If the shoe fits…
Jan 14 2009
Today we’re going to talk about shoeing vs. barefoot. I keep on encountering people to whom barefoot trimming is like a cult. They refuse to believe that any horse, regardless of condition or soundness, ever needs shoes to be sound. Honestly, it is like trying to discuss comparative religions with a born-again who believes everybody who isn’t on his exact same spiritual path is going to burn in the fiery pits of Hell. So today, I am going to talk about that and yes, I expect there to be a lot of controversy.
I’ve been in horses for most of my 41 years and I know why so many of you became barefoot aficionados: bad shoeing. All my life, there has been an overabundance of bad shoeing out there. Shoes smacked on without being shaped to the hoof. Shoes cranked in to pinch the heel. Shoes one size too small put on to try to force the foot into a tiny, narrow, trendy show-ring look. All racehorses seem to come off the track with long toes and underrun heels. (Why IS that? Is there some super seekrit Shitty Racehorse Farrier Training School somewhere? No wonder we have so many breakdowns. Stop worrying about the track surface and start investigating why these poor horses have no heels!) Don’t even get me started on the shit they do to gaited horses.
And underneath that, bad trimming! Heels lopped off with scary long toes, or the opposite – so much heel left on that the horse looks club footed. Plenty of that around, too. Hey, I hear you guys on all of this. Many years ago, I acquired a lovely Thoroughbred gelding. He was a made polo pony and he jumped a three foot course. We got him for $1000 because he had just been diagnosed with navicular. This horse had as lovely a long, flat trot as you could ever hope to see. He had a stellar shoulder. I did not believe he was navicular, and advised my then-boyfriend to buy him. Pulled the shoes, and three weeks later, with no other care, voila, sound horse. The seller, who had darn near given away a horse who was probably worth $7000-$8000, was livid – but he kept using that same farrier even though I told him why the horse had been lame. Moron.
I agree that barefoot is both a healthy and low-cost way for a horse to live. The VLC has never worn shoes, but all of his riding has been in soft indoor arenas. He is a little ouchy on gravel. The barefooters would tell me to force him to walk on gravel and “toughen up” his feet. That’s where I part company with them. I will be damned if I’m going to cause pain to a horse when it’s not absolutely necessary to treat a medical condition and there’s no other way. If we start trail riding, he’s simply going to get a pair of Boa or similar type boots to wear. I’m assuming the trainer he eventually goes to will want him shod for showing, and I’m open to that as long as we use my farrier.
For many years, I left all of our polo ponies barefoot. They played in a soft arena. In the spring, we started going to arena tournaments, and some of those arenas were hard and unforgiving – so we shod them to prevent bruising. It worked great. After the tournaments, the shoes were pulled and they went out to pasture barefoot.
One of my mares, many years ago, had a godawful case of white line disease. She was probably our best tournament horse – a real superstar who also gave lessons and jumped. Very fortunately, I had a fabulous farrier, Red Renchin – if he is still in business in the Milwaukee area, you should use him. Red resected and packed the hoof with filler and of course shoes went on to hold it all together. That was in the early 1990s and that mare lived to be 29 – I just lost her last December. Without shoes and a damn good farrier, I believe that mare would have had to be put to sleep long, long ago. This was my first introduction to corrective shoeing that worked on an extreme case.
A few years earlier, I had been introduced to corrective shoeing that did not work. This was in 1991 when I took in and tried to fix a polo pony who could barely walk. He was wearing egg bars and pads – back then, egg bars and pads were the cure for everything! The problem is, the asshat who shod him never sealed the pad in the back. He’d been in a dirty stall and manure and urine had packed under the pad. Not only was he standing on rounded balls, but he was horribly thrushy. The frogs were gone. I had the shoes pulled, shot him up with Adequan and turned him out in the snow. Again, a few weeks later – sound horse. Another misdiagnosed navicular, by the way. He was arthritic but the Adequan and going from a box stall with no turnout to pasture board fixed that.
So like I say – I have seen both sides. I understand why so many of you are disillusioned with traditional shoeing and want to try something different, I just don’t agree that “something different” is the answer 100% of the time, and sometimes “something different” is a train wreck.
That brings me to the Strasser method, which was mentioned previously in comments on another thread. There are no words to describe how deeply I disagree with Strasser. Strasser thinks it is JUST FINE to lame up a horse with trimming. This is routine in Strasser! She even recommends you put them on rubber mats for a few weeks afterward, ’cause God knows they can’t stand without pain anymore. I am baffled by how otherwise intelligent people can think this is okay. I agree with this farrier’s observations on Strasser. I mean, come on – the woman actually says that iron shoes always cause contracted heels? Is she nuts? I could show you thousands of horses that prove that theory wrong. Bad shoeing causes contracted heels. Good shoeing does not.
