I was raised with the belief that horses needed shoes for most of what we humans want them to do for us. But I also learned early on that it was better for the horse to remain barefoot if possible, at least wait with shoeing as long as possible. As horses in Germany would generally not be ridden until the age of 4, this meant that they remained barefoot at least until then. With driving horses it was different, they usually got started at 3 and shoed soon after that.

I kept all of my own horses barefoot as late as possible, usually until the age of 5. With increased physical demand on them shoes became necessary, or so I thought. Matter of fact I thought it very unkind not to shoe a horse that had to work hard, until I learned more about the workings of the foot, and until I realized, looking back through the many years of horseownership, that in the end I lost all of my horses ahead of their time to hoof related problems, either directly or indirectly. By that I mean that they either had soundness problems within their hooves like laminitis, navicular, low ringbone, sidebone, or, indirectly as they could not move well enough and broke a leg.

I firmly believe that shoes are destructive to a horse’s foot as they create lots more concussion, restrict the natural flexibility of the hoof capsule, promote peripheral loading and diminish the horn quality of the wall. This is all old knowledge, as whenever a hoof got too weak to hold a shoe, a horse had an unexplained lameness, had developed severe cracks, etc., the best remedy always was to take off the shoes and turn him out for a few months.

I often did that myself, usually in the summer months, and I was always amazed how much better the horses moved without shoes. Today, of course, I understand.

To escape this dilemma, I opted to only ask of my horses what they can do barefoot, so I stopped to compete in driving and to use them hard  on roads like I used to. There are of course lots of good hoof boots available, all kinds of glue on shoes or compounds one can use to protect the hoof from overuse, but I chose to not bother with all this. I tried it all and found it too much of a hassle, and in some ways, still an intrusion on the natural movement of the horse.

If going without shoes it not an option depending on where the horse is kept and exercised, much can be done to minimize the negative impact of shoes. If the same parameters are followed as in barefoot trimming like low heels, short toe, correct break over, frog- and sole support, and as few nails as possible are used and the shoes very frequently  reset, 4 to 6 weeks, with several months a year barefoot, the damage can be minimized and the horse kept sound. The better option of course would most likely be boots, but many horses cannot wear them due to conformation or odd shaped hooves.

See also Dominiks’ story under Case Histories.