Page 125 - February 2017

TO SHOE OR NOT TO SHOE...
Can Racehorses Go Barefoot?
“We don’t shoe the young horse until he needs it.”
by Heather Smith Thomas
Agrowing number of horses today are stay- ing barefoot as owners realize unshod feet can be healthier than having shoes on all the time. Some barefoot pleasure horses and trail horses are never shod. Some are ridden with hoof boots, but many are ridden barefoot and can with- stand the stresses that we used to think could only be handled with shoes. But what about racehorses? Their feet have to withstand a lot of stress and some owners are reluctant to run them without shoes, yet many young racehorses today are started in their first races barefoot.
Bill Casner, who previously co-owned WinStar Farms in Kentucky, and who now raises racehorses on his ranch near Flower Mound, Texas, prefers to leave young horses barefoot as long as possible. “Personally, I never put shoes on our yearlings or 2 year olds until they are very near a race. I feel this gives the young horse every opportunity to develop a stronger and larger foot. I have found that they deal with being barefoot very well and unless you trim them too close, they won’t get ‘footy’. We don’t shoe the young horse until he needs it.” says Casner.
Casner starts handling his yearlings early on and has various programs to start getting them fit, even before they are ridden. He also pays close attention to their feet. “We handle their feet regularly at a young age, picking them out and keeping them properly trimmed, so they develop a well-balanced foot and
it gets them used to someone working on their feet.” Casner explains.
Bill Casner, with his wife Susan, was the previous co-owner of WinStar Farms in Kentucky and now raises racehorses on his ranch near Flower Mound, Texas. Casner prefers to leave young horses barefoot as long as possible to give them every opportunity to develop a larger, stronger foot.
Steve Norman, a Kentucky farrier who shoes a lot of racehorses, says the most important thing is doing the best job for each horse by making them as comfortable and happy as possible so they can get through a particular race or series of races. With young horses just started in training or run- ning their first races, he generally prefers to leave them barefoot.
“With the young horses that you are just starting to ride, 99% of them are barefoot. There may occa- sionally be one with a specific problem like a club foot or some other condition that might need shoes early. Shoes on a young horse wouldn’t be so much for traction as for protection—to try to get a better foot and have it more sound two or three months later,” he explains.
“You really want these young horses to stay barefoot as long as you can because once we do shoe them, they are generally in shoes for the rest of their racing career—whether it be one year
or four years or longer. If the owner or trainer takes them out of shoes, it’s generally not long enough to have that foot come back strong and healthy enough to run barefoot. When they put that horse back in training they put shoes back on, but I love to keep them out of shoes as long as possible,” says Norman.
“It’s really hard to keep an older racehorse out
of shoes for the simple reason that if you don’t give them time to grow enough foot and create a callous (tougher/stronger area of weight-bearing), the foot won’t hold up. The hoof needs enough time to create more strength within the hoof capsule to maintain the integrity of that foot.” It takes some time for the foot to adjust to being barefoot after having shoes on because the foot needs time to toughen up again after being protected from wear.
Steve Norman, a farrier in Kentucky, has years of experience working with race horses and maintaining their feet.
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