Only 7 Weeks Til The Waredaca Classic Three Day Event!

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.

Lastly, this article on EN by AJ Dyer is a great resource so go check it out!

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!