METAL SHOES CANNOT FEEL OR INFORM
Howdy Friends! Are barefoot horses careful where they step? You bet! Because a barefoot horse can feel their feet and the ground. Horses can see with their feet.
More than that
Not only feeling the ground and seeing with their bare feet, every step sends vital information throughout their body.
That vital information tells the horse to slow down, speed up, turn, brace, or even don’t go there.
A horse’s foot sends information to the brain, and all of the horse. With every single step.
That information does much more than direct movement
The horse’s body responds to those signals. Some tell the body to build more hoof. The information directs the hoof growth as the hoof wears.
Now this does not take away the need for hoof management, trimming and shaping. We’ve all seen neglected and overgrown hooves. What we’re looking at here is the importance, and system God created for communication between hoof and horse.
The bare hooves act in sync with the world in which they travel. Keeping the horse sound, moving and safe.
So then what happens when a horse wears a metal shoe?
The horse’s hoof does not enjoy the opportunity to wear and grow as intended. And this really matters. It interrupts a chain of communication so important to the whole horse. Communication necessary for the horse to function in health. In soundness.
You see it is a lot more than just seeing iron shoes as wear protectors. There is another rarely addressed aspect. The HORN TUBULES.
These HORN TUBULES. Tiny tubules, extending from the coronary band to the ground. Inside the hoof horn. They are the conveyors of all that necessary information. From the ground, through the hoof, to the entire horse. To the building and repair mechanism. To the movement mechanism.
However, in a metal shoe, those horn tubules cannot send their information to the rest of the horse. The signals cannot get through! There can be no transmission! THIS is a key reason why shod feet look less healthy than a barefoot. Small sick looking frogs. White lines around the coronary band. Cracked and dry looking hoof horn.
But there is more bad news
When metal nails are hammered into and through the hoof – through these vital horn tubules – it shatters them. The nails breaks them, and disconnects them. The tubules are no longer connected from bottom to top. In fact, the all important ground contact is severed! It is exactly like a severed fiber optics cable. No signals can be transmitted. And that sets up the end of communication from hoof to horse.
What happens then?
The fractured, broken tubules below the nail have no more connection with the horse. They’ve become useless. Like a severed fiber optic cable.
It keeps getting worse
Then with constant movement of the nail and the shoe, during every step, these severed horn tubules, begin to break down more and more. They are not naturally wearing away, now they are simply breaking off. And dying.
Hard to believe?
You can look for yourself. I have. After I studied this for the first time about 15 years ago. Take a magnifying glass and go and look. 1000’s of individual tubules, all ‘glued’ together, running from the top of the hoof to the bottom. Communicating and building tough amazing hooves, that can handle rocks, stones hard earth. And constantly rebuild year after year for the life of the horse.
It happens because those hooves, and the tubules are constantly sending information to the whole horse. If they haven’t been smothered and severed.
And more damage
As those metal shoes wear and grow thin and are replaced every month or two, more nails. More nail holes. More severed tubules. And that metal shoe cannot feel. It cannot send signals back. The horse, the hoof, needing information and help. Gets none. And the hoof withers. But hey, there is always corrective shoeing.
The sad story of the shoe and the hoof, has now gotten a whole lot worse. Because those shoes don’t ‘just wear away.’ Their negative impact is felt all over the body. Metal shoes cannot feel. But they can, and do, silence and blind.
Communication from hoof to horse matter
A metal shoe cannot repair, rebuild feel or send information.
God’s created hoof is incredible. It regrows, cushions, sends blood and information. And it can tell the horse where it is safe to walk.
So next time you see or feel a barefoot horse change stride, rhythm or direction, move from one surface to another, think what information is going on from the ground surface to the body. To the brain.
Because that information conduit really does matter to the horse.
The iron shoe stops all information from flowing. ~ Gitty Up, Dutch.
(You can read more barefoot horse care on my blog in the “horse care” category)
So much truth!!
Our hope is many more will agree