HoofNexus

though not for every owner as it takes knowledge and patience to take a horse barefoot who has been damaged by shoes. Shoes do absolutely nothing for a horse….except mask pain by acting as an anesthetic. How do to they do that? Glad you asked. A horse has a tiny heart compared to all other mammals.  (.62%  to .86% of body mass).   That is, his heart is small relative to his size. He depends on the proper deformation of his four hoof capsules to push blood out of his hooves…uphill. You’ll notice that there are no muscles below the knee to aid in circulation.

A shoe fixates a hoof in its narrowest or smallest form. And to add insult to injury, it prevents the hoof capsule from deforming properly, that is, opening up as much as it needs to, to allow for sufficient blood flow. The decrease in blood flow decreases nerve transmission and has the same affect as an anesthetic. Have you ever sat on your hand and had it go to sleep. This is due to ischemia, or a restriction in blood supply to tissues, causing a shortage of oxygen and glucose needed for cellular metabolism and nerve transmission. Taking the shoe off results in reperfusion, a return of blood to oxygen starved tissues and a return of nerve function.  (That tingly sensation you get as everything ‘wakes’ up).  If there is damage to tissues, ligaments and/or cartilage, the horse feels it and the superknowledgeable vet/farrier/owner says, ‘See, my horse needs shoes.’ Shoes are an unnecessary evil for horses and a handy dandy tool for idiot, ignorant, lazy owners to forgo the time and trouble to learn and then do what is biologically correct for the horse.

And what is the affect of shoes (and keeping horses in stables and feeding sweet feed and corn… issues for another time) on the long term health of a horse? Wholly negative. In addition to cutting their lifespan roughly in half for our ignorance and laziness, they are subject to a host of lameness issues so much so that a leading farrier journal claims that 80% of all horses are lame. And if you don’t believe that just go to a major horse show like dressage or hunter/jumper or grand prix jumping sometime and see how many horses are lame.  While there, pay attention to the hooves and you will be witness to some of the most atrocious hoof care you will never want to see again.