Then there’s the fact that Strasser – and some other barefoot cultists – encourage owners to learn to trim their own horses. Personally, I think that’s akin to DIY brain surgery. FARRIER WORK IS AN ADVANCED SKILL REQUIRING EXTENSIVE TRAINING. Anybody who has had a “new” farrier just out of school knows that they don’t have the skill and good judgment of the person who has been doing it for five or ten years. I find the mere idea that an owner can somehow (often in the space of a seminar!) be trained to trim their horse’s feet BEYOND LUDICROUS. Good God, that horse has to walk on those feet! He doesn’t need some DIY-er using him as a guinea pig. I have been in horses for 30 years and I would NEVER try to do my horse’s feet. I don’t think anyone who has not been to farrier school or apprenticed with a top farrier long-term should be doing feet, EVER. Rasping off a bit of toe, ok. But not an actual trim. A bad trim job can do a million kinds of evil, from causing mechanical founder to blowing out the horse’s tendons. If you want to trim your own horses, go to school for it.
People trained in this method are being found guilty of animal cruelty. That should tell you something! Yup, DIY gone wild. Poor pony had to be put to sleep.
Now, the Strasser devotees argue that the extreme trimming is necessary to increase blood flow and promote healing, and the long-term effects are worth it. And indeed, this has worked for some horses. Others aren’t here anymore to tell the tale. Again, it comes down to: why would you inflict pain on your horse when there is another way? And there is another way – for one, the Natural Balance shoeing which I am a huge, huge, huge fan of for horses that do require shoes.
As with all things, NB is only as good as the NB practitioner. Are some people doing it wrong? OF COURSE. But when it’s done right, you can correct severe lamenesses without causing additional pain to the horse. My argument is that sometimes shoes are necessary – to take pressure off of bones or to support a tendon in the position required for healing for example. Removing pain promotes movement which, in my never humble opinion, does a hell of a lot more to increase circulation than a trim that leaves the horse standing gingerly on rubber mats. If your foot hurt, wouldn’t you feel better with a gel pad on the bottom of it? This truly is common sense. Plus, you’ll note that the NB people promote the use of radiographs to determine the shoeing prescription. HOORAY, common sense. How can you correctively shoe OR trim without seeing what you are trying to correct?
My farrier rescued a pony with the coffin bones coming through the soles on all four feet. Normally I assume that is a candidate for immediate euthanasia – past the point of rescue. How exactly would you fix that with barefoot trimming? You couldn’t. She had the pony at home and was able to provide corrective shoeing and daily monitoring. A year later, that pony is alive, well and sound. Yeah, I can’t believe it either. There are a lot of success stories with NB used on horses with prior histories of laminitis, navicular, chronic abscesses and white line.
Now, NB is not the only good kind of corrective shoeing, either. Here’s another amazing story of a horse with a penetrated coffin bone returning to Grand Prix level dressage thanks to GOOD corrective shoeing. Sorry, but with barefoot? He’d have been euthanized years ago. You can’t go barefoot when there’s no sole to stand on!
Here is another very good example of corrective shoeing helping remodel the hoof of an old Thoroughbred mare with severely underrun heels. Again, how would you fix this without shoes? Good luck! You can clearly see how the support of the corrective shoes is helping this mare’s feet return to a healthy shape that will support her legs for many years to come. Maybe she will be able to go barefoot in the future, but right now those shoes are essential.
I told you that I was going to show you scary x-rays of a horse that was sound with corrective shoeing. Here you go, below. This is another CBER special (yes, you’re shocked, right?) Dumped at the lot by some asshat, who requested that she go to kill, she was rescued and shipped down to Southern California where she fortunately met up with a wonderful owner and a wonderful farrier. This mare maintains sound with shoeing and supplements despite this scary, scary radiograph. She trail rides and handles hills, rocks and varied terrain. She wouldn’t be able to walk around the pasture if she were barefoot.
Bottom line, I think just leaving a horse barefoot with traditional trimming is great if that works for the horse. Many breeds, like mustangs and appaloosas, tend to have hard hooves and will never need shoes in their life. If that’s your horse, congratulations – you’re going to save a lot of money! I don’t shoe horses that don’t need it – but some horses DO need it and refusing to provide them with what they need is a form of cruelty in my book. You will never convince me that 100% of the horses in the world can go barefoot.
