Barefoot horse at HOYS and banning unshod horses in showing

This is a note I read today on the Horse Hoof Facebook page. I also know of at least one other horse going to HOYS barefoot and I am sure there are many more! I would encourage anyone who feels competitors should be allowed the choice how they keep their horses to take the time to drop them a line. Personally, I would like to think the judge is knowledgeable enough to assess if a horse is balanced enough in whatever footwear (or lack of) that there may be before he decides to ride as I have seen more shod horses than barefoot slip in my lifetime!

 

by The Horse's Hoof on Tuesday, 07 September 2010 at 01:23

From: antonio checa

This Irish Draught horse called Mac, property of Becky Chapman, over 18hh has qualified to go to HOYS 2010 (for the second time!). He is 7years old and has been barefoot all of his life. Not only has he been competing since he was 4 years old as a heavyweight show hunter but has either won or been well placed in lots of top competitions. If you want to find out about this magnificient horse then go to the following web link:http://www.hoys.co.uk/blog/index.php/2010/08/31/from-hand-reared-to-hoys TheSports Horse Breeding of Great Britain now wants to ban unshod horses from the showring. This new rule only effects the riding class when the judges need to ride trhe horses.Their argument: it is not safe for the judges becuse the horse could slip and injure the judge! This does not make any sense because if this were truly the case then they would wear hard hats! Furthermore this new rule does not include the pony class where children ride their ponies. Does this mean that our children aren't important?

If you do not agree with this new ruling , then please write to them at the address below.  SPORT HORSE BREEDING OF GREAT BRITAIN96 HIGH STREET EDENBRIDGEKENTTN8 5ARTel:

Fax: 01732 867464If you know any other people who would support this campain, then please forward the address above to them.

Big thank you, in advance.A. Checa.    

email: office@sporthorsegb.co.uk

Easycare at Walt Disney World!

This is an entry into Easycare's blog about Kevins visit to 'The happiest place on earth' and it looks like for their horses, it soon will be! I have always been impressed with the standard of care of the animals at the parks that I have seen, and the horses are no exception with this bold yet commonsense move by Disney to take their horses barefoot. Their horses vary is size, breed and shape so it is a very good showcase how different types of working horse can all work very happily without shoes and also have all the benefit of life without the restriction of metal shoes.

"I had the good fortune last week to work with some of the people who manage the equine program at the Tri-Circle-D Ranch at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.


Tri-Circle-D Ranch - one of the first buildings erected when Walt Disney World was originally opened.
About the Horses
There are currently 79 horses at two locations on the massive Walt Disney World campus. Both barns are near the Magic Kingdom location and there is a diverse mix of horses there who are split into two disctinct groups. One set is made up of the large draft horse breeds like Clydesdales and Belgians. They are used principally for pulling carriages around the Main Street area - always at a walk and mostly on blacktop roads.


Some of the staff at Tri-Circle-D Ranch talk about the transition strategy.
The other set is made up of trail horses, mostly of quarter horse descent, with the odd Arabian and warmblood mix thrown in for color or height variety. Their job is to keep the guests entertained on five or six 45-minute trail rides per day. A smaller group of ponies give trail rides around the former petting zoo, which now provides a set of spacious paddocks for the little guys.


This location is where the trail rides start from. The shade was very welcome.
The horses are all in exceptionally good weight and health and the facitilies are meticulously maintained by a cheery group. The public - called 'guests' - are free to wander around the facilities. I was very impressed by the willingness of the staff to answer questions and share their love for what they do.


Impressive, isn't it, to think about implementing change at such a large institution?
 EasyCare and Exclusivity
As you can probably imagine, I wasn't just there to see what it is like at the happiest place on earth. I was there because Tri-Circle-D Ranch is transitioning their horse teams over to a barefoot/booted program and EasyCare will be the exclusive boot provider for their program.


