FAD SHOEING

FAD SHOEING

Four Point shoeing

Cytec shoeing

Natural Balance shoeing

These all seem to be the same thing, and all much of a much ness, all of them use basically the same shoe based on the “Fitzwygram shoe” that was developed in the late 1800 for short- coupled horses that overreached or forged badly. Why you should need this shoe when of course you would not buy a horse with such bad conformation (or breed one) or would you, it seems you must have otherwise why do your horse need it, perhaps it doesn’t perhaps it’s the owner that needs something different in the hope that it looks as if they are doing something for the horse that other owners aren’t

It now seems to be promoted by its advocates for various reasons that have nothing to do with the original concept. It can now be used to cure anything from a cough to pimples on the belly.

The late Tommy Williams F.W.C.F. when Principal instructor at Hereford School of Farriery with Owen David Dip.W.C.F. at Tommy's Forge.

The people who promote the shoes seem to have their own ideas of why you or your horse need them, though as all these conditions are and were treated successfully with shoes developed over hundreds of years before these so called “NEW” shoes I can't see the point in using them at all. As this is the case you should have no need for them at all except possibly to follow a new fashion

Natural, there is nothing natural about shoeing in the first place so why these shoes should be promoted as natural I don’t know except that the word “Natural” sounds good, and gives owners the idea that they are doing something specially good for the horse. Promoters of the rolled toe square shoe say they shoe this way because a few feral horses were caught in the early spring in the United States of America with feet in this shape after digging through snow and ice to get at food over the winter. To my mind this doesn’t make it a natural shape when the horses were not kept in their natural environment. I think that given the opportunity the horses in the wild would have moved further south out of the rocky high snowy area to where the living was easier, and in that case their feet would have been roughly the same shape as they were when they were born, in fact the same shape that horses have when kept on lowland grass. If you follow the Darwinian theory of development then by now after a few million years all horses would be born naturally with square rolled toes. And as they don’t then I can see nothing natural about it.

Break over, These so called special shoes are also promoted as assisting the break over of the foot, and I have no doubt that this is so, but do we or the horse need assistance or ease of break over. I contend that the horse nor the owner does not need this in fact quite the opposite. Only a small part of the forward motion of the horse is made by shifting its weight forward and then moving its legs to keep its balance, the main part of locomotion is imparted by the rotation of the foot onto the toe and then springing forward as in all athletes. Grip is what we need at the toe in order to help the horse spring forward so that the horse goes in a collected manner with impulsion, not all on the forehand. On an abrasive surface the toe will wear due to this action but of course in the natural world the horse would not be on a metalled road or a concrete yard. A horse used or kept in a school or field does not wear the shoe in this way.

Flat feet, I have no doubt that these shoes work in alleviating flat feet but then any normal shoe that is fitted wide at the heels and what you would think of as over long would do the same thing just as well. Of course normal shoes would not look as special and these so called specialists couldn’t charge as much.

Foot Support, These square toed shoes do not support the wall of the hoof at the toe, they are fitted so that the support at the front of the hoof is given to the sole area, so now a lot of stress is placed on the lamina in the toe area where the weight of the horse is not being supported. The promoters of these shoes say that there should be support on the sole, and of course even with old fashioned normal shoe there is. In the real world horses that are competing naturally gather earth in the sole and his supplies the pressure that is needed or in the school the sand etc. does the same job. I know that feet are cleaned out at the end of a ride for hygienic reasons and perhaps during if it has picked up a stone, but at all other times we let the earth do its work.

Foot Balance, Natural balance of the foot is desirable though what is natural about it I am not sure. All good Farriers who know their job and do it properly know about and try to balance the foot when trimming or shoeing the animal, so what is new about these shoes and balanced feet…….. Nothing……. so you don’t even need them for that.

Navicular, It seems that these shoes are a treatment for Navicular at the very least if not a cure. They are no more a treatment or a cure than an egg bar shoe which, offer a lot more support at the heel and is graduated as required.

Finally I think these shoes and method of shoeing are touted by these people first as a money making venture, second as a method of promoting their expertise in a type of shoeing that others do not and cannot understand so making themselves indispensable and necessary to the owner. In other words they are a con and are not necessary to the well being of any horse.