--- Karen Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>> IMHO navicular is almost entirely a manmade/shoe caused > condition. > Like a lot of owners, she bought the mare as a > mature, trained riding horse - with past baggage - so it's > certainly nothing SHE did to the horse. After damage is done, no > matter what the cause, we have to do what we can. > Karen
Well I agree. And like Karen said the owners of the horse at the time might not be at blame. We have never shod a horse with nice big feet and a big wide frog that has navicular, never. We have some horses we shoe that have navicular....they are Qh who have huge bodies, small little feet...... Question is.... Is it the shoeing of these horses at a very young age (sometimes as yearlings!), or is it that they also keep breeding "Halter" horses with 'pretty' little feet and huge bodies? One of the professional trainers we work with at a ranch who worked at King Ranch and at Parker ranch who now works with Dr. Miller says that they never even ride the halter horses anymore, they show them and breed them, and sell the ones that do not make it or are retired (retired at age 6, 7 ...very young!) Then these horses are sold to the general public who have this horse with a 'good pedigree' who really have soundness issues. Its really sad. We have noticed that with either barefoot or shod that if the farrier can keep the frog weight bearing, this really helps a lot.....as well as taking a horse who has navicular and putting them in a poly shoe, this has changed some horses lives over here....they can go from lame to sound in a shoeing if it is not too far along.....and it just keeps getting better, not worse.... With using a egg bar steel shoe...it will cover the pain up for a while then you usually have issues come up later...those just buy you a little time....Just what we have seen. Skye Fire Island Eco-Treks-808-443-6085 Fire Island Professional Farrier Service-640-6080
