When I moved to Washington, Rusty came with me. I had my
first real job with a steady income, so when the farrier came, I asked for
shoes. By then, I believed that wearing shoes (much like having a blanket and a
warm stable) was a sign that horse was getting the best care. Shoes = owner’s
love, or something. Look—everybody in life makes choices.
Rusty and baby Topper shortly after I moved to WA (2005) |
At the same time, I acquired Topper, who was the horse I
started with in endurance. His shoes did serve a practical purpose (beyond
allowing me to feel like I was being a good horse mom). Heather and I were
riding out on the road enough by then that Topper’s feet weren’t keeping up with
the wear he was putting on them. I was literally riding his feet off.
Topper at Mt. Adams (2008?) |
I was really happy with Topper’s performance in shoes, and I
didn’t feel any need to question it. But I was just getting into endurance,
which means I was in the “information sponge” phase. One thing about sponges,
they aren’t picky. They suck up grease and garbage water just as easily as wine
and soap suds. So I read every opinion on Ridecamp as if it were gospel, with
very little personal experience to act as a filter. I would try anything to get
better at endurance, including purchasing the requisite gray Arabian.
Otto was also barefoot when I got him. He grew up in the
bone-dry, volcanic hills outside of Prineville, Oregon, and had never needed
shoes. He had these big, black feet that were tough as nails. By the time I got
him, I was at the height of my online endurance obsession, so I had read all
the pros and cons about barefoot versus shoeing. The more natural approach made
a lot of sense to me, honestly. Moreover, my recently-acquired cousin-in-law
was a vocal proponent of the barefoot/boot system. I thought Otto was a great
candidate, being that he already had fantastic barefoot feet, but they were
getting worn pretty heavily by all the road conditioning we were doing. My thought
process went like this: Boots would solve the wear problem, and I’d be another
Barefoot Success Story for the internet to crow about. This was going to be
easy.
Completely bare (and bitless!) at HOTR 2010 |
But it didn’t work out that way, and the reason is
laughable. Otto’s feet were too good for the boots available at the time. That
is, a lifetime of being barefoot on rough ground with frequent trimming had
left him with textbook front hooves—wide, round, ideally proportioned and
angled. At the time, you couldn’t get boots for that kind of feet. Let me say
it again: No one was making boots for the ideal hoof. I tried Easyboot Gloves,
which were too long in the toe and too narrow side-to-side. I tried Renegade
cutbacks, which solved the width problem but were bulky and made my
fluid-moving horse clumsy and cranky. And let’s not forget that they were all a
hassle to put on while my riding partner stood there waiting for me.
But look at that movement! |
My farrier was also very anti-barefoot and anti-boot. I
won’t badmouth him. He was an expert and an artist with shoes, but very, very,
very old-school. (We’ve been shoeing
horses for hundreds of years. Why change now?) He trimmed Otto because I
asked him to, but he didn’t really approve of what I was trying to do.
Maybe, with a pro-barefoot farrier, a local
booting mentor and access to Glove Wides (which came on the market after all of
this happened), I would have stuck with barefoot. As it was, the whole thing
became too much of a hassle. That year, we did HOTR totally bare without
incident but had to RO from the Milwaukee ride for lameness, even after
applying boots. After that, I gave in and had him shod. I didn’t want to waste
my time and money figuring out barefooting anymore. I saw that there were
plenty of good riders who still shod, and plenty of yahoos who didn’t. Really
there were plenty of mentors and yahoos on both sides… so I made the choice.
Otto did great in shoes (and got pulled for lameness one more time without
them). His feet stayed nice, but his personality still left much to be desired.Did I tell you about the time he tore my rotator cuff? |
Loving this series, gal--hurry up and write more!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your story! Keep them coming!
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