As for what they do in the wild, don’t even start – the lame ones fall behind the herd and are eaten by cougars. That is what they do in the wild. It’s not like everything fixes itself if only those pesky human being aren’t involved.
5 comments to “If the shoe fits…”
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One thing not being mentioned here is that barefoot trimming is not the same as ust a field trim. A trim is the same as what the farrier will do before applying shoes. A barefoot trim is a practice studied through years of observing functionality and structure of mustang’s hooves, and by what means they remain sound. It reshapes the hoof entirely allowing it to have the bloodflow and elasticity shoes can preent. I am totally against horses being shod either; my horse was shod over the summer to help keep his feet from cracking (along with supplements and such) and it worked, to an extent. There are also “barefoot shoes” out there that people can try that more naturally distribute the weight of the horse. Look into it, you may be impressed with the results.
And fugly, I agree. Walking your pony on hard surfaces is hardly useful. Though it would develop callouses, it would take time and pain, where instead you could have used horse-sneakers in the first place.
~sigh!
I lost a ‘friend’ over barefoot (and treeless, and rope halter vs bit or even sidepull) issues. She uses a Barefoot Hoofcare Professional who no longer will even consider doing shoes.. he uses somebody’s ‘named’ method — not Strausser. ANd, yes, the man does a good job with her mare. On the other hand, I’ve a couple other horsey acquaintances who think the man is entirely too full of himself, and not ‘full enough’ of knowledge of the horse.
So.. I took my mare to this woman’s house and we rode around in her pasture. Then I rode up to her landlady’s barn to meet the horses up there – but my friend feared that her horse would get antsy and walked. Later, the Hoof Care Professional (who charges about $75 a trim, and comes every month) arrived. He glanced at my mare’s freshly trimmed feet and mumbled something about her mustang roll not being done the way he would have done it.. and went back to work on J’s mare.
I didn’t think enough of him to change — my own farrier has brought my mare’s feet from abnormally flat to pretty nice, over time.. He keeps all eight hooves healthy, and both horses sound. Shows up on time, handles my horses with kindness and professionalism. If it ain’t broke why fix it…?
Yet.. later someone on a BB we both belong to asked if it was indeed true that walking hroses MUST have long toes to gait.. I answered “OH GOOD GRIEF” and went on a little rant about cookie-cutter trimming and shoeing methods never being appropriate for all horses, be the practitioners ‘natural hoof care professionals’ or farriers.
Well.. she apparently took offense, and came back on the board asking pointedly “isn’t your horse sore after trims? He shouldn’t be. My mare is NEVER sore, thanks to my natural hoof care professional.”
My gelding is tender the first day or two after a trim — but only if I’m riding him around, crossing roads, driveways, gravel, etc…. I wanted to come back publicly and point that out.. then ask when the last time was that SHE had ridden her mare anywhere but in the pasture, or for more than 15 or 20 minutes at a walk?
I chose to do this privately… her answer was that I had pointedly ‘blown off’ her hoof-guy’s ‘suggestions’. HE HAD NOT SUGGESTED ANYTHING!
So.. unfortunately, that was it. I let fly with alllll the things that had driven me nuts for months, or even years… constant proseltytizing for the ‘bandwagon du jour’….
My horses say barefoot as long as they can. I have easyboots for driving on the roads, and they work beautifully. I also use them if I take a horse out to places I know are rocky, if it’s in the first few days after a trim.
The main thing is that your farrier know his or her stuff… not just the feet, but the entire anatomy and how it interacts with those feet!
Racing training is largely to blame for the long toed, crushed heeled TBs. See this 2006 study:
“Equine Vet J Suppl. 2006 Aug;(36):431-4.
The effect of gallop training on hoof angle in thoroughbred racehorses.
Peel JA, Peel MB, Davies HM.
Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY: The economic impact of soundness problems in racehorses is very high and low hoof angle at the toe has been associated with a lack of soundness. However, it is not clear what environmental and management factors might contribute to a low hoof angle. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the hypothesis that the hooves of racehorses become flatter when in gallop training, as well as to determine factors contributing to this trend. METHODS: Weekly hoof measurements were taken with a hoof gauge from 45 Thoroughbred racehorses; 4 Thoroughbred show horses kept in consistent conditions and shod by the same farrier as some of the racehorses; and 6 unshod free-ranging horses. A further 15 horses were measured twice in one day to determine the repeatability of the method. RESULTS: Repeatability coefficients were 0.31 degrees for the left hoof and 0.37 degrees for the right. Racehorses in training showed a significant decrease in hoof angle over time while free ranging horses and show horses did not. Free-ranging horses had a significantly lower angle in winter (wet) compared with summer (dry) in both left (P = 0.040) and right (P = 0.017). Show horses had no significant change in hoof angle. Racehorses that had a period of rest during the experiment (n = 11) showed a decrease in hoof angle during training and an increase over their rest period for both hooves (P = 0.005 for the left hoof, P = 0.0009 for the right). CONCLUSIONS: Training for fast exercise in Thoroughbred racehorses is associated with a reduction in hoof angle and wet pasture conditions may also be associated with a reduced hoof angle in free-ranging horses. Potential relevance: Gallop exercise has a potentially large effect on hoof angle and therefore, a change in angle should be expected to occur in racehorses starting fast exercise work. Hence management of horses with abnormally low hoof angles may require an adaptation to their training regime in order to minimise this effect.”
