> One thing that is difficult for me is the attitude > of some barefoot > people that you are being abusive if you put shoes > on.
> The attitude that any horse in any terrain with any > rider and any > riding can go barefoot just disturbs me. Previously on the list: There are three valid reasons that horses are shod: protection, traction, or to effect a therapeutic change necessary for the horse's health. All else is vanity. [] Protection is the most obvious reason: Simply put, if a horse's rate of foot wear exceeds his rate of foot growth, his foot must be protected in some way. If not protected, continuing the same routine, in the same environment, will cause soreness. Once sore, the owner can either lay him up while he grows out enough to protect himself with hoof wall and exfoliating sole, or shoe him and accomplish almost the same thing artificially. [] Traction is the second reason. If the horse *has* to work on bad terrain, shoes for traction may help. [] The final reason to shoe a horse is for therapeutic reasons for the horse's health. In reality, most attempts to modify a horse's way of going are not therapeutic; rather, they are an attempt to modify a particular gait to better meet an arbitrary (subjective) standard, usually related to a particular breed. (Non-therapeutic considerations are an important portion of pragmatic farriery.) In general terms, a gait may be modified by changing the way a foot leaves the ground (breakover) or its behavior off the ground (flight path). These factors are changed by the removal/application/utilization of weight and length. A gait may also be modified by changing the timing relative to opposite members; e.g., fronts to hinds. A horse will do whatever he does most efficiently if he is balanced, both fronts and hinds, in the two basic planes (anterior-posterior; medial-lateral) from the fetlock to the ground. ________________________ Shoeing, Is It Necessary? © Ray Miller The question is often asked, "Is shoeing necessary for my horse?" The answer can be both yes and no. There are three main reasons for shoeing a horse: Protection, traction and for therapeutic reasons. One additional reason often given is gait alteration. Lets take each reason and examine it more closely. Protection: This means to protect the hoof from the environment. Most of the time this means wear to the horn/hoof wall. If you are riding your horse where the hooves are being worn down by pavement, sand, gravel or some other agent and the horse is not replacing the hoof to keep up with the wear, then you would need shoes to keep the horse from going lame. If the front hooves need shoes for this reason so do the hind hooves. Because the horse moves on the diagonal, the pairs for shoeing should be the left front/right hind, right front/left hind. In my opinion if shoeing only the front or hind pairs, the horse is being shod out of balance. The horse can be just as sore on the hind hooves, but may not show it like it will on the front. Also, many times hind end lameness will show up as front end lameness. Traction: This means to give the horse grip, better footing. This can be for hunter / jumpers, performance horses (barrel, roping, cutting, racing, etc...). Traction can be obtained with heel calks, rim shoes, polo shoes, toe grabs, heel grabs, borium or drill-tec. There are many types of traction devices. It may be the way a shoe is built that causes it to be a traction device. An example of this is a hind shoe with a trailer. The trailer becomes the traction device to slow the foot. But it must be remembered that traction devices can and do cause stress on the soft tissue and joints of the horse. In time this could lead to lameness. If using a traction device it should be able to be removed when not needed. It has been proven in research and under clinical trials that toe grabs in race horses cause a lot of the injury and lameness that we see in them. A farrier must be skilled in placement of traction devices. Therapeutic: This means to aid or help the horse that has a problem. Horses that have navicular syndrome, founder, contracted heels, arthritis, hock and stifle problems, pedal osteitis, ankylosis, tendon lameness, tendon injury, splints when green, curb, capped hock, capped elbow, spavin, ring bone, bruises, abscesses, caudal hoof pain, etc..., the list can be endless. Also, the list and names of the shoes, pads and the combination of shoes and pads can be endless. A farrier doing this type of work must have a full understanding of the mechanics of the horse. The farrier must understand the geometry and trigonometry of the horse and the shoes/pads that are being applied. All therapeutic work should be under taken with the knowledge and advice of an equine lameness veterinarian. The veterinarian and farrier must work together. ______________________ Gait Modification / Alteration / Movement: There are many things that can be done with shoes to modify the movement of the horses. Things that affect this are; shoe weight, shoe length, shoe width, hoof pads, toe of the shoe, shape of the shoe, wedges ( heel/toe, side), toe grabs, heel caulks, rims, clips and nail placement. Again, a farrier must have a complete understanding of the geometry and trigonometry of the mechanics of the horse. Most of the time incorrect gait modification to get a certain action or movement will lead to lameness. This is due to the unnatural stresses put on the soft tissue and joints of the horse. Once you move away from the norm of the horse, you start these stresses. The following is taken from "Equine Locomotion" by Drs. Hilary Clayton and Willem Back, 2001. You must remember that, "shoes restrict the hoof mechanism, increase the weight of the distal limb and increase the impact shock. When good quality shoes are put on correctly, with the least number of nails and not too far backwards, and when adequate hoof care by a farrier takes place on a regular basis, then the aforementioned objections can be more or less compensated." "The major effects of farriery are similar in most horses of a group, but there are likely to be minor differences in the response of individual horses. Basic farriery considerations that influence locomotion are toe angle and weight of the shoe, which interact with the type of footing. The mechanisms by which trimming and shoeing affect locomotion and lameness involve relieving pain, altering the mechanics of the stance phase and influencing inertia during the wing phase. In experimental studies the mean effect of a particular modification on the kinetics and kinematics is often smaller than the differences between individuals. Therefore, as much as possible, test objects have to be measured when trying to prove farriery effects." "In young foals, regular trimming is necessary from 1 month of age (every 4-6 weeks) . If pathological deformities start to develop, then therapeutic trimming should be performed at least every 2 weeks. Prevention of those deformities is the best option, of course, because forced correction of conformation by trimming and corrective shoeing at an older age will lead to lameness sooner or later." Corrective shoeing should only be undertaken in the first twelve weeks of a foals life. After that a horse should be trimmed or shod to the way it grows and goes. Anything more will cause lameness in the horse. After that there is no corrective trimming or shoeing, only what is correct or incorrect for that horse. Back to the original question; does a horse need shoes? I have found in my forty years of trimming and shoeing that for the most part more horses can go barefooted, than need shoes. With a proper and correct trim the horse will remain sound. In a lot of cases barefooted horses have better traction then a shod horse. This information was gathered from "Equine Locomotion by Clayton & Back" 2001, "The Lame Horse by Dr. James Rooney" Rev. 2000, "Conformation and Performance" by Dr. Nancy Loving 1999, "Elements of Farrier Science" by D. M. Canfield , M.E. Ensminger, B.S., M.S., PhD., R. A. Alexander, B.S., M.S., PhD. by member contributors, "Current Techniques in Equine Surgery and Lameness" second edition 1999 by Nathaniel A. White DVM, MS and James N. Moore, DVM, PhD", "Soundness In The Horse" by Peter Gray MVB, MRCVS". _________________________ Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
