BARE FOOT TRIMMING
By Pat Thacker, RJF, President
Idaho farriers network
July 25, 2006
The bare foot movement is one of the best things to happen for today’s
horse. However, some times the bare foot fanaticism present today is not realistic or humane for all horses. Let me first
state that I am a HUGE bare foot advocate. Nothing allows a horses foot more opportunity for healing than going bare foot
on natural habitat.
But we must first make sure that our horse is a good candidate for bare
foot use. Make sure the horse does not have too much internal pathology or remedial damage from prior use in his/her life.
For example, a horse with severe pedalosteitis or old coffin bone fractures
simply may never be able to tolerate being bare foot again. A simple radiograph or veterinary exam can shed much light on
the internal bony condition of an individual horse. I recently put Natural balance shoes and pads on a nine-year-old paint
mare that has painfully been trying to go bare foot for 2 years. The mare has almost no Developed Digital cushion [see Bowkers
research] and upon radiographic evaluation the mare had mild pedalosteitis, and some navicular disease was present. This particular
mare weighs about 1100 lbs. And has about ¼ inch of sole, which is inadequate sole depth for this mare to be comfortable and
she continually, kept bruising her feet. The owner was ready to give up. After wearing the shoes and pads with frog supports
for about one week the owner reported that the mare was a completely different horse and is sound and going well. Recently
the mare returned from a pack trip in the sawtooth mountain range of central Idaho where the rocks are so sharp and prevalent
that no horses can go through these jagged mountains bare foot. The owner was so thrilled that she called immediately upon
her return to thank me for such a wonderful trip. She said she never would have believed that her mare could do such a trip
just several months ago.
So how and when is bare foot appropriate? First some evaluation is necessary
to insure that your horse is a good candidate. There is simply no reason to make a horse that is damaged or has inferior genetics
of feet to suffer through an ordeal of trying to go bare foot if he/she simply can’t.
The environment that the horse owner provides is also absolute imperative
if a bare foot program is to be successful. No bare foot program will be successful if your horse is going to live on a swamp.
An environment as close to a natural environment must be provided in order to succeed.
I have other horses that can do 25 and 50-mile endurance races bare foot.
How ever, these are light bodied Arabs and some larger tough footed Morgans. I also see Wild horses adopted from the BLM that
do well with bare feet in some of these terrains. But these people use boots and condition these horse’s feet for the
terrain that they will be competing on. Many of these horses can go twenty-five miles with boots, but 50 miles seems to be
a bit of a strain with the boots. Some of my most adamant bare foot client’s still use shoes once or twice a year in
the real long 50-100 mile races when the terrain is solid rock, like the Owyhee Mountain rides near Oreana, Idaho.
Remember that your horse is the one galloping through the rocks when he/she
is bare foot. And if the horse has good tough quality feet and you can augment with boots stay bare foot as long as possible,
but if your horse is struggling and tender footed you may be damaging your horses feet and could do permanent damage. Nothing
is healthier than a bare foot horse, but be reasonable and listen to your horse.
I like the Natural Balance trim, By Gene Ovnicek, The Physiological trim
by Dr. Bowker, and I think Pete Ramey has a good bare foot trim as well.
