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[RC] pulling shoes now OLDER horse - shermanTitle: MessageCorrect! if we
think about how people's bodies feel & move and how that is reflected
in the wear of their shoes, it's easy to see that the way the horse's body moves
will affect their hooves. Every time I pick up my horses' hooves, I look at each
one, look at how it is being worn, often make some minor adjustment, and try to
figure out what might be causing any uneven wear. I wouldn't be doing all this
without the oversight of my farrier, who does not want to be a barefoot trimmer
(or hoof care practitioner as some are called) but he is a great farrier, and he
comments every time he's here about how good all the hooves look, and especially
on the horse that had been shod for many, many years and had started losing hoof
strength (weak quarters and walls). After 2 years this particular
horse still can't be ridden in rocks without boots, but shoes wouldn't stay
on him anymore, so we're very happy that boots are an option. My farrier
also doesn't believe most owners are willing to put in the work
required to ride barefooted horses, and most that he has experienced don't
do any maintenance trimming AND only call every 3 or 4 months, so by the time he
gets there the hoof is overgrown, cracked and chipped and they are wondering why
the hooves look so bad and the horse is gimpy. It is waaay more work (at least
in this area) than having shod horses and many owners just want to go ride, and
that's great, if I had l less time and more money and most
importantly, shoes worked well, I'd probably have my horses shod and be happy.
Going off to ride
today (:>)
Kathy
and
to add another dimension to this discussion, if your horse is not balanced in
the upper part of his body, he will never stay balanced in his
feet!
Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. ~ John Wayne Ranelle Rubin Independent Dynamite
Distributor raneller@xxxxxxx 775-815-8296
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