| What do you look for in a horse? Is it Breed? Is it | | | | six week rotation, you will pay more than $400 per |
| color? Is it size? Is it conformation? How about the | | | | year and around $325 per year on an eight week |
| hooves? The old saying "No hoof - no horse" is | | | | rotation. What if your horse doesn't need shoes? Can |
| undeniably true. You can't saddle up and ride a horse | | | | you use $325 or $400 each year? With this money |
| with sore feet. | | | | you could buy a new saddle or go on another trail ride |
| Until recently, I didn't think much about hooves as being | | | | or fix that broken corral gate. |
| a primary determinant for selecting a horse. You just | | | | But how do you find a horse with such hooves? |
| keep the horse shod with new shoes every six to | | | | Unfortunately, I don't have a reliable method of doing |
| eight weeks and pick whatever breed, color, size, or | | | | this. I have seen a fair number of horses and Captain |
| conformation you want. Just feed-em, shoe-em, saddle | | | | Morgan is the only horse I've been associated with |
| up and ride. | | | | hooves like these. I mentioned this to Charlie, the guy |
| Then, I started noticing my five-year-old Morgan horse | | | | who shoes my other horses and he said he had once |
| (Captain Morgan). Captain's hooves must be as hard | | | | owned such a horse. His expression was "never shod |
| as steel. We live in an area with rocky soil. Rocks | | | | and never struck the ground with a sore hoof". Charlie |
| protrude through the surface of the ground at some | | | | said this type of hoof was sometimes called "mule |
| places. Some places rocks cover the ground. Some | | | | hooves". In fact, I own a mule with such hooves and |
| places the ground is covered with cobbles and small | | | | this mule has gone to the same trail rides as Captain |
| boulders. Captain Morgan's hooves have never been | | | | Morgan, also unshod. But not all mules have such |
| shod or even trimmed yet they look as they have | | | | hooves. Charlie owns a really good mule with hooves |
| recently been trimmed (I do examine the hooves and | | | | that require shoes for rough terrain. |
| clean away the dirt and rocks that may be lodged in | | | | Mustangs live in the wild without shoes. Everyone who |
| the grooves). I have taken him on trail rides through the | | | | has ever watched an old western movie knows that |
| Ozarks in Missouri, the Kiamichi mountains in Oklahoma, | | | | the Comanche, Apaches, Sioux, or whatever nation of |
| the Texas Hill Country and other rocky areas with no | | | | indigenous Americans rode horses without shoes. How |
| damage occurring to the hooves. My other horses are | | | | did these horses manage to cover all manner of |
| APHA paints. Their hooves will not hold up to this | | | | terrain without shoes? Is it natural selection? That is, |
| treatment. In fact, the paints frequently lose a shoe or | | | | horses with good hooves survived while horses with |
| two before being re-shod. | | | | inferior hooves perished and were eliminated from the |
| Around here (Northeast Oklahoma), I usually pay $50 | | | | gene pool. I don't know the answer to this but I plan to |
| to $55 each time I have a horse shod. You may pay | | | | research the matter. |
| more or less in your area. If your horse is shod on a | | | | |