I took a few days off work this week to get some projects done around the farm and have some relaxing time too. Since all the kids were at school/preschool on Tuesday, Anna and I planned a nice long trail ride to explore more of our access to Pachaug State Forest. I have been studying the trail maps and we had plenty of options for our ride. So we saddled up King and Calli and went out for what was planned to be about 2 hrs. In the end, we covered 8.5 miles in 2:40. While galloping up a hill, King managed to overreach and lose one of his hoof boots. Post accident analysis indicates his hooves are probably about half a size smaller than in the spring. Good thing we have more boots in inventory.
Here are some pictures from the ride.
Nice pics. Glad you both got to have some great ride time together. Please explain the concept/benefit of barefoot horses (no shoes) if you have to use boots to protect their feet. Do they only wear the boots when you are riding? If so, is there certain times when you ride with the horse barefoot with no shoes or boots?
The issue of shoes vs barefoot goes way beyond just the riding time. If a horse get ridden even 4 hours a week, that is only about 2.5% of the time it is alive. However the shoes are on 100% of the time. Removing shoes gives the horse better hoof quality, better circulation, less impact stress, and other overall health benefits. And it costs less that shoeing. So if the horse needs protection from the ground surfaces when riding because it isn’t conditioned for that surface, then boots are a great alternative. Most Barefoot houses are fine ridding in arenas or head fields but can’t handle the gravel roads because it is a different surface than they live on. For comparison, you can walk in grass or on carpets without shoes, but is you walked without shoes down a gravel driveway to get the mail you would be sore because your feet are not conditioned for it.