Nichole (@nickel07 on twitter) sent in the above photos of her wearing brown KSO FiveFingers alongside her horse who is, himself, free-hoofing it — no horseshoes!
Here’s Nichole:
My name is Nichole and I have been really enjoying following your stories of people with their various barefoot activities!
I have been a VFF KSO owner since February of this year, and have recently begun running in them. I am not a runner, in fact I have always hated running because of shin splints, so-called bad knees, and my flat pronating feet. I had been reading a few different blogs on barefooting and decided I would give it a try a few weeks ago, since I love walking everywhere in VFFs.
Lo and behold, I discovered I could run WITHOUT PAIN for the first time in my life, in my knees, feet, or shins. I am still in awe, and have had six or seven successful 2-3 mile runs since then, still pain free and feeling strong and connected to my feet in a new way! I sound like such a gushing convert when I explain to people that yes, I can run in these shoes and no, they don’t have support. LOVE THEM!
Anyway, my main hobby is my horse. I am a student and instructor of natural horsemanship, and along with a holistic approach to equine behavior, I do my best to keep my horse’s life as natural to him as possible. This includes keeping him barefoot, meaning with no horseshoes. Believe it or not, putting steel shoes on horses can create problems in their gait and health of their feet by restricting blood flow and preventing flexion of the hoof (a very live thing!). In fact, it was a few close horse friends of mine who actually introduced me to the barefooting idea and to VFFs in the first place! My horse has healthy feet and loves being barefoot, and I have recently joined him! I found that playing with my horse barefoot causes me to be much more aware of where my feet and his feet are, as well as causing me to be more polite in my communication!
Happy to hear that you are able to run again, Nichole! Furthermore, thanks for sharing about natural horsemanship.
It seems that natural horsemanship is a kindred movement to barefooting and/or minimalist footwear, which I’ll characterize more generally as the “don’t fight nature and expect to win” movement. Incidentally, Nichole’s account above is the second time I’ve heard about “barehoofing.” The first time I heard about it was via forum member barefootpony, who had this to say about how horses are negatively affected by horseshoes:
There’s a lot of evidence that horseshoes are damaging in the same way that people shoes are: they restrain the natural expansion and retraction of the hoof as the horse moves, make it more difficult for the horse to feel the ground (thus more stumbling, which potentially can catapult a rider right off), and generally just weaken the hoof. The horse’s hoof also has a structure at the center of the sole called the “frog” (it’s made of soft tissue sort of like a cuticle), and that structure acts as a pump to keep blood flowing properly through the legs and feet when the horse takes a step. When you shoe, the frog doesn’t properly contact the ground, so the horse also suffers from poor circulation.
Informative stuff all around!
Thanks for sharing, Nichole!
Update / Addition from Fran:
Wanted to append to Nichole’s story an email and photo I received from Fran who also practices natural horsemanship:
However, I did want to share my own barefootin’ picture! The picture attached was taken last April, just after I had trimmed my horse’s feet. (I too practice barefoot hoofcare for my horse). I thought the photo would be fun–natural barefoot for all! Hope you enjoy!
The FiveFingers in the picture are Palm/Clay KSOs, I also own a pair of Black Flows that I’m enjoying now that the weather has cooled off! Loving them so much, they’ve really done wonders for my posture and body awareness!
Here’s Fran’s feet alongside her horse’s “free hooves:”
Thanks, Fran!
One reply on “Barehoof Horseplay and FiveFingers with Nichole”
The barefooting is commendable both for the human and the horses, but as a professional trainer myself, I would NEVER recommend wearing VFFs around horses. I have several pairs of VFFs and wear them whenever I can, including running, but you will NEVER catch me around horses in anything but boots or (as much as I hate them now) sneakers. VFFs provide little to no protection whatsoever to the top of our feet, and incredible, permanent damage can done if you find your foot under a horse’s foot.
I was unloading a two year old filly from a trailer one day at a show a couple of years ago – she had never seen asphalt before, and decided to take a flying leap off the trailer’s ramp onto the new surface. Unfortunately, she landed directly on the top of my right foot (stepping on toes is one thing, top of the foot is entirely different!). And of course, being an Irish Sport Horse, she still weighed about 1,000lbs even as a 2 year old. Luckily, I recovered enough to ride later that weekend, but that sort of freak accident scenario is exactly what’s going to get people’s feet torn into shreads if they’re not wearing protective footwear around horses. The only reason I didn’t end up with a torn up foot is because I was wearing leather boots. Feet and toes will still be broken in boots, but at least I won’t have half of my foot hanging off the bones.
The following link contains photos of a girl who got stepped on while going barefoot around horses.
WARNING: extremely graphic
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=90900339#!/album.php?aid=193583&id=196692248644&fbid=419373098644&ref=mf