RE: [RC] pulling shoes now OLDER horse - Terry Banister
only call [farrier] 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.
Do you mean to say these people wait more than 3-4 months to call a farrier when their horses are shod??
Terry "May the Horse be with You"
From: sherman@xxxxxxxxxxx To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] pulling shoes now OLDER horse Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 09:01:09 -0800
Correct! 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