Yes, it is absolutely one of the contributing factors for catastrophic breakdowns. Other factors include toe grabs:
http://www.vet.upenn.edu/PennVet/News/Bellwether/WebExclusives/BreakdownInjuries/tabid/1189/Default.aspx
Racehorses aside, I am a barefoot trimmer. The fact that there are precious few trimmers in the country that actually know what they’re doing makes for an awful lot of uncomfortable horses and much bad press for the idea in general. In my own practice, having worked on many hundreds of horses and thousands of feet over the past 7 years, I have yet to meet a horse that could not be healthy, rideable and comfortable without shoes. BUT. There is FAR MORE to keeping a horse healthy and comfortable barefoot than trim. Lifestyle, nutrition, and hygiene all play a critical role. Any barefoot trimmer that doesn’t have an advanced knowledge of these factors should kindly and cautiously back awwaaaaaay from the hoof knife.
Show me a horse kept in a box stall in deep shavings with an hour or less of work or turnout each day, on a diet of alfalfa and pelleted feed, with a body condition score of 6 or higher, which is ridiculously common, with chronic thrush, and I guarantee if none of THOSE things change, you’ll never get the horse comfortable barefoot. Barefoot could be for every horse, but it is absolutely NOT for every owner. Older horses who have been shod for a very long time may never recuperate to the point that they can be ridden without some sort of protection (boots and pads). But their feet will STILL be healthier without a metal shoe nailed to them. (Heck, that’s a point that every farrier text in print will at least hint at.)
I won’t work for owners that aren’t ready to make the changes necessary to make this work, if a barefoot horse is what they want. It’s an exercise in futility. But the ones that are willing to do what it takes? My God, you should see the spectacular feet on these horses. You should see the overall health and soundness. And if you’re still not at least curious, you should watch them move. Because until you’ve seen a horse with truly healthy, sound bare feet move, you’ve seen only a fraction of the full potential these creatures possess….
I should add…Strasser scares the crap out of me. So does DIY trimming.
And I generally use hospital quality sterile bandaging and hoof casting material on sole penetrating founders. Hoof casts alone for cases that require stability for injuries to bone or soft tissue.
Was it Sinatra who sang “I did it my way.” Okay, so I’m a DIYer. I won’t apologize for it either. I’ve used 3 different farriers for this horse I have. They failed to get him pasture sound with and without shoes. The vet said to keep looking for another farrier. No luck for me though. So as a last ditch effort, I asked the last farrier to pull his shoes and meanwhile I hunted for a barefoot trimmer to help me. She pooh-poohed Strauser (thank God) and trimmed him conservatively and gave me boots and pads to start. She helped me understand the mechanics of the feet. She made suggestions for reading and studying. I learned a lot. I also mentored with another trimmer who taught me heaps more. I had the vet come by and do soundness checks and xrays because I wanted to be sure of what was going on. After 7 months barefoot, the vet was amazed because without boots he was sound with MY trim. Hooray for that! She said to keep doing what I’m doing and use the boots when I ride as a precaution.
No one should take hoofcare lightly, even if you hand off the responsibility to someone with an apron hanging from their hips. Trimming is an art, a science, with a dash of physics and engineering … despite this, it is learnable and do-able. I wish every horse person would understand the mechanics of the foot even if they never pick up a rasp.
BTW… I am complemented on his feet all the time – I don’t say this brag – I am trying to say that despite the complements (and surprise), I grumble inwardly because I would love to be one of those people able to hand the responsibility off to someone else. It would be one less thing I have to do! In fact, I wish I could find a boarding stable that would do a lot more for me, but I guess it’s not in the cards and a bit off topic. See, my point is, I’m picky and particular when it comes to my horse. If someone doesn’t do things the way I want, I will do it myself. As soon as I got him, I became his ambassador of life and happiness. That’s what a horse mom is supposed to be.