Just checking out peoples experience and opinions on this? I ride a friends pony as and when i can, she is only used for hacking and the majoroty of it is offroad, we were talking about it the other day but dont know anyone that actually does it

my sister had a 10.2 shetland and she wasn't shood but she was only riden very lightly and she never had any problems, i think it all depends on size and how often there riden.

just re-read your thread, do you mean the pony or you? i can't imagine you would have much control riding barefoot but i've never tried it

Have 7 native ponies and they are all barefoot,my farrier says unless you are doing lots of work out on the road they dont need it,and I have to say none of mine have any problems

I know people who don't shoe their horses, it does depend on lifestyle and what the horse does etc

Also if you mean you being barefoot i have doen this too! I used to do it when i was doing a 'beach run' in the Summer! We always went in the water so i went barefoot!

Its not advised if there is a distance though. When i did it the beach was right across from where Cobalt was kept.

__________________
LOADING CRAZINESS..
████████████]
99% complete..

(-: plɹoʍ ʎʌɹnʇ ʎsdoʇ ʎɯ uı uo ƃuıoƃ ɥɔnɯ os 'uoos ǝɯıʇʎuɐ ʞɔɐq ǝq ll,ı ɟı ʍouʞ ʇ,uop 'ʞɐǝɹq pǝpuǝʇxǝ uɐ ƃuıʞɐʇ ɯɐ ı

Do you mean you yourself riding barefoot? Sure, why not? Did it quite often - as a previous poster said, great fun when there is water, or just to hack.

Not sure why you would have less control riding barefoot? I was taught to ride without reigns by my maverick teacher - the idea being that you stir by positioning your weight (not with your boots ) - went on to train and compete in dressage, and his mad ways always stood me in good stead.

Sorry i should have made it clear, horse barefoot not me hehe She looks like a native type...no one knows for sure what she is as she was basically a rescue, bought from travellers 6 years ago in a terrible state She is chunky with lots of bone and very hardy, shes a beauty Most of the time she is in light work, hacking two or three times a week but this increases in summer...maybe it could be a seasonal option

Thought that was a bit of an odd one!

haha, reading it back it dosent make much sense!

If the pony has never been fitted with shoes & it's hooves are in good condition, I don't see why not, if it does only have light work & not much of it on hard ground. I think I would ask the farriers advice though.

__________________


Best wishes, Val.

I know many horses who are kept barefoot, usually native types cope better and if they've never been shod usually it can be quiet easy to keep them. I tried Kane but because he's been shod since a youngster his hooves just weren't able to cope. You can get equine Podiatrists who are trained in keeping a horse barefoot, but many people just work with their farrier. Of course the horses still need trimming every 6 weeks and sometimes they can struggle with too much road work, but generally there isn't much a shod horse can do any different to a barefoot.