# Barefoot on the Trail in Washington?



## Pinto Pony (Jul 28, 2008)

I guess it depends on the horse. My friends in RI, what I believe to be the rockiest place on the planet haha, have trail horses. One is shod cause his feet are terrible and chip and crack away but the QH goes barefoot on the trails without a problem. We got over lots of rocky ground, through creeks and nice fields.
I also have used the "Old Mac Boots" here in Australia with my boys, we mainly have clay/hard ground trails, sand and some pebbly areas on the trails I frequent. I find the Old Macs are great for the pebbly areas in keeping stones out of their frogs plus my ponies seem to be rather tender footed on rocky areas but will power through with their booties on!


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## Eolith (Sep 30, 2007)

Why hello there! I'm a fellow Seattle area resident. When we got our pony, she was originally barefoot, but after a while it appeared that she was getting a little "ouchy" on the gravel and rocks. We decided to have her shod, and she's been shod regularly since. Granted, we haven't had any barefoot farriers, but that was our experience. I have been told that because good old western WA is as wet and muddy as it is, it tends to soften hooves and make them more tender. I could be wrong, but that's what I've heard. If you are a firm believer in barefooting it, boots may be necessary a bit more often. I'd also keep a fairly regular regime with picking out hooves, since they often get packed with wet mud which doesn't really do them much good and can set them up for thrush issues.

How are you liking Seattle so far? Wet? Well... a little bit snowy lately. Summers are pretty darn fantastic though. July and August are the best, and the somewhat dreary winters pay off for some brilliantly stunning green days. The trails are gorgeous, too.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

Have you used the easy boots yet? Our girls are all barefoot, but I have just recently "borrowed" my husbands horses' epics. I love them. We rode last weekend through nasty sticky sucking mud up over the top of the boots and they stayed put. I'm very impressed with them. I think I'd just use the boots rather than go to a shoe.


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## Trails (Jan 28, 2009)

We haven't made the plunge yet on boots. Still weighing the different options available. Easyboots, marquis, Cavallo, etc. they all want your money and lots of it. So far their hoofs don't seem to be too much worse for the damp weather. They got trimmed this past weekend and they seemed ok. 

I do want to keep them barefoot if I can. That being said if not shoeing mmeans not riding, well then they get new nail holes every 6 weeks. We have them to ride not look at after all.

So far so good for Seattle! Snowing here today - I still remember our realtor saying that it never snows here. I think we bought the cold with us from Ohio!

Really looking forward to summer and hitting the trails with the horses, we've been doing a lot of hiking (alert - website plug: here are some of the places we've hiked recently). 
We rode with a Mounted Search and Rescue Unit in Ohio and would like to join one out here. Need to get better used to Washington first though!

Trails
Owner
www.trailmeister.com


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

You can sometimes find the boots used. For a much cheaper price. I have one used one and one new one.


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## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

It all depends on what kind of trails you ride, how long you ride when you are out for a ride, and how often you ride. I ride some of the roughest trails on earth. I can ride any of my horses barefoot for a one day ride anywhere. But I can't ride 2-3-4 days in a row on these kind of trails. If I ride then give them a couple of days off they are fine.

I'd seriously look at the new Easyboot Gloves. The eval boots my barefoot farrier had looked really neat and were a snap to put on and take off.

From the mountain trails











To the deserts of Southern Utah









A quick trim before we head down the trail.










My friends and I all ride barefoot.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

Those photos are a true testament to a good barefoot trim. 
The first photo is similar to some areas in the Ozark region of Ark.and Ok. 
The area we bought the boots for. We are going to our state horse expo today, I'm very interested in getting a look at the new gloves.


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## Dumas'_Grrrl (Apr 2, 2008)

Hello from the Ozark region of Arkansas!!! :lol: We have some nasty terrain as Vida pointed out and never did I have an issue with our 2 QH's having ouchie feet.

I'm a barefoot believer and never shod the horses while we had them. Boots are an investment (GAH they're SO expensive)....BUT, if you compare the cost of the boots to shoeing and then add in the peace of mind of healthy feet...They're worth it. 

I don't have a brand to recommend as we didn't need to use them. Sorry 'bout that.

I'd look around for used ones as was already stated or just take the plunge cough up the $$$.

Good Luck and I hope Seattle treats you well!!!


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## booner (Aug 17, 2008)

I live in WA and know how rough the trails can be.The rocks breed like rabbits.I wish our horses could go barefoot but hubbies QH hoofs crack and break and my horse has such tender footsies so we shoe.Its what works for us. Welcome.


