the manner in which a horse is kept. Hooves maintain hardness and growth through proper diet and environment; wild horses move almost constantly on varied terrain, grazing their fill on wild grasses. These grasses contain a high concentration of beta carotene, which helps the hoof create tough and sturdy keratin (the protein of which hooves are made); hard feeds and harvested forage generally begin to lose their carotene within hours of harvest and processing, so that important nutritional, hoof building block is lessened if not eliminated. Protein rich forage such as alfalfa may contribute to a low-level, constant case of
laminitis, an inflammation that can leave the hoof permanently damaged or weakened.
Constant movement through all sorts of footing can combat a poor diet to a certain extent, but many of today’s horses are either stall-kept exclusively, or turned out only on soft footing. Soft grass, although lovely to look at, does not help the hoof function as it should to pump blood through the legs, and it does not help the feet maintain themselves with the filing action of rougher terrain. Horses in the wild can walk up to 50 miles a day in their quest for forage, but with domestication they rarely walk the amount needed to keep their hooves smooth, even and balanced.
Other factors can include standing in wetter pastures constantly that weaken the hoof walls (horse’s feet need a regular cycle of wet and dry to maintain health), stalled animals standing in ammonia (which breaks down the keratin in the hoof) and improper hoof management, meaning simply infrequent or inconsistent trims and maintenance of the natural hoof.
The Debate
Mainstream farriers would argue that horseshoes are a necessary and important part of horsekeeping; corrective shoeing, shoeing for traction and shoeing for a certain gait (e.g. to enhance the high-stepping action of a Tennessee Walker) are all arguments and strategies put forth by traditionalists. These traditional farriers also argue that strong hooves have been virtually bred out of many breeds that are instead focusing on speed and jumping ability. However, many other farriers agree that most horses benefit from going without shoes for at least a portion of every year, and that many horses can go unshod altogether with proper diet and care. Recent studies of wild or feral horses and their hooves by
Jaime Jackson have shown that horses can, indeed go without shoes in the roughest terrain.
This debate will heat up later in the article, but in the next section we’ll explore exactly what a barefoot trim is, and how it is different from the “pasture trim” many farriers complete.
Suzannah Kolbeck. All Rights Reserved. 2008