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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] Horses hooves

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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: "IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN" <ilichten1@verizon.net>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Horses hooves
  • Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:37:41 -0500

It is again an individual thing.  When I got my current horse almost 20 years ago, he had on road plates because he was young and was bought originally for a harness team.  Over the years my farrier got him from totally custom shoes to #4 KB, with some mods (studs, Borium, #8 nails).  When my doctor put me on the ground for a while we let him go bare in the paddock and he held up remarkably well on the dirt.  Experiments with snow pads didn’t work early on.  As I begin to take him out on the rocks and mud again we will see how he holds up. He loves asphalt so shoes may go on again.

 

One of our members is a farrier who has developed a polymer shoe, Hoof Armor.  You paint it on. Seems to work well as an alternative to iron.  As with anything associated with MSAR it is the match of the horse, rider, and gear that works for the pair.  It all comes down to the overall shape of the hoof, how it wears on the surfaces you ride on, do you need additional grip or anti-skid, do you get chips, cracks, or bruises.  

 

Good team management avoids mandating shoes, boots, or style of riding. All you want is what works for that member on that horse. The only time uniformity counts is in a parade.  Our only rule is that you ride on something with stirrups, and that is because we had a candidate who wanted to work bareback and couldn’t stay on in rough going (one rode my Percheron with just a pad and stayed on,  but she was a trainer and doesn’t have a horse at the moment).

 

Irv Lichtenstein

SE PA SAR

 


From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Steve de Lyra
Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2009 9:04 AM
To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [MSAR] Horses hooves

 

Very interesting discussion about saddles.  But here is a question which will make that discussion seem tame.

 

Shoes, barefoot or boots - that is the question.?

 




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