Been a while - let me just jump right in here with both feet  -     Happy New Year !!


                                                                                 

      Several months ago i got another one "Of those" comments on my blog . That kind that Only  comes from the barefoot people. So as usual it was the typical , how horrible i am - how horrible the feet look on horses i shoe and is the reason i don't post negative comments because i'm afraid of my loosing my job or career to the Barefoot Movement - add nauseum .. It's an outright attack -  i've pretty much heard it all by now.  Sometimes i just don't know where to start and i think they throw so much crap in the air at me they do it on purpose for that exact reason - to confound - confuse and render helpless  -  but that's not working with me so much .......  So. Again i'll just continue on.

      One : Remember , i don't have anything in particular against a horse going barefoot . I work with horse's that i leave barefoot , i have horse's that the owner has asked me if i think we should put shoes on and i am the one who recommends barefoot. Hey !  you have a horse that goes barefoot awesome !  i mean really , that's cool.

      When i used to have my arab stallion that i raised from the day he was born my personal preference was shoes . I logged alot of miles on him , and i rode 5 sometimes 6 days a week with lots of cantering , in fact i only have two speeds when i ride , walk or canter - well and also blasts of speed at wide open throttle.  So i personally just felt better putting shoes on and even though Khero (my horse's name) was totally capable of being barefoot. I like a little extra traction sometimes and i feel shoes provide that for me. And the shoes also add protection to the bottom of the foot which means less worry for me .. 

      Now regarding all the arguments against shoeing and for barefoot i have to say one of the most rediculous statements i've heard coming from the barefoot people is ( when the shoes are taken off and the horse is NOW in PAIN )  " You gotta let the PAIN OUT" !!    good heaven you gotta be kiddin me !!! Are these people out of their ever lovin minds ?  well i'm starting to think yes .    

      So i have a Twitter friend - and if you're not following me on Twitter yet please do - my name there is pretty easy - it's Care4Horsescom ...  So this friend is a horse person who rides quite seriously.  Great horse , awesome horse , so you know - the Barefoot Movement came her way and she was swayed to take her perfect horse ( for years ) and put him barefoot.  So as often times happens going barefoot causes stress to the foot from pressures / bruising / pain / sensitivity / thin soles and you have a horse that's limping and sometimes limping very seriously. And this was the case with her horse. So where she used to ride trouble free now she's got a performance horse limping frequently.  The interesting thing , maybe it's just one of those Dichotomies , but the interesting thing is these barefoot people scream about the pain that shoeing causes horses but they don't have any problem seeing a horse barefoot that's in pain for not just days - weeks - months - but in the case of my friend actually YEARS .....

      My friend Cheryl who being a good person doing her best to follow and believe in the guidelines of what the barefoot practitioners were telling her gave it all her best shot .  After three years of having reoccuring pain with her now barefoot horse she finally went back to shoes and has never looked back since. 
                                                                  LET THE PAIN OUT !! ??     Krazy !! 
      There's no hidden pain burried deep within the horse's feet from having shoes on that needs to be let out ! !   At least not horse's that i shoe -  i'll say this again - Shoeing doesn't ruin horse's but incorrect shoeing can.  And so can going barefoot ruin horse's..

      About 12 years ago the barefoot movement came through the Bay Area California here where i have been shoeing for 20 years now ... The Bay Area has alot of horse's / Hunters / Jumpers and many people with expensive horse's , Hundreds of thousands of dollars on their horse's.   So here comes the barefoot movement to San Francisco Bay Area - the movement sweeps through the area on lots and lots of horse's and just like overnite all these horse's are coming up limping and lame everywhere !!!    You gotta be kidding right ?   Let the Pain OUT !!!  lol   i'm laughing but it's really not funny - Some horse's seriously laid up . Long story short , the vets were going krazy with emergency calls and well everyone just went back to shoes except for those "rare few" that just won't give up on their held so tightly ideal of a barefoot horse and also of course because going barefoot does work on some horse's - and alot actually.  Anyway.

