Environment
This is probably the most difficult part of any discussion around keeping horses naturally barefoot. A sensitive horse that is struggling on pasture will struggle just as much barefoot as they do shod - but the shoes may be masking considerable discomfort.
Often you can see the changes in the concavity of a horse's foot as the spring or Autumn flush comes in - the sole can flatten out and perhaps a ridge can be seen on the hoof a month or so later. The horse's soundness may be compromised in small ways, reluctance over rougher ground, napping, reluctance to go forward.
A great deal of attention is focussed on
track systems which use a variety of surfaces from local rock, pea gravel, road planings and sand to create a supportive, abrasive and dry surface for horses. Track systems represent the ideal, but for most of us keeping our horses in livery in a wet and very green Great Britian, this is an unrealistic expectation and we have to make do with what we have.
The key is improvising. We have made a grass free turnout area for our laminitic ponies out of a well drained piece of waste ground - we have a haike for the hay and a water supply. It's not as big as we would like it to be, but it is functional and works for them. My other horse lives out with the other geldings at pasture.
The track approach has a hidden upside - it allows you to use otherwise unusable poor land and I have seen track systems going through wooded areas and rough waste ground. The other up side is that it keeps the fields for growing hay or haylage rather than buying it in!
Stabling your Horse
Stables are like cages. They provide a secure safe environment to contain a horse. There is a time and place for stabling a horse - for instance during particularly severe weather, when they are injured or sick and movement needs to be restricted, when they need to be kept inside because work is being done on the paddock.
A stabled horse has little opportunity to move naturally and will become stiff. Horses standing on a hard surface like concrete, in dirty bedding containing ammonia will have poorer hooves, weaker heels, flatter soles and possibly thrush or white line problems.
Many stabled horses develop what we call stereotyical behaviour such as head shaking, door chewing and box walking. They may do this to relieve boredom, deal with the stress of being movement restricted, or may simply be walking around the box to relieve acheing muscles and numb joints and feet. In extreme cases, the stress of being stabled can cause a horse to throw itself against the walls.
My horses love their stables - it's where they come to get fed, tacked up, gromed or simply to have quality one on one friendly time. They know that they will get back out to the field and their mates when we have completed our work for the day.
Horses are a herd animal and function best when they can express normal social behavoiur and have as much time in the pasture or track as possible to form friendships and occupy their place in the herd. The best environment for a horse to have is where they can be out in the open space when they want to be, and can come into the stables when they need to escape the weather, seek shade or escape from the flies.
Good feet need movement and exercise to grow properly - stabling a horse for 12 hours a night will undermine any attempts to grow great hooves.
Left: An example of a foot that has spent too long in a wet stable. The thrush infection is now much improved, the frog is weak and spongy, the sole is soft and the quarters have stretched. There's White Lightening in the WLD at the quarters so it looks shiny. Amonia from urine is very damaging to hooves.
Below: Here is a fun video from Nic Barker's site. Here you can watch two barefoot hunt hirelings Foxy and Conto out with the Exmoor Foxhounds - proving that barefoot horses can perform spectacularly well over all surfaces in some of the most demanding terrain.
Nic Barker is based at Rockley farm in Devon and rehabilitates horses with lower leg problems - impossibly soft crumbling hooves, navicular syndrome, DDFT lesions, laminitis and other such "hopeless" cases. Her track system is one of the key tools in rehabilitating these horses. It shows how otherwise marginal ground can be brought into use providing a variety of surface from comforting to challenging to create an environment where hooves can be regrown and horses rehabilitated.
Foxy and Conto are two such horses. Visit http://www.rockleyfarm.co.uk/ to read more about Nic's rehabilitation work.