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## Eolith (Sep 30, 2007)

One thing you've got to love is that we get so little snow that two to three inches is grounds for school closures. We have been getting more wacky weather lately... I'm not even going to start to speculate why.

I'm familiar with several of the hikes you listed on your website. They're tons of fun! Have you ever hiked down to Snoqualmie Falls? That's gorgeous. There's another one that was my absolute favorite as a kid during the summers... Franklin Falls. We would go there and wade in the river and have all sorts of fun... though a bit on the cold side. ^_^ Franklin Falls isn't quite as massive as the Twin Falls or Snoqualmie Falls. It's really nice on a hot day because you get the slight misting from it as you're messing around near the river.

*cough* To return to the topic of shoeing vs. barefoot... it's really up to you. There's lots of people who are die-hard "au natural" and may claim that shoeing is detrimental, but I think if you get a good farrier who knows what they're doing, you're just as likely to have a lame barefoot horse as a lame shod horse. I'm sort of a middle of the road type I guess. I could easily go either way depending on what I feel really works best with the specific horse in the specific circumstances. Oh, and if you ever get to the point that you're considering having your horses shod, I know of a few farriers around here.


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## Trails (Jan 28, 2009)

WOW!!! - The trail pictures! I don't know if we'll have those kinds of trails in WA but I'm looking forward to finding out. Love your pics. Your terrain in so much more severe than what we're used to back in OH where we had mostly mud and creeks!


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## Trails (Jan 28, 2009)

Oops - I go so wrapped up with the trail pics i didn't read further down!

Yes the snow. I vividly remember during the house hunting trips our realtor saying "it never snows in Seattle" than we get stuck over Christmas. Compared to OH I do much prefer it here though. 

Yes, we've been to Snoqualmie Falls it's very pretty. We actually live on the ridge just above the falls. I run the dog down almost to the falls everyday. A good friend mentioned Franklin Falls earlier this week, I'm going to find it next weekend I hope! Thanks for checking out the website!

We're in middle of the same road as you. Would prefer not to shoe but not a die hard about it. I'll do what it takes to keep them comfortable and sound on the trails out here. 

BTW - I'm glad I found this forum - Thanks to everyone for their thoughts


Trails
www.trailmeister.com


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## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

Did you say 3" of snow will close school.
It's an old picture I had to dig out. But you get the idea.









I trim my own horses and have the farrier stop by once every 12 weeks or so to make sure I'm doing OK.

Last fall we used the horses a lot for hunting. The canyon we had to ride up had washed out in a flash flood and was in very bad shape. The old loggin road that had been there for 70 years was now gone.









Since we were up and down that trail daily while hunting. I tried some Sole Guard from Vettec. It's ureathan product that put on the bottom of the hoof. It offers some protection from the rocks. It stayed n place for about two weeks. And it was pretty wet weather during that period. My horses did great with it. No ouchie feet. And I didn't have to put on and take off boots. Give them a good trim and while the feet are clean & dry apply the Sole guard. It only lasted about two weeks. So it's kinda pricey to use all summer. But it worked well for me when I knew I would be working the horses a lot on bad trails for just a couple of weeks.

As you can see this was pretty rocky and nasty trail










But there is nothing quite like being on top of the mountain as the sun comes up.


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## Grahamstephani (Sep 22, 2007)

Can't really help you much on the decision of barefoot vs. shod because my 3yo isn't out on the trails yet and you don't need shoes in a soft and cushy arena, but I agree with Eolith. It's hard to give advice when you don't actually know the horse. There's too many variables to account for. Maybe try waiting for summer and testing out the trails to see how your horses fare before you make the decision? Anyways, I just wanted to say "hi" to fellow Washingtonians. I'm about 40 miles north of Seattle.


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## Pinto Pony (Jul 28, 2008)

Painted Horse, those are amazing photos. You got more info of that snow pic? How much snow was it, looks like 12 or more feet!!! Where was it at and when was it?


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## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

I owned that black truck back in 1980 - 1981. so it had to be one of those two years. It was along side the road where the snow plows had kept the road cleared all winter. So nobody dug through that much snow all at once. They probably cleared 2-3 feet every storm. So the road stayed open but the snow along the side of the road piled up.

It was up near one of the ski resort if I remember right. We get a lot of snow here at home, but it melts off between storms and never accumulates like that, So it had to be at a higher elevation. Alta and some of the other Utah resorts boast about getting at 500 inches of snow each year and everybody remembers the years when they get 800+ inches. So even with the melting and compressing of snow weight you could have 10-12 feet of snow still hanging around in late March.


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## Pinto Pony (Jul 28, 2008)

Wow, that is alot of snow and I love the old pic!  Thanks for the info on it


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