David Ramey, DVM, tackles the barefoot trimming fad where horses have shoes removed and hooves trimmed to run barefoot. He says some proponents of barefoot trimming sometimes take a fanatical leap and may assert that shoes for horses are never a good thing, and that they always cause harm. Ramey disagrees for three big reasons:
- The stated assumption that “barefoot is always better.”
- There’s no such thing as a natural hoof conformation.
- Sometimes barefoot simply isn’t better.
Source: Horse Network, May 2019. Link.
. . . when it comes to “barefoot trimming,” I’m really not very sure what the fuss is all about. Fundamentally, there’s a lot of basic science lacking when it comes to trimming and shoeing horses, and I think it’s a pretty good idea to have a lot of options when it comes to dealing with a horse hoof problems. – David Ramey, DVM