Discussing the journey ahead.
An Impressive Approach
I flew down to Orlando to coordinate a visit there during the two days their barefoot hoofcare practitioner was pulling shoes from some of the horses - and trimming others who are already weeks or months into their barefoot transition. They brought in their vet so we could talk about the relevance of diet in the transition process, and it also gave us a chance to study x-rays of some of the horses' feet so the trims could be modified accordingly.

Some of these draft horses are unbelievably tall - we put a stick to one guy and it was not even big enough to get an accurate measurement. That means he was probably 18h3. It was fascinating to see these big hooves get trimmed - and to get a first hand understanding of the challenges they face. It is a humid climate with soft, wet ground for most of the year, and the hooves are definitely soft-country feet. One of the contributors to success for Walt Disney World will be the amount of work each of their horses is responsible for, which means every horse has a job and every horse is on a strictly monitored work program. This will help speed the transition process.


One of several pastures around the facility.
Those are Some Big Feet
We selected Easyboot Epics for their draft carriage horses - they will be using a combination of size 6 and size 7 for those horses. The trail horses will be using Easyboot Gloves - with the exception of Minnie, a draft horse cross, who will be parading down the trail in her size 4 Easyboot Epics.

All eyes are on the transition project down in Orlando - if this initial phase goes well, Walt Disney World in California will be our next stop. Please join us in wishing the entire team in Orlando the very best of luck in this bold move forward."

Everyone Knows Thoroughbreds Can't go Barefoot...

Well thats what we are led to believe! The truth is, with the right trim, diet and excercise there is no reason why virtually any horse cannot enjoy the benefits of an iron free lifestyle. The biggest obstacle most horses have to going barefoot is the attitude of their owner. Barefoot (particularly in the beginning) can be tough if the horse has lees than ideal hooves to start with, but I'm sure you will agree the rewards of a healthier, happier longer lived horse are worth the little extra work in those first couple of months!

This is the story of Miss Bronte, sent to us by one of our dealers in the North. Angela has helped many horses to enjoy being shoe free, as well as trimming she can supply and fit any of the hoof boots in the Easycare range as well as advising on diet and management of the barefoot horse.

Miss Bronte’s story… so far…

Miss Bronte – Bronte to her friends – is a five year old thoroughbred mare. She has had a very typical thoroughbred life… so far. Raced as a two and three year old, she ran six times, her claim to fame being ridden a couple of times by leading lady jockey Hayley Turner. Bronte just wasn’t fast enough to race and after coming last in her final race she was ‘retired’. Retired meant being chucked in a field and forgotten about, until she ended up at the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre in spring 2010. She was under weight and lame when she arrived and was immediately shod. The TRC worked with her and got her into a good enough condition to put her up for adoption.

This is where Paula Smith comes into Bronte’s life. Paula has had horses for years and recently returned from living in Australia wanted a youngster to bring on and event, eventually. Being a friend of mine I had already convinced her of the benefits of going barefoot though it was not something she’d ever thought of doing with any of her previous horses. We had the very common discussion about thoroughbreds, especially ex-racehorses, not being suitable for barefoot because ‘thoroughbreds have bad feet’, but I convinced her to give it a try.

We gave Bronte a couple of days to settle in before removing her shoes. Underneath the shoes her feet were pretty typical of a horse shod too young – small, wider than longer, underun heels, poor horn quality. Shoes off, first trim done and then it’s that first walk across the yard. Paula’s yard surface is quite challenging in places for a newly barefoot horse, gravelly in parts. Bronte was tentative as she walked away but sound.

Paula is the perfect client – she does every thing I tell her to the letter. So Bronte got walked in hand round the roads in the village and her diet was adjusted to that of a barefoot horse, low sugar/starch, poor grazing. Paula built up the work slowly, never doing more than Bronte was comfortable with. Soon Paula was hacking out round the village – again just at walk and Bronte was sound at every step. We had a couple of slight backwards moments, when Bronte came slightly footy. Both these times coincided with her being in season – a very common thing we’ve been finding… mares going footy when in season. It’s almost certainly related to hormonal changes and a client of mine has found that supplementing with Agnus Castus powder has solved the problem.

