hooves

[terre <tobytrot@bigfoot.com>]

RD

	Thanks for your excellent post!  You bring up a number of points that have
concerned me with regards to this "new, improved" manner of shoeing/trimming:

You said
"3.Lastly something to think about.NBS shoes causes horses to breakover 
exactly forward correct.Unless you are a lucky person your horse is not 
perfectly straight.So what happens if your horse has knees pointing out and 
your forcing his foot to break over exactly in front of him?Where is the 
stress going?

I guess in a nut shell if your farrier is not looking at the whole horse or 
is shoeing every single horse in the same fashion I would venture to say 
there may be a problem with some of them.Because although alot are alike I 
have not seen many horses that are exactly the same.Just a few thoughts that 
I am sure I will be blasted for as usual LOL. RD"

	I think that hits the nail right on the head (little farrier metaphor
there)!  I pull my shoes and ride barefoot in the winter.  One of my horses
does wear his toe down square--but not right in the center; he breaks over
to the outside.  The other horse doesn't roll his own toe noticably at all.
 This "square toe" ideal was presumably modelled after how "wild horses"
wear their feet--ie "natural"--but if it isn't the way any given animal
"naturally" wears his own.......  The other thing is that my horses are
wearing their feet in these patterns while being ridden; assuming that they
move differently carrying weight, I believe I see the wear pattern most
appropriate for them during work, as opposed to 'running wild'.
	I think you are absolutely correct in looking at the whole horse, and
shoeing each horse as an individual--wish you lived in my part of the world!

Terre