Chief has been shod for most of his life, his teacup feet were thrushy and he had severely compressed
frogs. A farrier, who had already been
paid to care for his feet prior to his adoption, was instead tasked with
removing his shoes. The farrier put out
by the suggestion that shoes weren’t the best option for a horse informed Chris’s
that her other horses were living in pain.
Rather than asking about horses in the wild Chris declined to get into a
debate.
Shoes for humans evolved out of necessity, whether it was to
simply keep them warm, to make them faster or to protect their feet from uneven
terrain. While barefoot running movement
may be taking hold in the western world we forget is that there are people in
the world who still live their lives shoeless, from the plains of Africa to loamy
jungles of South America. Just like
there are horses that have never had metal against their feet.
Chief received his first pasture trim last week, probably
the first time nothing was nailed into his foot he didn’t seem nervous about the
prospect of being barefoot. When I
lifted his feet this Sunday there was already improvement, I could actually
find his frog.
After a standard grooming we entered the large arena for
some ground work. I didn’t have plan for what I was going to do on the ground
other than matching feet. We started out
walking with me on both sides. His right
is still iffy, if he loses momentum he questions if it’s ok or not for me to be
there. Not wanting to have him actually
think too hard about it I keep him moving for several feet then switch sides so
it doesn’t become negative.
On his back, I decided I wanted to practice turning, doing
diagonals and making circles. Chief can
easy walk a five meter circle without feeling unbalanced. He can change direction
easily and hug the rail without much effort on my part.
He did however return to the gate several times and I had to
insist that it was not ok to attempt to walk through it. He told me several times that he was done but
I made him do just a little bit more each time and he would forget that he was
ready to stop and he is starting to relax more, his lips are still a bit tight
but he is actually expecting stable mix as a treat instead of the coveted
apples and sugar.
Next week we will work on some dressage patterns and I want
to work on getting him to cross his legs on the ground.