      So what got me going again on all this is this woman coming here saying about my work " Those are the worst feet i've ever seen"     Well i don't know what she's looking at on this site but unless she's seeing feet that look something like this ----- >  
                                                             Which i certainly didn't cause then i just don't know what she's talking about because most of what i work toward accomplishing is like this where the foot is quite a bit in balance and under the horse's leg closely to where it belongs .
                                              
                                     That foot is in fairly decent balance - that's my work - that's a horse i shoe.

      So moving forward i want to bring one other thing that's been on my mind . Has to do with one of the biggest arguments the barefoot people make and that is expansion of the heels and sole pressure. The claim is putting shoes on stops expansion of the heel which stops blood pumping . I just want to say i personally don't look at expansion of the heels as a big contributor to blood pumping - I don't feel there's enough studies out that i've seen to convince me expansion is so key and critical to blood pumping. For one i've put shoes on horse's feet and then take a shoe spreader and spread the heels open slightly ( ever so slightly ) and the horse's will wince in pain.  I'm also not convinced that the majority of cases shoes stop expansion because shoes just don't stay put that tightly to the foot , which still leaves room for expansion. i've also previously posted photos where definite grooves are worn in the shoe exactly where expansion and contraction of heels is happening.        

      And finally there are videos on the internet where someone has taken a dead rotting decomposing horses foot and cut it in half directly accross from the left side to right and hacking the coffin bone in half at the same time.   Basically cutting the whole front of the foot off ! Namely the front part of the foot is missing which also happens to be the part of the foot most responsible for dynamic strength in general .  They then proceed to take a pressing machine and drive a bolt right down on top of the cut in half coffin bone and watch that dead decomposing foot fall apart which is supposto be proof that the bone column moving up and down within the foot is a negative thing because pressure coming from above as in the case with driving a bolt down forced the foot to fall apart !   Keep in mind " Of course the chance the foot is going to fall apart in that manner after all half of the strongest part of the foot has been removed...   I don't buy the concept at all.  

     There are many many variables when it comes to horse's feet.  The idea foot for me is very close to the photo above of "Good Balance".  If that sole on that horse is somewhat concave opposed to being flat footed so much the better. If the horse is also rather thick soled then better again.  I do not want a horse standing primarily on the sole of it's foot , it's rather stopping the life of the foot that way - every time the horse steps down it's like being flat footed !  landing with most of it's weight on the sole takes all the give and take out of hoof movement including and more importantly internally ! 

      Having a horse landing directly on it's sole predominantly simply must be causing more trama and concussion to the whole bone column / the coffin bone / pastern bones and probably all the way up to the knee . because the give and take , concussion absorbing action a concave sole offers has been removed !!! 

      The dynamics of horse's feet - Load / compression / absorbtion / expansion / bone column / flex / and much more is a very complex process.  I've been shoeing for 20 years now - Understanding horse's feet is not a mental exercise for me ( and i don't want these discussions to lead you to think that way ) Understanding horse's feet for me has developed from "Feel" - i FEEL IT !   It came from looking and looking deeper and deeper on and on for years of handling feet and legs ,  I can just feel when something's wrong. Yes there are many visual clues something's wrong . Combining everything i know about feet makes it so when i pick up a horse's foot , it's a feel i get -  i can actually "Feel" it when something's wrong ( repeating myself i know ) . Not everything of course , but with regard to dynamics of load , compression and all those i've already mentioned above - Yes !!!  I FEEL IT...

      So my job here is hopefully as i keep pointing out these things in the discussions that you can then go out to your own horse - look - and feel - and most importantly come to Know  for yourself how to adress your horse's needs with regard to lameness prevention ...    
                                   it only takes once to have a permanently lame horse .

        Happy New Year everyone -
as usual Happy and Safe Riding and always remember to www.Care4Horses.com

John "TheFootDoctor"                   take care.