Freedom And Motion Equine Park

14/09/2025

14/09/2025

14/09/2025

10/09/2025

09/09/2025

09/09/2025

We have been saying this for a long time, glad to see some reserch that bears it out!

This is what the barefoot world has been saying for about 15 to 20 years….. but glad it is finally becoming mainstream……..

August 30, 2022
New Research on why Barefoot Horses remain Sounder than Shod Horses
The barefoot movement is growing amongst top professional riders worldwide, and finally a comprehensive Swedish research project is to determine exactly why there are so many benefits from ditching your horse’s iron shoes and going barefoot instead.



By Helle Maigaard Erhardsen



Since the Olympic Gold medallist and World number one in Showjumping Peder Fredricson pulled the shoes of his horses and went barefoot, he has had far fewer issues with lameness, far less injuries to the hooves and lower limbs and not a single hoof abscess. And perhaps needless to say, his horses keep bringing home the gold like never before.



But why is that? For decades hoof rehabilitators and horse owners have experienced extraordinary results with taking previously shod horses barefoot, but there has been very little research done to support these results scientifically.



So far, fragments of larger studies and smaller case studies have proved how iron shoes increase concussion when the horse lands, how iron shoes interrupt the blood supply to the hooves and inhibits the hooves’ ability to contract and expand. And the renowned podiatry researcher Dr. Robert Bowker VMD has even described how shoeing can be the direct cause of caudal heel pain, also referred to as navicular disease.



However, with next to no specific research comparing the performance of a barefoot hoof to a shod hoof, the debate between pro-shoe horse people and anti-shoe horse people have relied mostly on belief, tradition and personal experience. Now, a new comprehensive research project by The Swedish Agricultural University (SLU) and Agria Animal Insurance is well on the way to scientifically determine the difference between the barefoot hoof and the shod horse hoof.

Swedish barefoot study 2022SLU Professor Lars Roepstorff and his team conducting research for the new comprehensive barefoot study with Peder Fredricson performing an empirical riding test in the background.



A Shod Hoof can’t Expand or Contract as much as a Barefoot Hoof



The Swedish research project is led by Professor Lars Roepstorff, who has been collecting data from empirical riding tests and in-depth interviews throughout the past year. The preliminary results from the first phase of data analysis confirms what smaller studies previously have found: Traditional horseshoes do affect the function of the horse’s hooves.

“The iron shoe locks the so-called hoof mechanism especially when landing after obstacles. The shod hoof can’t expand or contract as much as the barefoot hoof because the shoe inhibits lateral movement. It could mean that the blood flow in the shod hooves is inhibited, and this blood flow is important for the hooves to be healthy,” Roepstorff explained to Agria Djurförsäkring.

In this first stage of the study, the researchers have been focussing on measuring the internal movements of the hoof with and without horseshoes. Professor Lars Roepstorff found it particularly interesting to be able to describe the difference in how much the hoof was allowed to contract during the rollover phase:

“When the mechanism of the hoof is described, it’s often said that the hoof expands when it lands on the ground, which is correct. But we also see that the hoof contracts during the rollover phase and that movement is inhibited by horseshoes. That has not been described very well in literature before now,” Lars Roepstorff said.

Further analysis is to be made to draw conclusions on the actual consequences of the hooves moving less with shoes, like how this affects blood circulation, load and shock absorption.

Horseshoe nailsThe new Swedish research has shown that it’s not only the rigid iron shoe itself that inhibits normal, healthy hoof function, but also the way it is fixed to the hoof with nails.



Barefoot Horses are more Cautious where they put their Feet than Shod Horses



One of the advantages that Peder Fredricson has discovered since going barefoot with his top-level showjumping horses, is that the horses now can feel the ground much better and are far more careful with how and where they put their feet. He links this improved ground sensitivity, also known as proprioception, to the less injuries and lameness issues he has had in his horses since he took their shoes off.



“I think that adaptation to the ground conditions is part of keeping the horse’s hooves healthy and strong. Horses don’t see where they put their hooves, they only sense the ground conditions when they have put their hooves in the ground. With shoes, we remove the feeling from the hoof, so they can move unhindered regardless of the ground. Even in those situations where they really should have been a little cautious,” Peder said according to Agria Djurförsäkring.