Due to the shape of Bronte’s front feet – much wider than they are long – I fitted her with Old Mac Originals. In time the shape of Bronte’s feet will improve and we hope to get her into Easyboot Gloves. However for the time being and the stage of Bronte’s work the Old Mac Original’s work perfectly. Once fitted with these front boots Paula started hacking off road. Our local tracks are mostly very stony and pretty challenging for the transitioning barefoot horse. But with Old Macs in front and nothing behind Bronte has been exploring the countryside with ears pricked and a long stride.

Paula alternates riding out with and without the boots on at the front. When being schooled Bronte doesn’t wear boots. I have trimmed her three times now and the nail  holes are almost grown out. Her feet have improved hugely even in the short space of time I’ve been working with her. The Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre were dubious about taking her barefoot – convinced she would be dog lame without shoes. They were very impressed when they came to see her – and could hardly believe it as they saw her walk over the stones and gravel without shoes or boots.

Watching the mare being schooled or just powering round in the field is wonderful – she has a huge elevated trot and in time, with lots of schooling, will produce a pretty spectacular dressage test.

When she first arrived I was worried about her conformation. She had marked toe first landing when she first arrived and her pasterns, which are on the long side, were very low to the ground – not a good combination for long term soundness. Since the shoes have been removed and the feet have strengthened up her whole posture has altered. She now has a beautiful heel first landing. Her pasterns now sit at a more natural angle underneath her and no longer looks so prone to injury. This will only improve further as her feet develop. The great benefit of having barefeet is that the horse can grow exactly the foot it needs to suit it’s own conformation, unlike with shoes were the farrier will try to get the feet to conform to the text book ideal.  Shod hooves are almost always weak at the heel causing all sorts of injuries long term.

Bronte’s story shows what can be achieved with a thoroughbred ex-racehorse in the short space of time. Credit has to go to Bronte’s owner Paula. Simply removing the shoes is not enough. It is essential to get the diet right and to do the transitioning work. Together Bronte and Paula make the perfect partnership and hopefully will go far together. Without shoes of course!

Rockcrunchers Barefoot Trimming Services - AANHCP trained barefoot trimmer available for trimming and boot fitting covering Northern England and the Midlands. Contact info@rockcrunchers.co.uk or phone 07554 011634 www.rockcrunchers.co.uk

Result!

Here is a report from Karens weekend, Karen was using Easyboot glue ons and Easyboot gloves on Looey, and had a great time by the sound of it!
"We had a fab weekend up in North Yorkshire…here's the story…
We travelled up to North Yorkshire after work on Friday evening. On route we stopped in Thirsk for a chippy supper. It's amazing how you end up meeting people. I was stood waiting for Bond to come back to the Land Rover and this couple and their daughter, who were from Norway on holiday came over for a chat. They were laughing because they have horses themselves and said that while travelling through Yorkshire they hadn't seen 1 horse, only sheep and cows!! When they saw our trailer they came over to have a chat to some fellow horsey people - obviously getting withdrawal symptoms ;-). They then spotted Bond's sign writing on his Landover - Pennine Barefoot - and asked what we were doing with the horse. I told them we were on our way to an Endurance Event. It turns out that they use Easy Boots on their horse too!! They had tried Boa's but thought the EasyBoots were way better - what a small world. We gave them directions to the event and they said they might try and pop over to have a look at hat was going on at some point over the weekend.
By the time we got to the venue it was going dark and had started raining. We quickly set up a corral for Loo and had a bit of a blether to a guy from Ambleside who was crewing for his wife the following day in our class. The rain didn't stop all night - I woke at about 5.30am since we were sleeping in the trailer and the rain was pelting it big time. I lay there for the next 2 hours praying for it to stop - it didn't. Our vetting was carried out in a torrential down pour - the forecast said it would be sunny with a few scattered showers! However, by the time we'd tacked up and I'd got on board, the sun came out and it stayed like that for the rest of the day. The farrier who checks all the horses shoes/hooves/boots before starting was convinced the glue-ons would get "sucked off" in all the Yorkshire clay - so off we went to prove him wrong.

