The ideal in the barefoot world is a barefoot horse who can handle extremes in terrain... a horse that can move easily across rock, sand, mud, and water.

The epitome of barefoot soundness is the "gravel cruncher", a horse who moves easily through the worst rock - the jagged shale that litters steep single track trails and paves most parking lots, driveways and dirt roads.

The assumption in recent times has been that most domestic horses are incapable of having tough, durable feet, because "good footedness" has been bred out of domesticated horses.

Mustangs are famous for their great feet, but everyone says that Thoroughbreds and Quarter horses have horrible feet.... but we know for a fact that they can have some of the best feet in a barn.

But even barefoot fanatics are skeptical about the mythical "gravel crunchers", bare feet that can go anywhere, do anything....

Cagey

About these dramatic "Gravel Crunching" pictures...

The horses depicted in these pictures are all eager and willing trail horses with very, very sensitive, if durable, feet. These pictures are taken on Coast Trail at Point Reyes National Seashore during a 24 mile - barefoot - ride, and the horses are so casual about the rocky environment that they had to be slowed down for me to take the pictures... so no, moving over rock at a decent speed isn't a problem - unless someone's trying to get good pictures!

I laughed when I had to send Danielle and Nicole back up a piece of trail repeatedly because their horses strolled over it like it was soft arena sand and were too fast for me to get these pictures!

These horses and riders aren't stupid; ridden on a loose rein, barefoot horses avoid rock if there is an alternative, and while we trot trough rough trail, we let the horse set the pace and don't interfere with where they walk.

Most of the trails we typically ride barefoot on is a mixture of great footing to rock littered, and some of the trails in these photographs are extremes. The trail to the left is fairly typical; it's littered with rock but horses can easily place their feet on good trail at a trot without changing their gait. On a 20 mile ride, most of the trail is rock littered ( gravel road, like the trail pictured to the left), some of the single track is smooth without a lot of rock, and a mile or two is like what is pictured below -- very rocky!

When riding on trail that starts bothering our horses movement, we either pull out the boots or change trails! The trails that slow us down barefoot should slow down a shod horse, too, because that narrow band of 1/4 inch metal can't protect a horses feet from severe stone.

Epics offer excellent protection. They take 3 minutes a set to put on, and they stay in place in all conditions. Riding booted is just as cool as riding barefoot! My horse almost never needs rear boots, but I do carry rear boots when his feet are extremely wet and soft and the terrain is extremely rocky. I'll update this page with some Epic pictures in the near future.

Robby, 12 year old Arab

Tinker, an 18 year old shetland pony

Developing a gravel cruncher foot

My horses had been barefoot for going on 2 years when I asked Pete Ramey if he felt that any horse could develop a "gravel crunching" foot, and explained that I kept my horses on flat grassy flood irrigated pastures, and that I dreamed of riding bootless on gaveled trails and fire roads.

Martha Olivo explained the concept of passive conditioning. She advocated the use of rock around watering tanks, gates and feeding areas, and quoted Xenophon on horse management for the development of rock-hard feet. I boarded my horse at the time and I wasn't in control of my environment.

Pete's answer thrilled me; he stated that in his experience, almost all horses could develop these tough "gravel cruncher" feet, even with my irrigated pasture conditions, as long as some form of passive conditioning - like a gravel pit or a hard, flat dry lot - was integrated into his environment in a way that it got lots of use, AND as long as the horse got lots of regular exercise in a good set of boots. Pete stated that hard, flat surfaces like hard pasture and paddocks were excellent conditioning surfaces, and that riding for long distances in hoof boots was excellent conditioning for building "gravel cruncher" feet. Please read Pete's articles on www.hoofrehab.com for LOTS of great information!

When I moved to Sonoma County and could have my horses home again, I had a chance to implement a gravel loafing area. (See Passive Conditioning). Their wandering was limited to a 40x100 foot paddock built on a 14 degree slope, but the footing was hard enough (lots of shale in the soil) and the ground drains well.

With a park 4 miles away? We started getting in lots of riding!

Building A Foot For Rocky Trails

It requires a lot of time and travel to condition feet that can handle rocky trails as easily as the horses in these pictures. But while the process takes time and riding, it isn't difficult... the hoof training is doing as much riding as you can fit in in riding boots.

I use EasyCare Epics pro protection and competition, and have put a lot of miles on a set of Boas as well. Other people I know like the Old Macs (also part of the EasyCare line now) and the Marquis boots.

Sonoma County has lots of rocky trail, so my guys had to either develop great feet or be booted in the front. I'm 3 miles from Armstrong Woods and Austin Creek Parks, and not far from Annadale and Point Reyes National Seashore. Some of this trail is easy on bare feet, but most of the trail at Armstrong, Annadale and Austin Creek has a considerable amount of sharp shale.

I started Gavilan out in boots because he couldn't handle all the rock and because I planned to ride him in endurance booted anyway. Shatirr and Kadance were left unbooted because their feet had been left natural longer so were tougher, and I would be ponying them most of the time.

Gavilan's booted feet had gotten very tough by June of this year (3 months into my "gravel cruncher" hoof conditioning program), and when I rode him bootless on a camping trip to Jack Brook Horse Camp and was able to trot and canter all of Old Haul Road barefoot, I realized that the boots had done their job - Gavilan has awesome feet! I still boot him if he feels tender or if I want to travel at speed on really rough roads, but he files over rocky trails as if he has wings on his feet.

The Shape of a Healthy Bare Foot

So I've started looking at robust bare feet, taking pictures and recording histories, because now I know that the "gravel cruncher" isn't a myth. I trim my horses with a "mustang roll", but not all rock crunching bare feet need to be rolled.

There may be an ideal shape for most conditions, but many shapes are possible.

Cagey is a 10 year old Arab who had the good fortune to grow up half wild in the foothills above Livermore California. His breeders strategy was to breed her mares, turn them out on a few hundred acres, gather them for worming, vaccinations, vet care and foaling.

The mares and foals were again turned out to pasture until the foals were 3 to 4 months old, when they were again brought in and essentially round penned as a herd, taught the essentials of natural horsemanship. There were handled a bit, then turned out again to mature.

Danielle had purchased Cagey's sister 14 years ago, and this mare, Alyah, had such a wonderful calm, quiet nature that she wanted a sibling. Well... they had the same sire, but Mr. Cagey was anything but calm and quiet! Danielle found herself becoming quite the Natural Horsemanship enthusiast trying to keep this fellows feet on the ground for his first few years!

Eventually Cagey matured into an awesome almost bomb proof trail horse. Danielle tried shoeing him, but the farrier said his feet were too hard to trim, so wait until he wears them down and then he'd nail shoes on. After thinking about this - and trying to wear his feet down unsuccessfully - Danielle decided to skip the shoes.

Tinker is an almost 20 year old Welsh pony who is Deb Weathers favorite horse to ride. Don't let his size deceive you! This is an Equine to be reckoned with!

Tinker easily does 15 to 20 mile trail rides at top speed, and blows the socks off of Arabs and TBs, and he has ALWAYS been barefoot!

He has legs that are never swollen or stocked up, and hooves that stand up to any terrain.