Living in the dark ages?

Horses and their owners today are incredibly fortunate in so many ways.

Our horses are not kept in the harsh conditions which are the norm for working animals and their lives as a result are much longer (a typical working horse in Victorian London began work aged 4 or 5 and would only "last" for 4-6 years).

Today, even a really "hard-working" horse in the UK is likely to be exercised only for a few hours per day, with plenty of time off, and we expect our horses to be fit and healthy well into their teens and (increasingly) twenties.

We have access to research on behaviour, biomechanics, exercise, nutrition and disease. Most owners take the opportunity to educate themselves about their horses using the huge amount of information available to us and most strive to ensure their horses' needs are fulfilled.

We can harvest and preserve high quality forage and we have the ability to analyse the nutritional quality of the food our horses eat, feed a bio-appropriate diet and supplement their feed to ensure optimal health.

Horses are typically treated as athletes not workhorses (though arguably we sometimes forget that even the greatest equine athlete is first and foremost a horse). 

Horses today can have massage, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy; they can work on treadmills and walkers and compete on arenas with surfaces designed specifically for a particular discipline. 

Top horses are regularly flown round the world and even a family pony or bog-standard hunter may well have a lorry or trailer designed for his comfortable travel along with a wealth of related equipment.

To a large extent we can and do manage our horses' environments to suit both them and us. Girths and bridles can be ergonomically designed; saddles can be pressure-tested; rugs are made of breathable, lightweight fabrics. Buildings are designed to be well-ventilated with good lighting and even heated wash-down areas. 

We vaccinate our horses against tetanus and ensure they are free of parasites. And when things go wrong there is sophisticated veterinary diagnosis available, perhaps using MRI, ultrasound, scopes and x-rays, with the option of surgery and rehabilitation to give the horse the best chance of recovery.

Nowadays nearly all of us can take good quality slow-motion footage using our phones and as we work our horses, train them, have lessons or compete we have the ability to use video and photos to highlight problem areas and improve both ourselves and our horses.

However, there is one area of horsemanship where we are stuck in the dark ages, using an invasive, poorly-understood technology which is hundreds of years old. Yep, you've guessed it...

Don't misunderstand me - I am well aware that shoes are a useful way of allowing an unhealthy hoof to over-perform. In my opinion that is the deciding factor which ensures the continuing popularity of horseshoes. 

If you have a horse with unhealthy hooves you can enable those hooves to become healthier by addressing the horse's diet and biomechanics but this takes time and effort. By contrast, the single quickest way to achieve a higher level of performance - more miles, tougher terrain - than unhealthy hooves are currently capable of is to put a set of shoes on. 

Like every quick fix, shoes have a number of disadvantages. Recalling my time with shod horses these include a heightened risk of injury (to horse and owner), loss of integrity in the palmar hoof, diminished proprioception and (frequently) impaired biomechanics. 

Shoeing is fast, though - certainly faster than growing a healthier hoof - and, as in Victorian London, you can use shoes when you have no means of improving the health of the hoof. 

Shoes therefore made perfect sense for working horses in Victorian London and before. These horses were required to work for 10-14 hours per day, 6 days a week and could regularly cover 40 miles per day*.  

City horses were kept confined in stalls when they weren't working and outside the air was polluted. Their forage was often dusty and of poor quality and of course there was no way of analysing what might be missing from feed. The long periods of work with no forage can't have done them much good either. 

Horses were almost bound to suffer nutritional deficiencies not to mention respiratory and metabolic challenges (all of which can, as we now know, affect hooves). 

In the circumstances, shoes were an effective way of ensuring that each horse could work for a few short years, regardless of the health of its feet, its management or the state of the roads. 

But technology has moved on (at least in most other areas) and practices that were acceptable in the 19th century are often outdated, unnecessary and primitive today. 

We are so used to shoes that its sometimes hard to see beyond them (I've blogged about this before too because even veterinary academics have this particular blind-spot!) but, as Steve Leigh said to me yesterday, can you imagine what the outcry from welfare groups, let alone vets, would be today if someone proposed, out of the blue, nailing a metal shoe onto a horse's hoof?

In an era when the health and performance of our horses is everything, why do so many of us cling to a shaped piece of metal as a talisman for soundness? In an era when we prefer science and evidence to tradition and hearsay (or like to think we do), what is the reason for this superstitious behaviour?

Its not because shoes are a technological solution, that's for sure.

Proponents of shoes will argue that there is little research on the performance of horses without shoes. To be honest, there is little research on the performance of shod horses either and certainly none which rigorously compares long-term performance between horses who are working shod and barefoot in the same disciplines (which is the evidence we need).

So, if we are short of research, what do we have? My experience, and that of most owners of hard-working barefoot horses, is that hooves are sounder and as a rule function more effectively without shoes. 

I have also seen an awful lot of horses which have previously been shod and had serious lameness issues but which have returned to full work barefoot. 

Of course, the owners of these horses wouldn't dream of shoeing them again (I wouldn't dream of shoeing any of my own horses either) because we have seen that our horses have healthier feet without shoes. 

Interestingly, almost all owners of barefoot horses have extensive experience of working shod horses. By contrast, very few owners of shod horses have extensive experience of working barefoot horses. 

[Note: for some reason, barefoot horses cause emotions to run high among horsey folk. If you come across a wild-sounding claim about horses' feet (particularly online) its always worth exploring whether that person actually has any experience at all in what they are talking about. Most don't...]

Even farriers recognise that hooves benefit from not having shoes on - its just that they believe that horses can't perform without shoes.**

Those of us with barefoot horses have seen with our own eyes the high levels of performance healthy hooves are capable of - seeing is believing, especially as most of our horses had serious soundness problems when shod. 

Shoeing remains a quick, if invasive, way to enhance the performance of a poor foot but it is ill-researched, carries the risk of injury and even the physiological effects aren't clearly understood. 

Of course you can continue to use shoes if that's your preference and if you plan to work your horse 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, 40 miles per day I'd say its advisable (and you should start saving for a new horse now as well).

However, if you aren't tempted by a quick fix and would rather take the option of improving the health of your horse, starting with his feet, then congratulate yourself that you live in an era when its actually possible and start doing something about it!

*www.victorianlondon.org contains excerpts from The Horse World of London (W. J. Gordon, 1893) which provides a fascinating and sometimes horrifying glimpse into the lives of working horses.

**www.farriery.org.uk The Horseshoeing Book (Humphry BVMS, MRCVS, AWCF,1995)

"Riding without shoes can of course save a lot of money in farriers bills. There are other advantages too. Unshod hooves grip the ground fairly well and are able to expand better without the restriction of nails. The frog, being nearer to the ground, is able to take more weight and better fulfill its natural functions of shock absorption and of circulating the blood around the foot. The hooves can also wear more easily in the way that is most comfortable to the horse. Furthermore there is less danger to other horses if there is a kicking match...

It used to be the custom to turn out all types of working horses for a few months during the summer without shoes. This not only gave them a rest and improved their general condition but gave their hooves a chance to grow without being damaged by nails...If your horse is used less at a particular time in the year then consider whether giving it a holiday without shoes might benefit the horse and the feet."