Barefoot Horse Goes to Cutting World Finals

Our horse, (KW Dualin’ at the Bar, aka Rocket), had his shoes removed in 2005. He was restarted in natural horsemanship, with Aaron England, a formerly certified 3 star instructor with Parelli Natural Horsemanship.

Rocket had nearly been ruined as a 2 and 3 yr. old colt with harsh training and conventional horsekeeping. His former owner found him lying on the ground, with his head tied to the stirrup, where he had been lying for 4 hours in the hot Texas sun. The former trainer was trying to teach the horse to “give to the bit” and let go of his resistance.

The colt was taken away from that conventional trainer and taken to the naturalhorsemanship trainer, Aaron England, who spent 6 months just gaining the colt’s trust.

Rocket was so untrustworthy of people that he would charge at anyone who approached his stall. He was indeed resistant.

Rocket learned to give to the bit and be flexible and light, eventually performing bridleless demonstrations in cutting and horsemanship. He also began to win every time he was competed on.

My daughter and I noticed him while training at Aaron’s place in Goldthwaite, TX. and inquired about purchasing him. The owner was enjoying his progress and had set his price out of our budget.

We had been natural hoofcare advocates for many years and had been talking to Aaron about it. Like many, he did not think that a performance horse could successfully compete barefoot. He had tried it with a stallion that he had trained and was showing and that horse went on to win the Appaloosa Nationals that year. Aaron could feel the performance of the barefoot horse was more sure footed and the horses were happier and healthier.

He pulled the shoes on all but one horse in his barn and had them trimmed with a physiologically correct trim, under the trained eye of Rachael Coggins.

A year went by and Aaron contacted us with the good news that Rocket was being offered for sale again. We agreed on a price and soon learned that he had qualified for the National Cutting Horse Assoc. World Show that year; quite an accomplishment for Aaron and Riva and Rocket and us, the new owners.

Rocket was placed in every class at the World Show and continues to train and win with our 17 yr. old daughter, barefoot. He lives outside with our herd, eats grass, hay and is fed Triple Crown Low Starch once a day with Omega Antioxidant. We have pea gravel in his stall and around the barn and water troughs to keep his hooves healthy.

We ran into his first trainer at a show and the trainer inquired about Rocket, telling us, “he was one rank colt”. Well, all I can say is “with the right training and a more natural lifestyle, Rocket is one awesome horse!

Look for us at AQHA, NCHA, and ACHA shows in Texas and watch him cut some cows and watch us having so much fun!

Lynn Swearingen