The Bias Against Horseshoes
by Marcus J. Pierce
Facts and the truth are sometimes slow to come out. In the last few years an attack on steel horses shoes, nails, the farrier, and their trade have been mounted by a group of people so full of hate and prejudice that they would do anything to prove their point of view, even if it means to hurt the horses. They claim they are trying to protect horses from the "evil farrier." They use a false science to talk up their points and scare horse owners to death.
In Europe (where all of the mess started) they have a foothold in the Government regulation farrier trade and threaten to force the farrier into their way of doing things, no matter what is right or wrong for the horse. This should make us all think more that Government regulation on farriers is NOT a good thing to do. They will stop at nothing on their quest to make sure steel shoes and nails are wiped off the face of the earth. They believe all horses should be barefooted no matter what. On the other side you have the farrier who has been shoeing and trimming (yes just trimming horses to go barefooted) for several millennium’s working with the horses to help them work with man. There is nothing wrong with a bare-footed horse, but not all horses can go barefooted for the job they do.
I was talking to a farrier the other day that was asked to help with a 100 mile endurance ride. When he got there, he found a few of the horses didn’t have shoes and were going to try it barefooted. He said to himself “Maybe.” What he ended up seeing was the owners riding the horses barefooted, crying about the fast pace the horses with shoes were setting, and wanted the shod horses to slow the pace for just them. The farrier also said that the barefooted horses were having to stop all the time to soak there hooves in ice water because they were in a lot of pain. If the horse can go barefooted, that is great, because the owner can save money and the farrier can save time. But a lot of horses need shoes and CANNOT go barefooted. Like Donald Jones said in his editorial “Comparing wild horses to domesticated horses is not a good comparison.” This all natural method sounds good, but it is not founded on ideals and principals that have worked over time.There is nothing natural about a horse with a saddle, bit, and rider. So what makes them think that the feet should be natural too? All of this plus the way we breed horses today, makes a horse that is anything but natural. So why would you take an un-natural breed horse and demand that we make his feet all natural? When you add all of this up, sometimes the horses need a little help from shoes.
For farriers, this is not the first time we have been attacked by a group of people trying to sell this. In Henry Heymering's book On the Horses Foot, you can read that in 1886, Major George Rodney, had the shoes removed from all his troops horses, and claiming no ill effects. In trying to prove the anti-horseshoeing movement was right, he received a regiment of horses that verified his theory wrong. Don’t forget the 1980s when David Seigler and Hoof Bond came out with that insane advertising campaign about farriers killing horses with nails. None of the anti-horseshoeing claims have ever worked or been true.
Farriers cannot allow these hateful and vicious attacks against our trade to go unchallenged any longer. The facts are farriers have been helping horses with nails and steel shoes forever. This barefoot, all natural thing has been tried and failed many times over. It is time we stood up and challenged this attack
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