Looey was in top form - I'd been warned about a potential "Nike Effect" with the glue-ons from some fellow Endurance Riders who have just started to try them on their horse. Yep, Loo was pinging along with a spring in his step. The endurance rides in North Yorkshire are never a doddle - plenty of hills and varied going of bridleways, farm tracks, field edges, forestry, moorland and a wee bit of roadwork. The views are stunning - I managed to appreciate them on the 2nd 42km loop when Looey had chilled out a bit! The class we had entered was the Drover's Dash 85km ride. It wasn't a endurance race but the class was going to be judged based on the "performance formula" where points are awarded using a calculation based on final resting HR and average speed. This makes it a bit more interesting - being  a wee bit competitive, it means that I was trying to keep our speed up but not take too many risks incase he tweaked himself. The going on the first 42km loop was very slippy - this part of Yorkshire hadn't seen as much rain as we had in Lancashire - the ground was still quite hard, but with all the overnight rain, it had made the surface very slick. It did make riding a more difficult. The worst bit was the last section which had a lot of red clay - it was like a skating rink - I had to ride very tactically and choose the bits with the best traction - Looey nearly lost all 4 feet on a couple of occasions and I nearly went out the side door! We rode the first 42km all on our on - we caught sight of a couple of riders just in front but never caught up with them.

After the first 42km loop we had to go through a vetgate - I wanted to get Looey's HR under 64 ASAP since this is a good way of making up time - the clock keeps ticking until you vet. We untacked him, threw a load of water on him to cool him down and I took his HR which was 60. So we presented to the vet in 4 minutes. We had a break of 30 minutes in which Loo munched on his oats and sugar beet and then we were back out on the same 42km loop. We had caught up to riders who'd been just within view in front of me since Looey had vetted so quickly. We ended up riding along together for the rest of the ride, taking it in turns to lead when the horse in front had switched off. The ground had dried out a lot since the morning which made life a bit easier. When we got back to the venue, we had a 30 minute wait until we had to go to the vetting. . Looey looked fine, so we let him drink and eat and kept walking him round periodically to prevent any stiffness setting in. I also massaged his hamstrings since there were plenty of hills, so he had worked hard. The vetting was a nerve-wrecking experience. The 2 riders I'd ridden with vetted first. 3 vets were watching the horses trot up and they each wrote on a piece of paper whether the horse was lame or not, this was then handed to the Technical Steward who told the rider whether the majority thought their horse was sound - a 3 card trick!! The 2 horses were considered to be lame! It was Loo's turn - his heart rate was under 64, so that's a pass - next was the trot up and then the stomach churning wait for the verdict - it was a unanimous decision - he'd PASSED!! Phew….!!!

So, then we had to await the results of the Performance Formula at the prize-giving. We'd come 3rd out of 7 starters - icing on the cake…the class was sponsored by Bailey's, so we received a feed voucher as well as our rosettes. I was really impressed with Looey on this ride. He answered all the questions I asked of him and completed at a speed of 13.8kph which is pretty good for a challenging ride like this. He's still a young endurance horse and has lots of developing to do yet but he improves on each ride. The glue-ons stayed on and got lots of attention from fellow competitors - including those who shoe their horses. Interestingly, the farrier was seen out on course on a number of occasions, nailing shoes on horses who'd lost them in the sticky, slippy going.
The ride itself was extremely well organised. Heidi Lewis had lots of volunteers opening gates and manning check points. The landowners had gone out of their way to move stock for the weekend, so that gates could be left open and there were lots of them!
And finally, a big "Thank-you" to Trelawne Equine - your advice and sponsorship are really helping to make it happen for us this year!"

Thank you from Trelawne Equine for being such a great ambassador for Barefoot horses and hoof boots

Bertram in his Epics!

