Six-month update on shoeless life

Well, I have had to keep my fingers and mouth in check from typing out (or saying out loud) sharp responses to some blogs (and people) whose blogs or musings I have recently been reading/listening, which very confidently acclaim that working horses should be shod and any horse that isn't can't truly be ridden or worked to the same extent as their shod counterparts. They also say that modern horse is so developed and far-bred that it cannot cope without shoes.  Funny that we have managed to breed horse so far, yet scientists say the modern horse is genetically no different to the ones that roamed the earth tens of thousands of years ago. The same can be said of humans, according to science, that we are genetically 100% still the same as our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Very little, if at all, can genetically change in mere thousands of years, so a few hundred years of horse and human is a tiny speck in the grand scheme of things.

I am sure those people don't want to hear my opinion or will ever agree with me, as they have decided their way is the correct way and my way is not the correct way and, actually, what I am doing is somehow 'unnatural'... So let's let pictures tell the story in more ways than (my) words ever could:

July 2013 – when the shoes came off

January 2014 – same front feet today 

July 2013 – right front 

January 2014 – the same right front 

January 2014 – right hind 

January 2014 – hind feet

Apologies for the blurriness of some pics, it's very difficult to hold a hoof up and snap a picture single-handedly on a mobile!

This horse is a working horse that is ridden/exercised 5–6 times a week, on surfaces varying from soft school surfaces to gravel and extensive roadwork while out hacking. Week in. Week out. She is not a paddock decoration, as often it is suggested by those who like to see their horses in shoes that shoeless horses can't lead a normal working life. 

She also gets out to the field or paddock several times a week to 'be a horse'. She is a keen show jumper as well... She is less keen with dressage, but obliges ;). I would like to have enough courage to dabble at some cross-country one day.

She is fed a diet that promotes hoof health – it is low in sugar and starch, but high in fibre. She is a good-doer, so her main source of nutrition is mix of hay and haylage – one hay net in the morning, one in the evening, with some 'self-foraging' in the field. 

Once a day she gets a little scoop of Speedy Beet, to which some standard pony nuts are added (mainly for palatability) and also a handful of micronised linseed (it's nutritious and highly palatable without sugar... smells nice too). In that mixture her vitamins and minerals (including 10ml of salt) are mixed in. I give her Pro Hoof by Progressive Earth which is a 'pro-hoof' supplement that contains everything in the right quantities and no extra bits which I am paying the earth for but that aren't needed. She also gets one carrot or an apple chopped up in the feed (again, mainly for taste).

I used to feed her Feedmark Barefoot Formula and Benevit Advance as sources of vits and mins, but they are not cheap (in the long run) and the products, even when 'pro-hoof', don't contain the sufficient amounts of key vitamins/minerals, (e.g. if you look at the required quantities for magnesium and do your research on the minimum quantities needed, you will see) and they seem to contain a lot of 'cheap' ingredients, like micronised linseed and calcined magnesite to bulk up the mix. 

Then, I also throw in a one-to-two 50-ml scoops of calcined magnesite (aka magnesium) to top up her magnesium intake – especially important in the summer months when grass is rich and if your horse is turned out. Magnesium is harmless in the sense that the body excretes any extra it doesn't need, so you can't give too much of it. Also magnesium is a natural calmer, which also is the main ingredient in many off-the-shelf calmers. Worth keeping in mind when digging deep for your next tub! Especially when you read the next paragraph...

I buy a 20kg sack of micronised linseed and a 25kg sack of calcined magnesite from Charnwood Milling – their website is basic but customer service great and delivery costs only around £7 anywhere in the UK (however, you should see their website for costs, not just rely on me!). The price for a 20kg sack of micronised linseed is around £21 and for 25kg of calcined magnesite £7. Needless to say, it will take me ages to go through that quantity with one horse, as I only give each around 50–100ml per day! So, cheap as chips. I keep the sacks in my shed at home and top up from there to tubs which I keep at the yard.

With this combo of fairly simple ingredients we have transformed from shod to shoeless – and actually without any fuss. And it must be mentioned that I have Rainbow's hoofs trimmed around every six weeks by Tim at Performance Hoof Care. 

Six months on, Rainbow is a happy, regularly ridden and worked horse, who is calm and grounded, I think even more now without shoes, as her 'senses' are not impaired by metal clamps, so she can feel the ground and can trust her own feet, making the need to be flighty a lot less. We are not looking back.

And finally, to those who think that shoeless horses can't perform, take a leaf out of this Italian's book who won the Puissance in Olympia in December (also note the simple tack, a snaffle bridle, no martingales, etc.). Luca Moneta rides and competes his horses using natural horsemanship methods.

Olympia: Horse leaps over 7ft wall at Puissance event