18/07/2020
🤔 Ex TB race horse - Natural vs Unnatural - to the horse or the human eye?
Take a long hard look at these images. This is a young ex-race horse that has been barefoot for a year.
He had run in 6 races as a 2.5/3 yr old - in shoes.
These images are of his very LAST set of shoes held up against his natural bare hooves, one year on after the shoes were removed at the ripe old age of THREE! 😳
You can see just how much his hooves have changed NATURALLY.
The heels have expanded - meaning the soft tissues of the frog, heels and digital cushion have all DEVELOPED….not CONTRACTED!
Now just IMAGINE if this horse had remained shod and not gone barefoot.
Try and imagine how different his gait, balance, biomechanics…and hooves would all have been - but not in a positive way! 🙈
Is there any wonder that horses begin to suffer from joint, back, tendon pain and damage, arthritic changes, navicular, and so MUCH MORE….all down to the unnatural shaping caused by the shoe.
And this horse was ONLY 3 years old!
But no matter how old your horse is, a shoe will ALWAYS change the natural shape of your horse’s foot.
The gap you can see at the quarters on the image on the left is because a natural bare hoof is NOT shaped like a FLAT SHOE.
A natural hoof wears passively at the quarters creating a NATURAL ARCH.
Our human feet have natural arches too!
When you place a FLAT SHOE on a horse’s hoof you remove this natural arch by making the entire hoof wall area permanently active.
Not just active but HYPER ACTIVE due to the nails that are often left proud in the shoe, which hit the ground FIRST when the horse puts his foot down.
So if you are thinking of taking your horse barefoot and letting your horse develop his own natural foot then make sure you:
👉TAKE PHOTOS when you go barefoot.
👉KEEP the OLD SHOES!
👉Prepare to be SHOCKED at how much your horse’s feet begin to change.
It’s 2020 folks! Let’s all stop pretending hooves cannot be affected by shoes…the PROOF is out there….EVERYWHERE!
Find out how to take your horse barefoot and watch your horse’s feet change in front of your very eyes, by reading our new series of articles called ‘How To Go Barefoot Successfully’ Part 1 only in Issue 26 of The Barefoot Horse Magazine.
👉Read ISSUE 26 IN PRINT or DIGITAL Now👉http://bit.ly/BHMIssue26
👉or SUBSCRIBE and never miss an issue👉http://bit.ly/ANNUALsub
Let your horse shape the hoof he wants…not the hoof the human thinks he needs 😉
The BHM Team ❤️
