First two days with no shoes

Yesterday was the first day of work for Rainbow without shoes. In order to take it easy, I decided that lunging would be a good way to assess her and get her moving without adding my weight onto her yet. 

In the stable and on concrete as well as in the sand school, where she gets turned out if she's not in the paddock or field, she seemed herself and was moving normally. So that's great! Fairly normal hooves, then. The first 'test' came when we had to walk across the front car park to get to the school. The ground is sandy and gravelly, and fairly hard at this time of year after a period of dry weather. Slowly we ambled across. I didn't want to pressure Rainbow to walk fast and wanted to watch her a little from the corner of my eye to gauge her reactions, simultaneously keeping an air of nonchalance as I think horses can read our worries. I wouldn't want to make her think something was wrong, for example. 

She walked slower and more tentatively than she had walked in shoes, but this was obviously to be expected. Day One, after all. It's the same as me taking my shoes off and walking across the same car park barefoot; I wouldn't be striding out boldly, taking a few leaps as I go...! Occasionally her leg would 'give in' a little when she felt a sharper object like a stone underfoot. But she didn't stop or seem to be in pain, just a little tentative. Our podiatrist and other barefoot sources say that this kind of initial sensitivity shouldn't be taken as a sign of pain or soreness, or lameness, but it's a natural reaction to something 'sharp' when not used to the feeling due to shoes having stopped such sensations. 

I tried to guide her through softer areas in order to not ask too much of her straight away and once we were on a softer, sandier track, she was walking normally. And once we reached the conformable surface in the arena, she looked exactly the same as in shoes. I lunged her about 20 minutes and she did all gaits without problems. The only problem was the extremely warm arena (it's still hot here – not complaining though!) and a sweaty horse!

Today we had a schooling session and I took her in the arena via the sand school, so we didn't need to tackle the car park gravel too many times. I got on Rainbow in the school and I think she felt a little different to how she felt with shoes. I think her front felt a little bit lower than when she had shoes... Could this be? Could I feel forward 'slopey-ness' in her stance when the feet were only some millimetres (a thickness of a shoe) shorter? I don't know. I am putting it down to wanting to possibly feel something different. As we began to walk, Rainbow was moving normally and felt quite planted to the ground. Perhaps almost more solid?! Again, I don't know and time will tell... 

The news of me having removed R's shoes have travelled fast: before I managed to announce it to my instructor, she already exclaimed, in her greeting to Rainbow, "I hear you don't have shoes anymore!" I asked her where she had heard, apparently the yard owner had told her. I was interested to hear if the news had been delivered with an air of scornfulness or matter-of-factly. Apparently they had been delivered with an air of surprise... To which my instructor hastily added, "...but Rainbow's got quite good feet, so she's probably OK...!" So I can only imagine what these hardy horsewomen at the yard with decades of experience are now thinking of me. People talk and I know that if you don't fit the norm or decide to do something a bit different, tongues are set to wag! I am aware that I might be soon compared to one lady who comes for a very occasional riding lesson there, never actually listens to the instructions and claims to have 'horse whispering' powers... She has been known to get off the horse mid-lesson and sitting down in front of it 'to connect with it'. 

When I tried to go on to say that the equine podiatrist thinks riding in the arena is fine straight away, only hacking has to be taken slowly at first, my instructor interrupted me before I got to the hacking part of the sentence and told to be very careful about what these 'trimmers' say as at least farriers have to train for years whereas trimmers don't and anyone can be a 'trimmer'. I was speechless, as I am fully aware of this (and I hope I am using a person who knows his stuff and is not a mere 'trimmer'! At least he seems to know his stuff), but I am also aware that farriery study books still claim that nailing something metallic onto a living hoof is somehow in the best interest of the horse. Hang on, have you seen a footsore foal? What about those horses in poor countries that aren't shod and probably do much harder work, on tough surfaces, than the average riding/competition horse in the western world? 

I fear I am becoming evangelical about this now, so, I need to rein this in (for my sake mainly!), hence I will do the following. I practised it with my instructor and yard friends today already, and I have a feeling I will have to practise it a lot more in the future: "Silence is golden: don't get defensive, just get on with it, quietly, reverently, always look after Rainbow and her best interests, arm yourself with knowledge, dare to question and dare to learn." Conversely, I won't tell others what to do but I won't also let others to scare me with their conventions and horror stories about not doing something everyone else is doing. 

Our lesson went well and Rainbow stayed soft for longer periods of time – in fact most of the time, as I now knew how to ask for it in a slightly new way – so I think the two-week break from riding has really done good for both of us. I am thinking my 'muscle-memory' has been faded a little in the past two weeks, so I wasn't falling back into the old habits quite so easily; I just took the instructions I had received, applied it and hey presto! results. I didn't have to nag at Rainbow. I just shook the inside rein gently when I felt her head come up and her going harder, riding her forward, and she would go soft again. I also kept my hands closed better, not a death-grip but solid, quiet hand. When Rainbow was soft, I kept my hands quiet as a reward. And when my hands slipped, unwittingly giving rein to Rainbow, which is one of my problems, this time I noticed it! Must be progress as, before, I have just somehow ended up with more rein, not quite sure how it happened... Noticing the slippage must mean that I am onto it – not perfect – but onto it.

Canter transitions went well too. Rainbow has had a habit of running into the transitions but, again, me knowing how to ask for it, I just half-halted a little and gave the Go-cue to Rainbow and she moved to canter straight away. She raised the canter 'uphill', which was great, and we went slow, collected canter around a fairly small circle (instead of tearing around the whole school, as we've done in the past). 

I turned Rainbow out to the field at the same time with Denise taking Zara out. Both mares happily trotted up towards their friends when released. Rainbow looked the same in her trot as Zara and wasn't tripping over/being overly careful in her gait. Hopefully will find a happy horse in the field tomorrow AM. Early start as want to beat the heatwave – meeting up Denise at 7am to bring the girls in.