I don't wear them for a few reasons. The horses in with wild don't wear them, they collect stickers and other debris and they get caught up on more things. In an arena you are moving and controlling your horse's movement much more, you are asking for speed, direction changes and faster stops. This can cause a horse to overstep, cross step or catch a hoof, so boots are more practical. On the trial, your horse is not, or maybe should not be running at a full trot on blind trails or unknown footing, so since they are using their instincts more and in a more natural setting, I think the boots are not needed.

I use Splint boots that are smooth on the outside when I trail ride my TB, after a long career of racing, he has thick tendons, so I always protect him in front. I keep it very simple on the trail compared to working him in the arena.

Our horses are barefoot. A healthy Morgan typically has great feet, so the only time we shoe is when my brother in law goes hunting up north. I DO NOT have any interest in hunting grizzlies and moose, so I stay home to care for the herd. The ground is very rocky there, so its pretty necessary. But he takes the shoes off when they return south. haha, south as in central Alberta :)

The only time I used boots on trail was on a young horse that was going through a stage of overstepping. He had done quite a bit of cosmetic damage to the backs of his pasterns that I didn't need the public ridicule and questioning. It is something that I would stay away from if possible if you are going to step off of a path. You just never know what twigs can get shoved up inside the boot. It is not likely but it seems that kind of stuff happens to our most invaluable horses.

I used to be against them because my old horse ad very tough feet. But my new mare was half starved and very malnourished it cause her feet to grow weird and on one of her front feet she does have any definition to her frog. We live In TN where it is soft and not rocky but we trail ride at Natchez Trace and Land Between the Lakes in KY where it is very rocky. Because of her weird foot she can't have shoes and she has very sensitive feet so we now have performance boots. They work very well. We used Old Mac's and they don't rub or create sores.

Yes it could be, if they are pick on the tend to try and keep the other horses away

My horse does the picking-on, and he acts the same way. He lays his ears back and will kick know matter what horse it is. I'm looking forward to some tips, myself.

My 16 year old son has raised his filly since she was 8 months old, and now at almost 4 years old she has become what I call a "trail brat" - With horses that she knows are lower on the herd rung then she is, she'll go at them in a trail ride... ears back, teeth bared and when that fails, she'll begin to back up and prepare to kick... This is brand new behaviour for her and we've witnessed it on the last three rides... Now here's the same advice I have given my son to get this nasty behaviour under control -

Any time the horse even makes an attempt to go at another horse on a trail ride or displays even a small notion of doing so... run one hand down your rein (the opposite rein to the side the "victim" is on) and turn your horse away from the group moving him off to the side of the trails and proceed to do tight circels with him/her in both directions... make your horse move his feet, but a little hustle in him/her and when you feel the horse's focus is back on you, return back to the trail ride...

Your horse WILL go at another horse again, and you will do exactly the same thing each time - take him away from the group and get his feet hustling in circles... What you are doing is making the wrong behaviour difficult and the right behaviour easy... your horse will soon learn that if he even "thinks" he'd like to kick or bite another horse on a trail ride, he's going to have to hustle those feet and work... the reward for not biting and kicking is that he/she doesn't have to work as hard!

Hope this helps!
Annie

Thank you!

Hey Jayme and others... Can we talk about bears and trail riding?

Our family lives in Southern, Ontario and we're moving to a rural wilderness property in New Brunswick this Spring... there's evidence of bear scat on our property, and our friend saw a bear on the road when he drove out to visit the property in October... We're avid trail riders, but have yet to take our horses to NB... Can you give us advice for trail riding in bear country? Any stories on your encounters and how horses generally react to bears, wolves, coyotes, etc, etc, etc?

Thank you kindly,
Annie

Hi Eileen.

I know how you feel, sometimes I wish I had more riding time with my young mare, as I really don't take her out without another rider along. What I do however, is take her for long walks. Just her and I. This really helps with her anxiety with moving out and away from the herd, and it has shown her that I'm her friend, and she trusts me. Maybe just try with short walks, just out of eye sight of her buddies, then gradually taking her for longer walks. if you can get yourself a set of long reins, you can ground drive her. That is a very good thing for a green horse, and a lot safer for you to be doing alone. You can teach her to move forward, stop, turn. if she panics, just drop one rein, and you have her on a longe. I'd not be too concerned with spending so much time on her back when it's icy. Ice is bad for horses, they can slip and fall, and if you're on them..you go down too. Not fun. Spend time grooming her, picking her feet up, tacking her up, sacking her out, these are all good things to do with your horse even when you can't ride.

Jily

Why don't you try to hobble break and ground tie? It could save his life, and possibly yours too. it works brilliantly. I think Rick Gore could give you some tips on this, or perhaps a professional trainer in your area can help.

The thing is, I am a professional trainer. We haven't had a problem since then, and for the most part, he is a good boy. One of my problems I think is my lack of time to work with him. I went back over what happened a couple of times, and what I did differently was put my hand on his nose to keep his head still. I've done it a few times since then, and it really upsets him. I'm wondering if someone didn't try to cut off his air supply to make him submit in the past; I have seen ignorant horse owners do that before.

Ride her quietly, always ask for forward, stay confident, and take her out as much as possible. Time with a confident rider can turn almost any horse into a trail star.

when you say quietly what exactly do you mean??I have an Idea what you mean but just want to make sure lol

Try really hard not to react to her reactions. Keep your heels down and you butt in the saddle, and try not to overreact with your hands. The trick is, as her lead horse, you need to show her that you are still calm and not concerned about the monsters on the trail. Let me know how she's coming along!

Excellent advice Chelsea. I would start all over again, back to the basics, sacking out especially, getting her to walk over plastic tarps, rubbing a plastic bag all over her, tossing kids rubber balls around her, through her legs. Go slowly, quietly, don't add to her terror, and praise her with nice long strokes and gentle words every time she reacts favourably. Usually when a horse reacts like this, she has missed a step in her early training and ground work. it never hurts to refresh your horse every so often in her ground work. Always be patient, fair and kind.

good luck

Hi there, I had a very similar problem with my 8yr old Connemara when we first started taking him on the trails, I found that by stopping, letting him sniff at whatever the monster was and all along reassuring him, he slowly but surely stopped caring about all the things out there that eat black horses and began to enjoy the trail! lol. I think the best thing is not to push and always stay calm and reassuring.