Majestic, awe inspiring, beautiful, all ways people describe the wild horse.
As a professional hoof care provider I see many posts that fuel the debate over the use of the feral hoof as a model hoof care. Whether you are a farrier, trimmer, or horse owner emotions can run high, especially with all of the media play the feral horse gets. I too have explored the environment of the feral horse and how their hooves developed as a result of breeding, diet and overall environment. But even before I went afield to work among the feral horse, I had a revelation that disqualified the feral horse hoof as a model.The revelation came to me in the form of a law of physics; F = M x A.
Remember, I am discussing the development of a hoof model for the treatment methods of the domestic horse. What is a model? In the practice of Farriery or hoof care the model defines the foot, not simply the hoof. Indulge me while I present an analogy; I really would love to own a Ferrari. Years ago there were kits to transform a Pontiac Fiero into a Ferrari look alike.With this kit I didn't need to know the mechanics of the Ferrari to build a car that looked like one. But, the reality is that it would not perform like one if I simply mimicked the way it looked. I know that this comparison is a bit simplistic and silly, but it does make a point.
Developing a model that must deal with the increased forces generated by domestication requires knowledge of the internal structures of the foot. That is where the definition Structure + Function = Performance comes into play. There are several theories on energy management and foot function that have helped in the development of a model for the practice of farriery. The feral hoof model however came out of the search for a model without the forethought of foot function within a domestic environment. As a result, those proponents of the natural trim model have been searching to find foot function theories to support its use in the treatment of the domestic horse for over twenty years. The more we learn about the equine foot and foot function the more we learn that its health is governed by a few steadfast laws, and one is F=M x A. 
Do you believe it is possible to have a physical model (design and description of various structures) that can be a base for horse owners (who are not hoof care professionals) to use as a guideline or very general picture/description of what a good hoof should look like? We have farriers (only want to shoe) and "horse shoers" where I live, nobody who has studied any kind of barefoot or unshod foot care. Owners will ask for my opinion and want to know "What should it look like". My vet and I wrote some articles for our local Trail Riders to help horse owners recognize a good foot or potential problem. The horse owners will never be farriers or trimmers. They just want to know what a generally healthy foot should look like.(difficult because we do not see many around here). Note: a horse shoer is someone who decided they wanted to shoe horses and learned from another person who does it..without any formal education on hoof anatomy or farrier work. My only background so far is two clinics on barefoot trimming (not yours and I dont follow their protocols) and your (very excellent) online Applied Equine Podiatry course.
ReplyDeleteHello Susan, and thank you for commenting. In my humble opinion, it is not simply a matter of knowing what a good hoof is, but rather understanding how a good foot should function. Most people know when a tire goes flat that something is wrong, but many don't recognize a wear pattern that would indicate something is wrong. Someone who has a deeper understanding of the tires function would recognize that there is a problem. Most horse owners recognize when there is severe wall or frog infection, and can see that something is just not quite right. What horse owners, farriers, veterinarians need to be well versed in is the conformation and function of the internal foot. Last month I was fortunate to be able to attend the France National Veterinary and Farrier’s conference in Pau France. It was of interest to me, because Mike Savoldi was lecturing on trimming fundamentals, and Franck Tabac a French Journeyman Farrier was presenting a talk on the Spectrum of Usability. You may know that we introduced a spectrum of usability in 2002 for use in a research project we were conducting on comparison of internal foot to the health of the hoof capsule. Anyway, Franck Tabac was introduced to our S of U last summer by Xavier Meal our French translator. Franck Tabac talk was meant to introduced an adaptation of the spectrum of usability form for use by French farriers and researchers. He opened his talk by saying that it was an adaptation of our spectrum and acknowledged our development of the spectrum and thanked Xavier Meal for spending the time to explain the spectrum to him. I bring this up not to boast, but rather to make the point that there are few means by which to evaluate the foot that have caught on. Debra Taylor of Auburn University has presented some information on evaluating the hoof, as have others, but few farriers, veterinarians or horse owners have taken advantage of the evaluation procedures available. We have been teaching the use of the Spectrum of Usability for over a decade. A brief description of the spectrum is in the book The Chosen Road (ISBN 0-97485885-0-1) published in 2004. What is important is that those interested in the health of the horse’s hoof must be knowledgeable of the structures of the horse’s foot and their functions. It is not extremely complicated. We teach use of the spectrum at our courses and horse owners usually have a pretty good handle on it by the end of the course. Getting back to this post, you cannot develop a understanding of what a good hoof is without being able to reference a defined model. The Suspension Theory of Hoof Dynamics offers up a usable model, one that I have used in the development of a trimming method, and a teaching curriculum. Based on a workable model we can define what a healthy domestic foot is and should look like. Thanks again for your interest in this blog.
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