My husband and I took two of my horses up to ride on the Pilot Mountain trails. the trails are somewhat rocky and gravelly and I had just trimmed my flatter footed gelding so I decided to put boots on him. He was really good with the boots, landing heel first, striding out and going over everything. My mare was great without boots. She was careful but not bothered by the rocks.
I saw a pretty bay quarter horse tied up to the hitching post when we got back to the trailers.  He was shod of course, and took pitifully short tsteps and was lame when he was ridden off.