This message is from: Erin Yanish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> My husband does trimming and hot shoeing. Hot shoeing does not 'accommodate a flat iron horseshoe'. When my husband is shoeing a horse he is constantly measuring the hoof and fitting the shoe to the natural hoof. By fitting he is using his forge and anvil to shape the shoe correctly. So by saying that, 'it casts in iron a farrier's mistakes', is a bit inaccurate. Now I do not believe that all horses should have shoes. We have some that will never have shoes. However, during the heavier season of driving and riding, we do have some that will wear thier hooves funny or they just get so worn out that they are sore. In this instance we only need to shoe the front hooves. We have also had horses that love to paw in the parture. Shoeing saves the hoof from this destruction of wearing a hoof down to where it causes the horse difficutlies which you cannot fix because there is nothing to work with in the trimming. The key is to have proper hoof care for each individual hoof. I am totally for barefoot horses. My husband has corrected horses with just doing frequent trims. Before he went to farrier's school I thought that a person could just file hooves down when needed and do their own work. I was wrong. When you have a good farrier, he is going to measure the hoof to make sure that the axis is correct for that individual animal. He is going to make sure that the angle is right where it needs to be. Not all horses will wear thier hooves down correctly. I have watched my husband trimming, he will have a couple hooves where he needs to clip the other two might only need rasping and this is on the same horse. He will make sure he has the porper measurements on each individual hoof. He spends a lot of time studying and understanding the hoof. It is his job. He loves to do corrective trimming and shoeing. He takes a lot of pride in his work. I never knew how much went into this until he went to school. People will believe what they want to believe. My suggestion is to question your farrier while he is working under your horse. Learn why he is doing what he is doing. Someone who knows exactly what they are doing is not afraid to tell you and does not get offended. Do some reading on it yourself. Gather knowledge as to why people might choose one thing over another. Listen to both sides. Again, shoes are not always the answer. We prefer barefoot above shoes. But when correctly done, a horse can benefit from hot shoeing. Let's face it, if barefoot is so natural, why do most people wear shoes? Erin Yanish
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