OMG...are you people NUTS or what? It's NOT all about YOU... Race simply brought up a SUBJECT for conversation...he wasn't accusing anyone of not taking care of their horses...or abusing them...or whatever... Even the 'natural' hoof angle should be analyzed for accuracy...not just rely on 'eyesight'!! Doesn't matter if a horse has shoes or not... IT'S A SIMPLE SUBJECT FOR CONVERSATION STARTER!!!!! Race...THANKS for bringing actual HORSE-RELATED subjects out for discussion...perhaps if you didn't put everything in all-capital letters, people wouldn't be so offended. All caps appears as if you are 'shouting'...and I doubt that's your intent.

WELL HI just a cow girl , glad for your comment . the only people that get offended with what i have to say are those that probably agree with that natural shod horse !!!! like i said i write things to try to help horse people ,some people do great and extraordinary things for horses , some dont thats just how it is if you dont like it dont look at my post . thanks have a great day !!!!

I have a comment racetrainer...I haven't been on this message board for the last couple months because I got tired of you " stir up the bucket of s***.....now I stop in today and guess what ????? you're still stiring up every thing .....as I said before I think you just like to fight with people..

Highdesrtgal, sorry to confuse or upset you. (ONE TIME!!!) means that hope I never do that again. Meaning that I took off one morning on a lil gelding who was down on the outside quarter and heal of the left forefoot, so his angle was off. (Missing a left foreleg) Means that, as I ran him down the turf towards a jump I could feel his stride was off. Decided not to try the jump, we were at a dead run, as I turned him to the left to avoid that jump his left forleg slipped out from under him and we rolled. I could not turn to my right I had horses coming up on that side. When we both got up from that roll, his left forleg was snapped completely off just below the knee. We had to put him down. I watched that foot slip out from under him and I may be wrong but I believe that if that foot had landed square instead of on that angle maybe we wouldn't have taken that fall. I beieve the angle of the hoof is important shod or barefoot. Dukesmom P.S. It is by the grace of God my back was not broken in that tumble:)

This topic is really near and dear to my heart and I will avoid the whole barefoot vs. shoes debate here and get down to my experiences. I have competetive cutting horses that are pretty extreme athletes. I spend a great deal of time and money making sure my horses are as comfortable as possible so they enjoy their job as much I do. Shoeing is so fundemental to this I can't stress it enough. For example I had a very very nice 3 year old filly that kept having issues with sesmoiditis and the vet bills kept piling up. The trainer was very concerned about her pulling a suspensory and we kept trying to fiddle with her shoeing and finally hauled her to a renouned vet clinic in California that specilizes in performance horses. He discovered via radiograph that her angles were a fraction off...literally less than a half a degree and to look at her you couldn't see it. We changed this and viola! No more issues and she was a rock star that fall in the cutting futurities making the finals of most of the major west coast events including winning a go at Vegas with a 222! Another mare was hauled from Texas from the trainers where we had successfully shown her at the futurity and right after her first shoeing she came up three legged lame. Pulled suspensory. Had to send her BACK to Texas and get that worked out but shot my show plans, pocket book, and of course the animals well being for 6 months. All because of a bad shoe job. OK I'm done but attention to detail is key to the animals health and welfare :)

Race...you tend to bring up subjects that REALLY start some conversations!! Thank you for starting a thread... It's interesting how some folks react...and to read everyones 'story' of why they do what they do with their horses feet. If all I did was ride on nice, soft ground...I'd let them go barefoot - but the riding along the gravel road, or our wonderful rocky Missouri trails pretty much demand you shoe the horse. If you consistently ride without shoes on all types of terrain, your horses feet will 'toughen up' - but some horses feet never will. Some horses just have soft feet...some have tough hooves - YOU have the responsibility of knowing which is which, and taking appropriate action to protect them. There is no 'perfect' method for EVERY horse, every event, and every person...lets keep our emotions out of the discussion, and simply share ideas and learn from everyone!

I GUESS WE ALL NOW MEANS YOU . THAT IS A LITTLE CONFUSING , Im REALLY SURE I SAID WE ALL, I THINK THAT INCLUDES ME !!! SORRY TO OFFEND ANYONE BUT SOME PEOPLE READ A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY OR TURN IT IN TO WHAT THEY WANT , WE ALL NEED TO HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RACETRAINER.

racetrainer: Here is my question. Why would you shoe a horse and prevent their frog/frog spine from doing what they were created to do? This creates a number of cons in my book. cowgirlplus: kc la pierre (or someone working with him or a booth with his)already had something similar at the Midwest Horse Fair http://www.appliedequinepodiatry.org/perfecthoofwear/index.html horsechic: AMEN!!! Thank you... highdesert: I'm with you too... BTW: In reality. We, as owners, do not allow our horses to wear the hoof down naturally and the hoof grows then we have the farrier out. I'm as guilty as everyone. We have allowed our hooves to grow incorrectly. Mind you, my hooves look great, and I have regular farrier visits. Learning the PROPER angle amazed me. The hoof should be almost perfectly vertical from the groove below the groove. I learned a lot listening to KC La Pierre that day and plan on taking one of his courses when I can. http://www.appliedequinepodiatry.org/Text_Files/Energy_Managemen_Article.pdf

Thank You Highdesert girl! Racetrainer, I for one am offended that you ASSUME "we all" don't pay attention to our hoof angles. Most of the folks here are very attentive to our horses needs and while even the best of us can always learn a new thing or two, it's not going to come from a pious critical act of someone assuming we're wrong. If you want to start an honest discussion, ask a question. "How do you feel the hoof angle influences the well being and performance of your horse?" Theres a conversation starter... and one we might learn from each other on. Personally, I have a "Big Three" that I want in place before working with a horse. They are: 1) Balanced Feet, 2) Balanced Chiropractically, 3) Dental/teeth health. I feel that if any of those three things are off they will hinder training and performance and are not fair to the horse. Unfortunately there is no ONE answer to hoof care that fits all horses and all disciplines. Sharing positive experiences can go a long ways in helping people make decisions as to what is best for their horse. The majority of people here on this site already DO care and pay attention. And I for one appreciate the vast knowledge and information thats been shared here over the years.

Dukes--- I'm confused on what you posted: "Rode one out of balance ONE TIME!!!!! Guess what he came out of that run missing the left foreleg!!!!" Missing the left foreleg?!?!? What? What does that mean? I'm not usually dense but that sentence really had me scratchin' my head. Don't know about anyone else, but trying to read paragraph after paragraph in ALL CAPS is unsettling. I'm a barefoot believer. The natural hoof has its own shock absorbers. A shoe restricts. There's some good boots out there 'til diet, environment, movement and balanced trims all come together. It's a process.