Go to www.hopeforsoundness.com and you will
find out lots and lots of info on natural balance shoes.
My mare has been in NB shoes for several years. First alum., then steel,
and now the Polyflex NB. Like the Polyflex best, seems to be working very well
for her. I think to benefit the horse the most with these shoes is that the hoof
should be trimmed in a NB trim first, and then shod with the NB shoes.
I will say that the NB trim doesn't work for all horses, I have seen a few
that exhibit movement of what your now seeing. Some horses need a transition
period, and some people go crazy thinking these NB are making their horses lame
in the meantime, in fact I've seen this mostly with dressage people!!
Hope I'm
not opening a can of worms with this one...
I am looking for some
feedback about natural balance shoes. I am working for a dressage
trainer right now whose horses are shod in these, and has since had a lot of
soundness problems that look familiar to me. In the past I've seen
endurance horses with natural balance shoes exhibit this pattern: horse looks
great for several weeks, moving well using his hind end, etc., then begins to
have sore feet, suspensories, and hocks (presumably from compensating for
front end soreness).
My memory sucks and I can't recall all the
details, since the endurance horses were not mine. From what I remember,
they were getting a lot of concussion to the coffin bone because of the shoe
being set so far back, and changing the breakover point was causing the sore
suspensories.
This trainer that I'm working for now seems to think all
this lameness will pass, that the horse is having to adjust to the new method
of shoeing, but it's been a couple of months. Can someone explain to me
the details of how these shoes are supposed to work, or the reason they don't
work? I'd love to be able to provide this trainer with some info, and
satisfy my own curiosity!
:)
