There is a great sense of terror and dread that only farriers know: what started out as a perfectly good hoof shape suddenly gets away from you and you can’t bring it back to normal.

This is often a result of the flawed perspectives that farriers are trained to use while assessing horses’ hooves – to look at them while they are standing or in motion, which is good. However, the accuracy of the assessment while they are on three legs with one of them in the farrier’s hands is, at best, difficult. This is not so good for the horse, nor for the farrier, to obtain a consistently accurate reading of the hoof geometry.

Shaping the hoof from the ground surface or from underneath is what we are traditionally taught. We are also taught to then rasp the outer wall so that the flares are removed. The horse is then left barefoot or shod. Several things will happen if a hoof is left unshod (such as when they are pulled after the show season to give the feet a “break”). First, as a result of the hoof moving through its environment and being subjected to whatever abrasives lie in its path, the natural “trimming” never stops. Only the hardiest-footed horses with exceptionally straight limb flight patterns can continue to grow hoof on severe surfaces without incurring some form of asymmetrical wear. Barefoot horses require very large pastures to move about in, as this allows for more straightforward motion and less circling.The breakover is then more or less in the middle of the hoof, which encourages the front of the hoof to wear evenly on both the outside toe and the inside toe. This will help maintain the hoof’s symmetry – even on horses whose legs deviate from dead straight.

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