Barefoot driving

Of course its not just ridden horses that can do well barefoot, its equally good for driving horses - in fact perhaps even more so, as they obviously do an even larger proportion of their work on roads.

Once hooves are healthy, roadwork (ridden or driven) provides great stimulus and there are the added benefits of having better traction barefoot and the fact that a strong digital cushion and functioning frog provide excellent shock-absorption, protecting legs from concussion.

These 2 great driving photos are both taken of competition horses - the top one sent to me by Carol Wilkson, of her lovely horse in a trade showing class, with an old-fashioned ice-cream van! Paul Jackson, one of the UKNHCP farriers, looks after this horse's hooves, and they are apparently causing quite a stir among the driving fraternity in Cheshire :-)
The lower photo is the marathon section of a driving trial - the wheeled equivalent of the cross-country phase in eventing - and pictures the go-faster Campbell family with one of their barefoot Gelderlanders :-)