-Steel Shoes vs. Barefoot-
Lets get one thing straight: I am not some nut who things everyone who shoes their horses is terrible - I believe that barefoot is better and try to tell my clients the benefits of keeping their horses barefoot & the problems that long term shoeing can cause. I leave the ultimate decision whether to shoe the horse or go barefoot up to the horse owner.
We personally leave all of our horses barefoot, including our barrel horses and trail horses. Our barrel horses have excellent traction, faster times, no slips or stumbles & are never sore footed. If necessary, we ride our trail horses in hoof boots when the terrain is extra rocky.
Correctly trimmed, well kept, healthy barefoot hooves SHOULD NOT chip, crack or split within 4 - 6 weeks of trimming. If you are having this problem, your farrier may not be trimming your horse correctly or there may be nutritional, environmental or bacterial/fungal problems present.
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Horseshoes Prevent Proper Development of a Young Horse's Foot - A horse does not stop growing untill around the age of 5 yrs. old. This includes the hoof and its internal structures. If you shoe a horse before they are mature, you will inhibit the normal growth of the coffin bone and the palmar processes. Young horses hooves must be able to mature and function normally if you expect them to have healthy strong hooves when they become 'adults'.
Horseshoes Impair Hoof Mechanism & the Circulatory Pump in the Foot - The hooves of every equine are miniature 'blood pumps' that aid in the heart's circulation through the establishment of Hoof Mechanism. Hoof Mechanism is the process of a weight bearing foot descending (on a hoof that is properly trimmed enough to leave concavity in the solar region of the foot), so that the sole flexes outwards as the hoof walls expand upon impact and contract upon lift-off. This hoof mechanism allows the coffin bone to descend and the solar corium to fill with blood when bearing weight. The blood is then expressed upwards when the foot is not bearing weight. Horseshoes inhibit & even prevent this process from occurring within the hoof. The result is poor horn growth (shelly, weak walls), no feeling and cold feet. Restriction of blood circulation & lack of stimulation from shoeing also causes insufficient growth of the frog. Natural desiccation of the frog from bacteria and microbes occur at a greater rate when the hooves do not perform their natural mechanism. The idea behind using shoes to correct founder and navicular is that it will correct the problem and make dramatic changes in the hooves. Any change from bad to good within a hoof is going to require metabolic changes in the foot (heat from circulation and the healing processes). Corrective shoeing inhibits healing by limiting or preventing altogether any circulation within the hoof itself. Rather than correcting whatever problem a particular horse is having, they simply cover it up and offer a temporary solution that eventually creates additional problems within the hooves. Also, shod horses can no longer break over naturally. The result is inflammation to the coronary corium.
Both thermal images are of horses that have one shod hoof (blue colored) and the other hooves are barefoot (warm colored). This shows the decreased amount of circulation within the horses lower leg and hooves when shod. Horses do not have muscles within the lower portion of the leg. The horses lower leg is made up of bones, tendons, cartilage & ligaments. This is why horses can stand in snow and ice without having any discomfort. This also shows the importance of allowing a horse to go barefoot and have proper hoof mechanism to help pump blood to the hoof capsule. Shoes do not allow a horses hoof to function naturally.
Do you know where the horses hoof gets its nutrients from that allow it to grow a healthy and strong hoof wall?
THE BLOODSTREAM.
If circulation is decreased by the constriction of the hoof capsule by steel shoes, it will not be getting the proper amount of nutrients it needs to grow healthy & strong hoof horn. The horses hoof uses excess protein from the bloodstream to produce hoof wall.
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Horseshoes Impair Shock Absorption & Movement Of the Sole - A horse loses between 70-80% of natural shock absorption with steel shoes on. This means that the bones and joints take a tremendous pounding... and this is another reason why so many shod horses are finished before their time. A shod horse walking has around 3 times the impact of an unshod horse trotting. Vibrations from steel horseshoes damage living tissues inside of the hoof.
Shoeing can Contract & Deform the Hoof - Given enough time, a shod horse will develop combinations of several kinds of contractions ranging from contractions of the sole, heels, bulbs, coronet, and bars. These will deform the foot and sooner or later cause pain within the hoof. There are many poor & incorrect examples of shoeing due to ignorance, neglect, and poor training of farriers. This only serves to worsen the problems that continuous shoeing can cause. With growing hoof wall constrained by steel horseshoes, solar vaults begin to pinch the solar corium against the coffin bone. The bars get forced upward against the deep flexor tendon and navicular bone, bruising the coronary corium.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION...