Do horses slp on roads more with shoes?

[Anro]

I was just wandering if they slip on roads easer with shoes than with out?

[Wally]

They can slip with or without shoes, generally, depending on the road surface shoes make it slippier for them. Road nails help a great deal, as do small road studs.

[Anro]

emm what are road nails or road studs?

[Wally]

Road nails are special nails that have a hard metal core which doesn't wear at the same rate as the rest of the shoe or nails, so you kind of have runninf spikes, but only teeny ones, which help with grip.

Studs are put into the shoe by the farrier, they are made of a similar hard metal that doesn't wear as fast, they must be put in two per shoe, so they are level.

[Shannon_Clover]

I found this natural racehorse training website that show a video of barefoot racehorse and shod racehorse.

Found out about him on TV horse Tails.

http://www.horsesfirstracing.com/index.asp?PageID=7

Hope this helps.

[Anro]

thanks Geri kerry and Wally

[MelanieD]

I've ridden fatty shod and barefoot on the same roads, she can trot down hills barefoot (her idea, not mine) that she'd have to walk very carefully down when she was shod and would still slip sometimes.

Slipping depends on the type of shoe used, and road nails or studs do help but have never found any shoe give better grip on roads than bare feet.

[capalldubh]

I think slipping also depends on road surface, weather conditions, wear on shoes and how tired the horse is - there are a few stretches of road around me (downhill) where I always find it a bit scary, the horse's back legs seem to be constantly slipping from under us :eek: It is better - strangely enough - if it has recently rained.

This definitely doesn't happen with unshod horse - he is glued to the road :)

The only time I have found my unshod horse slipping is when he steps on a metal manhole cover - not the sort of knobbly ones, the smooth ones that have been polished to a shine by lots of cars going over them. He just steps around them now...

[artemis]

I use the road nails as I have a lot of hills to negotiate & in very hot weather roads seem to get very slippy. They are a great help.

[Roofio]

not quite the same as we're not up to roadwork anytime soon, but every morning, without fail when i get J out of bed he slips with his back feet on the concrete. He is shod behind and bare in front.

he also slips occasionally with his back feet when he's got his boots on and we're on our way out to the field.

[Yann]

There's a section of road we regularly hack which was positively dangerous if Rio didn't have road nails in all four feet but she's velcroed to it now without them :) Hoof boots are pretty secure on there too.

[varkie]

I wouldn't like to generalise, but can only give my own experience. I have ridden the roads I ride now on both shod & barefoot horses. Our yard is on the top of a fairly steep hill, one road down is particularly unpleasant. The shod horses have generally had road nails or studs in, and riding them down the hill was always very unpleasant - slipping every few paces. And I rode many different horses too. The surface is the same as ever it was, but nowadays I ride barefoot horses, and in the whole hill, will only get one or two slips. I feel much more confidant on a barefoot as opposed to shod horse on tarmac hills.

[Abserd]

I think slipping also depends on road surface, weather conditions, wear on shoes and how tired the horse is - there are a few stretches of road around me (downhill) where I always find it a bit scary, the horse's back legs seem to be constantly slipping from under us :eek: It is better - strangely enough - if it has recently rained.

This definitely doesn't happen with unshod horse - he is glued to the road :)

The only time I have found my unshod horse slipping is when he steps on a metal manhole cover - not the sort of knobbly ones, the smooth ones that have been polished to a shine by lots of cars going over them. He just steps around them now...

I'm the same, get quite scared when we go down hill, which we seem to have to do quite often on our hacking routes. Same with manhole covers. That feeling as their back legs slip always shakes me up. My riding position has improved so i tend to feel safer than i used to be it still really unnerves me. They can slip on tarmac, or the quite stoney track we sometimes go on and it's downhill a lot of the way. All the riding horses are shod. The only one that isn't, doesn't go on hacks. I'd be interested to ride a barefoot horse, just to see the difference.

[KateWooten]

It's much less slippy on a barefoot hoof. It's not just the wall of the hoof which is grippier than metal, but also because the frog can be pressed into service as a brake - just like the rear brake on roller-blades - exactly the same. With his hoof shod, he's denied access to his brake. That's scary.

[Forever Fern]

Fern slips terribly with shoes on, she has borium welded into her back shoes to help her, she doesnt slip at all with no shoes on but unfortunately she gets very foot sore.
xXx

[Chip]

With ours we have noticed that they slip a lot when shod, but very rarely - infact, I don't think ever - when unshod. We only have one shod now though, the rest are unshod.

[CurlyWurlyRach]

my horse slipped right over and landed splayed across the road on her side when barefoot.

[Yann]

I think it will depend on the state of the foot - if the wall and or heels are long and the frog isn't doing its proper job for whatever reason you won't have that much better grip than with a shoe on. With a good foot the difference is unmistakeable.

[Libbyo]

We have tunsden pins in Pinnochios shoes as he skids all over the roads round us without.

[holiday]

Our roads are lethal without shoes, especially anything that is quite big moving, ive had 3 falls over the last year, the last one leaving me in hospital and off riding for nearly 3 months, all of ours have road nails (tunsted tips) all round, our roads are better when its hot as the surface is softer and nails dig in better, or as mentioned above when its rained. Cold weather is dreadful.

Ive had our council out and hopefully the surface is due to be re dressed shortly (depending on funds obviously) i now only hack out a select few of mine i tried hacking out the horse that fell on me a few weeks ago and had to turn round and come back both ways out of our yard on down very slippy pieces of road. I spoke to our local riding school a week ago and they are having the same problems which made me feel a bit better, she wont let some of her horses/ponies out on hacks as they struggle.

Its a nightmare!!!!! Ive hunted for 6 years and crossed alot of country and now darent even hack out how stupid................

[happyhacker101]

Echo depends on the road - our pony had a nasty fall just over a month ago due to road surface - very new and very slippy - both he and the rider were lucky to get away with a few cuts as he actually went down and then over on his side - the rider was lucky to get out of the way as soon as pony hit the ground - we avoid that bit of road now.

[Tots N Dots]

I have found in general round our way that we are better without shoes? I took Sash out on a frosty morning, we passed several horses doing a Bambi impression, but she never slipped once.
I certainly wouldnt want to be jumping in wet/muddy conditions though.
my last 3 horses have all gone barefoot and I have felt that we have a lot better footing on or off road.