Inspiration
It has been almost twenty years since the first research was done to study the hooves of mustangs living in the US. This research shed light on what is possible for domestic horses to achieve if given the correct environmental inputs – beautiful healthy hooves capable of covering many miles a day over the roughest terrain imaginable and free from the diseases that plague their domestic cousins. This research led to the development of trimming techniques that mimicked the natural wear patterns seen on the mustangs’ hooves and started the “barefoot movement” in the United States.

Many people try to argue that modern domestic horses can’t be compared to mustangs because mustangs have been selected for genetically superior hooves over many generations of living wild. This argument doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny though.

Most wild horses in the US descend, not from Spanish horses brought over by the conquistadors, but from thoroughbred horses abandoned by the US army after the Indian wars, quarter horses lost by cattle ranchers, and draft horses abandoned by farmers when they bought a tractor. Not only do most of today’s mustangs descend from recently abandoned wild horses but they suffer from the same hoof problems as domestic horses do when they’re born in domestication.

What’s special about the mustang isn’t its superior genetics. It’s the place they live, the diet they eat, and the many miles they travel everyday. This lifestyle allows these otherwise plain and often ugly horses to grow amazingly beautiful feet.

As the first wild horse research was sparking the first wave of future barefoot trimmers to attempt to make Barefoot (with a capital B) work a lot of progress was being made by Veterinarians trying to study how a healthy hoof works and how hoof diseases damage the hoof.

Veterinary research:
Robert Bowker, Dr. James Rooney, Prof. Chris Pollit and others have made enormous advancements in our knowledge and understanding of the hoof and the causes of hoof related lameness. Dr. Robert Bowker has shown that the strength of the hoofs inner structures (the digital cushion and lateral cartilages) is the best indicator of overall hoof health and has documented the pattern of differences between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ feet giving us a clear direction to go in when trying to rehabilitate ‘bad’ feet. Dr. James Rooney has illuminated the true cause of and cascade of events leading to navicular disease. Because of Rooney’s research hoof care practitioners ‘in the know’ take heel pain and its associated compensatory movement as a serious threat to long term soundness and as a result have been able to stop and reverse the progression of navicular syndrome/disease and restore comfort and long term soundness to most cases. Prof. Chris Pollit has made it his life’s work to unravel the mysteries of laminitis. He has improved our understanding of the role of metabolic disturbances in laminitis as well as our understanding of when and how damage occurs within the hoof during a laminitic episode.

With their research Bowker, Rooney, and Pollit have all demonstrated the superiority of bare hooves with regard to proper function, ability to heal, and ability to perform and these top researchers have now become barefoot advocates.

With the wealth of new information coming from the scientific community one might mistakenly conclude that most hoof care providers and veterinarians have changed the way they view hoof lameness and updated their approaches to treating them. Unfortunately, new information disseminates slowly through the veterinary community and even slower through the hoof care community. All but a few professionals have been successful in finding ways to bridge the gap between this new research and the development of new or improved techniques in the field. Given that much of this new research contradicts commonly held beliefs in the traditional hoof care community many blacksmiths would rather just ignore it.

New Techniques
Fifteen years ago the idea that all horses could go barefoot was a radical one. Fortunately, there were a few determined and innovative people who were passionate about the possibility. They successfully integrated information from every available source and developed a new way of trimming. Wild horse research gave them a goal to work towards and veterinary research helped to point the way when trying to strengthen weak feet and when finding solutions for treating hoof diseases. Many of the early pioneers of the ‘barefoot movement’ were farriers. They used this new information to update their techniques and approches to many hoof problems and soon they were having consistent and often dramatic success strengthening weak, sensitive hooves and eliminating the need for horse shoes and even curing “hopeless” cases of hoof disease.
The new information that came from the veterinary research community was particularly valuable because it enabled these early pioneers to address the root causes of hoof weakness and disease and thus promote honest, permanent healing. It is obvious, however, that while trimming can remove excess, correct imbalances, and shape the hoof for proper mechanics, it cannot replace missing material or cure the soreness that results from it. For that, hoof protection is needed until the missing material call be re-grown by the horse.

The barefoot movement of today is growing at a rapid rate in the US and Englund and is beginning to take off in Europe as well. It is a slow progression though. The whole process is slowed even further when people who claim to be barefoot trimmers go out to the horse community uneducated, untrained and unprepared and do work that is less than good enough. It takes time for new ideas to take root and it takes even longer for educated professionals to come into new countries. Despite this, the scene is set for a hoof care revolution,

Guest feature by Erika Morup, www.gladehove.dk

 

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