I disagreed with with flat weight bearing soles
and paring away the hoof wall.
*Jen, this is bizarre...nobody has promoted a
flat sole being ideal, or paring away hoof wall!
We have supported the idea that the sole helps
distribute weight, and showed some worry about your statement of paring out
sole to keep some sort of concavity....no one I read about said anything about
paring hoof wall, just giving the edge a good bevel or rounding. A
healthy, functioning hoof will hopefully have a natural domed shape to the
sole and natural concavity, although coffin bones have different shapes and
sizes.
While it maybe helpful for that one
particular problem -- on average a sole so low to the ground you are able to
rasp is not normal and usually painful. I went on about proper trimming
being the hoof wall is the primary weight bearing surface and the
sole trimmed concavely.
*Yet we tried to mention the toe or sole callus
as being part of the sole that farriers normally rasp away...it is a structure
that often allows the hoof to "breakover" in advance of the hoof wall at the
toe, assuming the hoof wall is not too long. Also, where can you show any vet
research that shows the WALL should be the primary weight bearing
surface?
In response, I got a whole bunch of angry people,
telling me I was wrong, yet sending me pictures of the trim I
described.
*Since you claimed to never have heard of or seen
a natural toe callus, that is what was sent to you.
Huh? I'm still a little confused, did
I misspell a word? I don't have time to respond to everyone, but
rest assured if you emailed me a picture -- all those pictures where of hooves
with nice concave soles and weight bearing hoof
wall.
*Those photos showed a "natural" sole
concavity (NOT trimmed that way)....with strong toe callus and rolled hoof
wall.
No one has sent me a photo of a horse walking on
its sole....
*No one has said they should....
I think Frank hit the nail on the head, I
properly trimmed hoof is in the eye of the beholder. It completely
depends on your level of education and experiences.
*Frank, I am not sure that is how I read your
post....Jen, I don't believe a properly trimmed hoof has anything to do at all
with the eye of the beholder. It's the trim that allows the horse to
function comfortably and does not create long term problems. Which has
nothing to do with education or experience. Turn your horses out on a
huge area of rocky terrain for a year or so and you will