Moreover, it is Peder’s experience that metal horseshoes can disguise an incipient injury, which makes it difficult to discover a problem before it turns into actual lameness. Differently, a barefoot horse will instantly display any discomfort:



“You can compare it to when we humans walk barefoot across a gravel field. It may look painful before the feet have hardened and adjusted, but when we get to the grass we can walk normally again. You need to learn and understand the difference between what temporary sensitivity is and what is an injury. Horses with shoes can go for a long time with an injury before it is noticed that it is lame,” Peder said.

08/09/2025

08/09/2025

Interesting

07/09/2025

Life at all costs.

I've been guilty of it; keeping a horse alive because I wasn't ready to let him go.
Everyone could see he was suffering and wasn't going to make it, but I clung to the last ounce of life he had in him. I tried everything, various vets, medications, I learnt to stomach tube him water and electrolytes.

We sat together listening to healing frequency music multiple times a day. He held on so long for me, but the bottom line was, he was never meant to stay. Deep down, I knew that too.

It's the stubbornness in me that refused to listen to what my intuition was telling me. The stubbornness that wanted to prove the vets and all of my friends wrong.

I thought at the time that life was what mattered the most, no matter the cost. When I say 'cost,' I don't simply mean the financial cost, although it is a factor, of course. I mean the strain that keeping an animal alive can have on them physically and emotionally.
The more I become open to the idea that most things in life are a lesson or blessing, and to the notion that death is but a shifting of energy from one state to another. The less resistance I feel to making these hard decisions when the decision is in the best interest of the horse.

I've had to make a couple of hard decisions since saying goodbye to Angus. (The horse I've spoken about above).
One a warmblood gelding with randomly explosive behaviour, whom we discovered had ECVM.
And the second was a hypersensitive QH x mare.
Both rehabilitation horses who were given to me.

I've always been a bit of a bleeding heart in this respect, with a background in rehabilitation, the part of me that wants to help horses heal sometimes gets carried away and says yes to horses that I know I should say no to.
Many rehabilitation horses become the heartwarming stories of success.
Others come into my life and reinforce the lesson that I seemingly continue to repeat. "You can't save them all, Tori!"
The irony of it is that often, I know from day one which horses are likely to improve and flourish.

Deciding on behalf of another is never easy, especially an animal that doesn't speak the same language....
However, this phrase is also key; they do not speak the same language, but they are constantly communicating, albeit through actions rather than words.

My WB was communicating via his randomly out-of-the-blue erratic behaviour, and my QH was in a constant state of hypersensitiveness.

Making the decision to end their life wasn't an easy one, but I knew it was the right one.

Why?

As humans, we cling very strongly to life.
For many people, even if they have beliefs in life after death. Dying is scary because it's unfamiliar and unexplored. You can't visit and see what it's like and then return. It's a one-way street.

We tend to project our uncertainty and fear of death onto our animals.
At times, keeping them alive when our intuition is telling us otherwise.... but does this mean quality of life?

As times become tougher in the economy, people are struggling to afford the costs to maintain those extra horses.
The elderly ones, the unsound ones, the ones with medical needs that require careful management, and of course, the "difficult horses".
There is an influx of them at online auctions, horse deals, and Facebook, often listed as "free to good home".
If you are going to re-home a horse, I think it's good to keep in mind that just because you wrote "good home only" in the advertisement, it doesn't mean that the horse will end up in a suitable home. Some of these horses will surely flourish with a new life and new owners.
Unfortunately, not all will be lucky enough to meet the same happy fate. Many become lost in the system and spend a lifetime enduring much worse than humanity's perception of death.

Letting a horse cross over the rainbow bridge in the peace of their own home, surrounded by people and animals who love them, at times, is kinder than many other fates.

I'm certainly not saying that saying goodbye is always the right decision, but I do feel that at times as humans we pass the responsibility of a "problem horse", "unsound horse" or "old horse" onto someone else because there is too much guilt and second-guessing of whether or not you are making the right decision, associated with saying goodbye.

The answer we often find deep within ourselves, behind the layers of ego and fear.

06/09/2025

06/09/2025