Does my horse need shoes or can it go barefoot

What extension and veterinary guides say

The published guides treat shoes as a tool rather than a default. New Mexico State University's extension guide on evaluating hoof care, by extension horse specialist Jason Turner, says that under most circumstances regular trimming is enough to keep feet healthy, and that a horse should be shod when wear exceeds new hoof growth. An article by Crystal Smith of Virginia Cooperative Extension, published on the Extension Horses site, is blunter: shoeing is not usually necessary unless hoof wear is greater than hoof growth and the horse goes lame as a result.

Utah State University Extension starts from the same place in its publication on basic hoof care, written with an American Farriers Association certified farrier. All horses need regular hoof care, it says, but not all horses require shoeing. The Merck Veterinary Manual's edition for horse owners, reviewed in 2025, gives the other half of the picture. Shoes can protect the hooves and provide better grip on certain surfaces, and whether a horse needs them depends on its hoof health and the surfaces it walks on. Its advice is to talk to your vet or farrier about the individual horse.

Underneath all of this is a balance between wear and growth. According to Craig Wood of the University of Kentucky, the average hoof grows 1/4 to 3/8 inch a month, and because the average hoof is 3 to 4 inches long, a horse grows a new hoof about once a year. Growth is faster in spring and slower in winter. Utah State notes that horses on soft pasture appear to grow more hoof than horses on rocky or harder ground, simply because there is less natural wear. When wear wins, the guides point to shoes.

Reasons a horse ends up in shoes

Wear that outpaces growth is the reason the guides mention most, but it is not the only one. The New Mexico State guide lists two more: horses are shod to enhance performance, and as therapeutic treatment for various diseases and conditions. Merck adds protection and grip. Mary Boyce, a veterinarian at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, notes that horses prone to sole bruising may need shoes, and her short list of recommendations for sound feet includes appropriate shoeing for different weather and footing conditions.

Shoes are not only steel. Utah State lists steel, aluminum, plastic and combinations of these, usually nailed on but sometimes glued. The same publication describes proper shoeing as proper trimming with a shoe added for hoof protection. That is a useful way to think about the decision. The trim is the foundation either way, and the shoe is something added on top of it for a reason.

This guide is general information, not veterinary advice. If a horse is lame, footsore or being treated for a hoof condition, the choice between shoes and bare feet belongs to your veterinarian or farrier, who can see and handle the horse.

Barefoot does not mean less hoof care

A common assumption is that pulling the shoes means fewer farrier visits. For working horses, the Utah State publication suggests otherwise. Its general rule is a trim every 10 to 12 weeks for unshod horses in no use or light use. Horses that work while barefoot, though, need more frequent trims with less hoof taken off each time, and in many cases their hooves are ready to be trimmed again in 5 to 7 weeks. For shod horses the same publication gives 6 to 8 weeks between trimming and resetting.

Purdue University's guide to assessing the health of horses makes the point from the shod side: horses that are shod must be re-shod and trimmed regularly to keep the hoof in shape. Either way the horse stays on a schedule. What changes is the kind of visit, and sometimes how often it comes.

Cost is part of the question for many owners. Chris Mortensen, an extension horse specialist at Clemson University, lists going barefoot among the ways to cut the cost of keeping horses. In the same line he warns that owners who trim their own horses without proper training can injure them. Going barefoot takes the shoes off the bill, but the trims stay on it.

Pulling shoes for the winter

Winter is when many shod horses come out of shoes. Kathy Anderson, extension horse specialist at the University of Nebraska, writes that many owners prefer to pull shoes during the months of minimal riding, and that any horse kept outdoors should have its shoes removed, because shod feet can pack with ice and make slipping on snow and ice more likely. The Rutgers Equine Science Center says much the same. Hooves packed with ice make moving difficult and dangerous, and some owners remove shoes for the winter, especially when they will be riding less.

Boyce at Minnesota covers the barefoot side. If a horse is normally barefoot, leave the shoes off, because horses usually slip less when they are not shod, and ice can be very slippery for a horse in normal shoes. For a horse that stays shod through the winter she suggests snow pads under the shoes to stop snow and ice building up, and small cogs, borium or nails at the heels for traction. Rutgers also names pads as the option for owners who keep shoes on.

Pulling the shoes does not pause the schedule. Anderson says hooves should still be trimmed every six to eight weeks through winter to prevent cracks and breakage, but not so closely that the horse ends up with bruised, sore feet on frozen ground. She also warns that if hooves are allowed to break off over the winter, it may be difficult to have the horse shod when spring comes. Rutgers makes the related point that hooves grow more slowly in winter but still need regular trimming.

Common mistakes when choosing between shoes and bare feet

Treating barefoot as no care. Every guide cited here keeps unshod horses on a trimming schedule, and Utah State expects a barefoot horse in work to need trims more often, not less.

Deciding once and never revisiting it. The Virginia article ties the trimming interval to how fast the hooves grow, how active the horse is and the terrain it is exposed to, and Merck ties the shoe decision to hoof health and the surfaces the horse walks on. All of those can change with a new job, a new barn or a new season, and the Nebraska and Rutgers winter advice shows owners changing the answer from one season to the next.

Leaving plain shoes on for icy turnout. Boyce points out that ice can be very slippery for a horse in normal shoes. If the shoes stay on for winter, pads and traction are part of the job.

Not keeping a record through the change. When a horse comes out of shoes or goes back into them, the useful questions are when it happened, how long the gaps between trims were afterwards, and what the feet looked like at each visit. Rutgers suggests photos as a way to watch a hoof crack for changes, and Purdue names excessively long toes, or toes curving upward at the front, as a sign a horse needs attention from a competent farrier. HoofBook, for example, logs each visit as a full set, a reset or a trim, keeps each horse on its own cycle, and collects the photos taken at every visit under that horse so any two can be pulled up side by side. What the pictures mean stays the farrier's call.

Frequently asked questions