>shoes or no shoes vs hoof wear< My 26 yo Quarter Horse mare has not been ridden in 13 years due to injury & does fine on our sandy dry lot keeping good angles & not wearing too much, but one of my Iceys has very shelly feet despite supplements, holistic work etc & needs shoes if I am to ride him for the 2 hours e/o day on our very rocky hard ground. My other Icey wears his feet down too much just in the sandy dry lot & needs shoes as well. Tried about $1,000.oo worth of hoofboots... some custom & coulnd't find any that didn't create joint issues due to improper traction & fit or cause various rubs etc. We just do shoes now & both are very happy..but we have an excellent farrier that does a super prep & really knows how to shape metal/nail leave adequate expansion.
In my equine bodywork practice out here, I've seen a lot of problems caused by improper "natural barefoot trim" with just as many from improper metal on the feet. I don't believe that shoes are the root of all evil, but instead the manner in which they are applied. Bad farrier work is bad farrier work whether there is metal involved or not. Just because someone has studied with Pete Ramey, Jaimie Jackson or in the other camp Gene Ovnicek or Tony Gonzales does not mean they have an eye or talent..it just means they have paid for seminars. Kaaren
