Last week's post discussed starting to think about packing and
recruiting help for at least endurance day. This week's post is all
about studs!
Whenever you feel like there
is a likelihood your horse may slip, either on the flat or jumping, you
may want to consider using studs. However, choosing studs is a very
personal thing. There are three factors to consider when choosing studs:
the footing conditions, the level of competition, and the individual
horse.
Not to oversimplify footing conditions,
but smaller and sharper studs are used on hard ground, larger and
chunkier ones are used on soft ground, and on sandy soil you may find
you don't need studs at all even if the ground is wet. If you use large
blocks on hard, dry ground, the studs will not be able to easily
penetrate the surface and could cause bruising to the foot, and if you
use tiny points or road studs on wet, muddy, soft footing, they will not
provide much grip at all. In general you want to use the smallest studs
possible to achieve the desired result. You don't want to interfere
with the horse's natural footfall and it is better to under-stud rather
than over-stud, especially at the lower levels. There is such a thing as
too much traction and you don't want the studs to grip so much that the
horse can't get its feet off the ground quickly. Generally you will
have smaller studs in the front feet than the hinds.
The horse's jumping power comes from the hind end so that is where the
traction is important. You want to minimize jarring and torque on the
front limbs and know that horses' front feet should slide just a bit
on landing for shock absorption. When pointy studs are necessary it is
wise to put a duller/blunter stud on the inside compared to the outside.
You can use different studs on the inside and outside of the hoof as
long as the difference in the height of the studs is minimal.
The
level of competition will greatly impact stud selection. The faster you
ride and the bigger the jumps, the more control you need and the larger
the studs you might use. On any given day, under the same footing
conditions, experienced riders will probably not be using the same studs
for their training level horses as for their advanced horses. Using
studs at the lower levels (N and below) is often not necessary, or
perhaps you only use studs behind. However this can be affected by our
last factor, the individual horse.
Some
horses hate to slip at any level and could lose confidence, or perhaps
they have bar shoes with or without pads which can feel like ice skating
on even relatively perfect footing. Other horses may overreact to studs
and hate the feeling and prefer smaller ones. This is where knowing and
listening to your horse is vital to making the right decision.
Always put on protective boots before putting studs in and the boots
stay on til the studs have come back out. It takes only a split second
for a horse to accidentally stud themselves causing injury. An ounce of
prevention truly is worth a pound of cure.
We
hope you found this post helpful, please comment if you would like any
other topics covered in the future! Up next week is dressage test
practice tips so you can nail your test at The Classic!