Bertram from Denmark is a very happy pony in his epics! His 'mum' wrote to us to say " The little boy walked much better and was almost silly-happy!" when he was fitted with his little pony size 000 Easyboot Epic hoof boots and 12mm comfort pads. Bertram, being so small is between a size pony and 000, but we ended up booting him in a 000 with a pony size cable and 12mm hard pads to ensure the boots stayed on tight and the hoof was in the correct place for a natural breakover. Easyboot Epics are one of the few hoof boots that cater for very small ponies, our own Shetland who is only 7h1 also wears the 000, so there are very few small ponies that cannot be booted! The Easyboot hoof boots with comfort pads in are ideal for ponies suffering from or prone to laminitis as they pads will help to support the internal structures and promote circulation. Shoeing a laminitic horse decreases the blood flow and increases concussion leading to far worse attacks and long term repercussions.

Tevis Through the Eyes of a Sales Guy

The paragraph at the bottom of this post on Easycare's blog pretty much sums up the way we at Trelawne Equine feels about Easycare. We started this company out of our belief that barefoot was the best thing we can do for ours horses, and after a number of years of using and selling a variety of hoof boots, that the Easycare range are the best possible products to help you achieve this. Easycare are totally unique in their knowledge, passion and experience in the field- I don't think any other manufacturer of hoof boots in the world can even begin to claim the same amount of research and sheer hard work has gone into their product! You only have to look at the vast range of boots available from them and see the long list of things people have achieved in Easycare boots to see how different and pioneering this company is.

"This was my second Tevis as a crew member for the Easyboot riders. This year was much easier for me because I knew the area and that is was going to get hot during the day. I also had a better sense of what I should expect from our human/horse teams. Last year there was the fear of the unknown: it was our first Tevis glue-on attempt. 2010 was very different for a number of reasons: there was even more on the line this year. In 2009 Easyboots performed almost flawlessly, so in 2010 not only did we want to repeat our 2009 performance, we wanted build on it

This year Garrett and the EasyCare team booted almost twice as many horses as last year. Because of the way Gloves and Glue ons performed over the past two years it was not a surprise that more people wanted these high performance boots on their horses. Tevis is a grueling 100 mile trek over some of the most rugged terrain in the Sierras and your choice of protection can make or break your experience.

2010 exceeded our expectations. EasyCare had six horses complete in the top 20 and a 59% completion rate vs. only 51% for horses with other forms of hoof care. If those statistics were not impressive enough, Garrett and Lisa moved from 16th and 17th place to 8th and 9th in the last six miles. To top it all off Garrett and The Fury won the Haggin Cup, an award for the horse that is judged to be in the best physical condition the day after the event. The Haggin Cup is viewed by many as the most prestigious award in the endurance world.

I have been with EasyCare for almost four years: it is a great company with amazing support team. I have never in my short lifetime been as proud to be part of something in my professional life. Easycare and are hoof boots are making a difference, we are changing the way people view hoof care. We are creating better lives for horses and offering solutions where  there used to be none. It feels good to be involved with company that is effecting change and making a difference. It was a proud day not only for EasyCare, but also for barefoot horses."

Increase the Longevity of Your Boa Laces

The Boa Horse Boot is a popular choice for Hoof Boot customers in the UK as it is a very quick and easy boot to use. This versatile protective horse boot is easy to install and remove. Keeping your protective horse boots clean will help increase their longevity. Here are some helpful tips to add life to accessories such as Boa Laces:

• Keep them as clean as possible.
• Wipe away any excess dirt or mud from the Boa Laces after each ride.
• If the lace hesitates when tightening the Boa Dial add a little water to loose it up.
• After riding in sand or loose dirt take a small air hose (or even an air-filled keyboard cleaner) and clean them thoroughly.

Of course you always want to make sure the cap is installed properly on your hoof boots. Click here for instructions on making sure you've installed your Boa Cap correctly. Remember you can damage the dial closure system if you don't use your Boa Cap.