Oh, Bob's seriously fast. He's like Hair's Pony. He's got SEVERAL gears above that speed. It's scary to watch him sometimes, just thinking about being on him if he decided to cut loose like that. Talk about blowing your hat off!
He's got a left front shoe off right now though. I guess it was so dry for so long and then it started raining and his feet just started cracking around the nails. He had like one nail holding on one side of his foot so I went ahead and cut the clenches and pulled it off before he could lose it, but the hoof wall was already so busted that I doubt that the farrier will have anything to nail to on that side. I'll probably just have him leave him barefoot for a cycle and let them grow back out. And it's not like I don't have a bunch of other horses that need riding anyways. I can keep him trimmed up every other week or so so that it grows out right. And who knows, if he does well, I might leave him that way. Grace is doing real well being barefoot, but it took her a year of bi-weekly trimmings to get that way. That's why I was kinda skeptical when you said that your friend was trying her horse out barefoot. Probably unless she commits to trimming him differently and either using boots or not riding him very much on rough terrain until he grows the right kind of foot she's probably not going to have very much success. There are very few horses that can go straight from shoes to barefoot without having to grow out a whole new foot first.
I told her that, because I believe it to be true, that the horse would take awhile to get use to being barefoot after being shod. I think she is going to have him shod just on the front. It’s about the money with her...she doesn’t even shoe on a regular basis. She doesn’t call the farrier till the horse loses a shoe. I’ve seen her go 11 weeks or more between shoeings. I’ve tired talking to her about it, but she just won’t spend the money.
Becky