I agree whole heartedly. My new boy has hind hooves that are arrow
head shaped. I would do anything, almost, for my farrier. Beccy in Ut.
Some of you have pointed out most of the reasons why a farrier
would hot shoe a horse - however the most important reason is simply because
you can bang away as much as you want at a cold piece of steel but it will
never shape exactly the way you want it to! Apart from opening or closing
the shoe there is not much else you can do to it when it's cold... so if you
want a really precise fit..
Precisely.
No doubt that there are talented farriers out in the world able to bend
cold steel to fit the hoof, but (for me), someone with a forge, a grinder, a
drill press and the ability to properly shape a shoe to fit the properly
trimmed hoof, who ALSO has the ability to watch horse movement and determine
how better to shoe that horse...worth their weight in Dove
Bars!
All the talk about steel versus bare-foot...well, some of that
anti-shoeing is merited. Rather than have a horse poorly shod, I'd let
the horse go barefoot. (And, I prefer steel on my horses.) A
poorly shod horse should be a misdemeanor (at least).
