I have a Hunter Pleasure mare that is currently barefoot. She has nice feet and I was wondering if it will count against her if I show her this way...?

I show all my horses barefoot, unless they have a specific reason they need shoes. I've been conflicted whether to add pads for main ring nationals if the horse finishes up his qualifications--but recently decided to take him to sport horse nationals instead...which kind of made it a moot point as I'll keep him barefoot there.

I can't see barefeet being held against a horse if he goes as he should for his discipline. I would see more problems in hunter pleasure since most of those horses carry some big pads and shoes and that creates different motion than barefoot.

My old gelding was a lovely mover with super hard feet. He did not need shoes to get around, but because of the variable quality of footing from show to show, I did keep his front feet shod to help protect them and to assist with traction on different surfaces.

If your mare is a pleasant, expressive mover without shoes then leave them off. Do bear in mind though that MR hunters do not show true hunter motion due in part to the oversized shoes.

Whats an "MR" Hunter?

Hello all,
I was watching a half arab hunter class this weekend when a question popped into my poor little head....(uh-oh here she goes stirring the discussion pot again!)
I wonder if some of our trends have been brought about by the predominace of the NSH in our half arab english classes.
The NSH tends to be a more extravagant mover. We have become accustomed to seeing bigger, rounder moving horses in half arab CEP, show hack, and hunter. Have we been unconsiously (or otherwise) been trying to make our purebreds perform the same as or more than what the halfs are doing? Could that account for why our MR (main ring) hunters have to move so high and round to be successful? How much impact have the NSH type horses had in half arabian Sport Horse divisions?
Don't get me wrong, I am not slamming the NSH, but I am now curious as to how the NSH picture may , or may not have affected the purebred trends.
Any comment?

I couldn't agree more, and that's a great observation. They have to have someplace to put the CEP/EP/Park "washouts" and I think they figured that would work, but it's truly changed everything. It's even changed our WP horses. I never thought of it that way, but you're completely right!

Your Youth National Champion HA Park horse won without a shoe this year. Just kept on goin after it fell off. She was still the clear winner.

That's very cool, but could she have won completely barefoot?

Yes, but I think that she would have lamed herself barefoot. Park action isn't exactly kind on the feet/legs. Just like a person running barefoot or in flip flops, it will mess up your legs without proper footware, right?

Action is action. Park is higher, rounder action, enhanced by heavy shoes. I'm thinking that without the shoes, we don't have park. But this is just a personal opinion of mine, having watched arabs and saddlebreds...

I worked at a Saddlebred farm and had the chance to see that these horses do in fact have natural, high, round motion, and on the correct horses that already have a natural bent towards moving like that, Park does exist. I've seen some great Arabs barefoot as well. If they don't naturally move high and round, no amount of weight will make them move like that. Weight is meant to enhance. However, I do think, as I've said, we've taken it all to extremes and Park motion is unattainable and most of those horses are freaks of nature.

Too funny - when the soles of my feet are tough enough (which they aren't now) barefoot always seemed easier. (All walkers and joggers should read this article.) As for shoes on our horses, other than protecting feet that live in sawdust from getting unsightly chips and/or stone bruises, what do we think that we are protecting them from? My current gelding has never worn shoes, has feet like rock, and is a perfectly sound CEP/trail horse. If I was serious about showing again, I could get more elevation with shoes, but they aren't worth fooling with since I have "retired" to ride (and maybe show) just for the fun or it all.

At Nationals a few years ago. My girl friend placed 2 top tens in Dressage. The stewart asked my to take the horse to the farriers mat. I did and the farrier could not get over the fact, the horse did not have shoes at nationals.

I show all of my jumpers barefoot.And I've never had any probalems with them.

I thnk it's a matter of both preference and practicality. I have a NSH gelding who I keep shod when I show because he has white feet which chip very easily...when I'm not showing I have to make sure I don't miss trimmings because he will tear his feet up pacing if I'm even a minute late feeding! He's just really hard on his feet for some reason...*Noble Lord, my mare, and her filly have great feet and they are barefoot all the time. I only shod *NL in the front when I took him to Scottsdale this year. I plan on showing him sport horse next year where I will probably keep him barefoot!