An elder once told me, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”

Evidence of the domesticated horse having hoof problems can be traced as far back to Ancient Greece around 350 BC with Xenophon writing in his classic work On horsemanship, ”naturally sound hooves get spoiled in most stalls.” Fast forward to around the 5th century when the tomb of the Franklin King Childeric I at Tournai, Belgium was found and nail on shoes appeared. By around 1000 AD, cast bronze horseshoes with nail holes were common in Europe and by the 13th century shoes were forged in large quantities and could be bought ready-made. The creation of the metal horseshoe was thought of with good intention but with it, along with other changes in the horse’s natural environment, came a series of problems for the horse. Laminitis being one of the worst, currently the second leading reason for euthanasia in a horse.
        Changes brought to the horse’s lifestyle with its domestication from day one, circa 3000BC, have led to the need for hoof protection. As good as intended as it may had been, metal horseshoes have caused more harm than good. The best way to care for our horse’s feet and overall good health is to go back and do it the way nature intended, or close to it as possible. But still protect the hoof as needed.  Have you ever asked yourself how horses have been able to survive 1 million years without horseshoes and never founder in the wild? I did when I went on a Wild Mustang trip in the back country of the High Sierra in Nevada and see firsthand the terrain these creatures do so well in, that’s when my pursuit to be a farrier ended. At the time I was not aware of natural hoof care but the seed was planted that the answer to a healthy hoof was in nature. And three decades earlier that’s what happened in the Great Basin of the western United States, a long time farrier studied the wild horse in its natural environment in search of what gave him such great healthy feet and discovered why the wild horse had such healthy hooves.
         But my horse has sensitive feet, will it work for him/her? Can every horse go barefoot? Yes and yes! Every horse has the ability to go barefoot, nature does not discriminate. A horse will develop a hoof as strong as to the environment it lives in without requiring hoof protection. Meaning, a horse living in a rocky environment does not need hoof protection in soft terrain and a horse living in a soft environment will need hoof protection when being ridden in a rocky environment. That is when boots come into play. Horses can also do well competing barefoot, or in boots.  Look no further than the tough 100-mile, one-day endurance Tevis Cup race. Horses in Easyboots dominate (want to make clear I am not on Easyboots’ payroll) at that event with a noticeably higher finishing rate than non booted horses. Barefoot horses have also excelled in other disciplines, such as upper level dressage, and have done also very well living as a ranch horse working cattle. Whatever your discipline or even if trails is your enjoyment, barefoot can and will work for you and your horse.