Welcome to Competing Barefoot!

Hello! Welcome to Competing Barefoot!

My name is Alice – I am a keen showjumper (I try, I’m not making the Olympics anytime soon – but it’s all about fun right!) and recently I took all my horses barefoot!

Why you ask? A few reasons I’ll go into a little detail soon, but I think the main reason is my slow progression to making sure I am doing the best for my horses with a ‘natural’ focus. As ‘natural’ as I can possibly making it, whilst looking after & competing highly strung showjumping horses. Something which is much easier said then done!

Having worked as a groom & home rider on many proffesional jumping yards, I know how to look after a typical showjumping horse. There’s variation between yards but overall the care & routine was somewhat similar back then. Horses were shod, the didn’t get much turnout and were fed concentrated mix feeds. All of which, when you think about it, aren’t what a horse would do in it’s natural habitat. And looking back – I think are the main contributors to the injuries, ulcurs & behavioural problems most of the yards I was at saw.

Now I say all this with hindsight and eductaion! At the time, I thought we were careing for the horses in the best possible way – and to some extent I still agree! Most showjumpers are not the typical 4 legged horse. They enjoy the comfort of their stable, they thrive on having a good training session – and they will happily let you know when they are bored or not happy! 

However I definetly think there are some small ways we can change the managment of the competition horse to be just that bit more ‘naturally’ inclined – and the benefits could be surprising!

So.. welcome to my experiment in barefoot competing! Read the net blog post to find out why I started this journey!