[quote=Cunningham Racing]A) I am one who believes that horse shoes hurt horses and their health more than they help horses - so that isn't the best analogy to use with me because I agree..
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Ah, now we're talking sense. Yes, they make them prone to sore soles later on because going barefoot toughens their soles. Plus, you have to worry about farriers quicking your horse, loose shoes, shoes coming off (which can badly damage their hoof wall), and farriers doing a bad job that inevitably throws your horse off-balance possibly creating soundness issues.
Of course, shoes definitely serve their purpose though in helping diseases such as laminitis and navicular. Also, corrective shoeing helps horses with faulty conformation or bad movement. However, like in the case of my horse, shoes may have been his demise. He has sore soles probably due to shoeing (I can't train him or show him at some of those big horse complexes with paved roads and gravel driveways around the stable). Now, I have to get $100 padded shoes put on him every five weeks. We tried going barefoot and putting him on jello and other supplements and Freezex to toughen up his feet for months, but it didn't work. Our last resort was padded gel shoes. He's actually as sound as can be now.
Last edited by kentuckyrosesinmay : 10-18-2006 at 08:58 PM.
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