My friends and I ride Missouri Foxtrotters, most of them barefoot, though the desert and mountains of Utah and Wyoming.

My horses are beginning their 3rd summer barefoot, and we used the boots a lot in the first year, but only use them occasionally now. Usually if we are riding 2-4 days straight and the horses don’t get a day off to recover.

It’s not uncommon for us to cover 20-30 miles a day when riding some of the areas in the photos.

— John Tanner