On Wed, Jun 20, 2007 at 12:56:04PM -0400, pippa258 wrote: > She sent in a few posts about going barefoot and boots so hope her > perspective has changed.
this reminds me that i wanted to bring up this subject.... stjarni's been "converted" to bare back feet without incident. i am considering trying to have him barefoot in front too, although with some reservations, as i ride a lot on trails in massachusetts and our primary natural resource is granite rocks. as a first step, i am supplementing his (hay- and hay-pellet only) diet with a horse pellet containing biotin and some other theoretically foot-nourishing substances. my plan is to keep him on this and leave on the shoes for awhile, maybe six months to a year, and then evaluate his feet (for strength, thickness, growing speed, and overall condition) before i try pulling his front shoes and seeing how he does without them. he has basically pretty good feet so far, although when the farrier didn't show up for nine (!!#@(*$&!!) weeks he developed cracks between the nails and the shoes (which were trimmed away before the shoes were replaced. so i figure they could use some help before being exposed to the elements, and i don't think my farrier is the most reliable resource in this case. does that strike y'all with more experience with the barefoot as a reasonable course of action? thanks, --vicka
