Does your horse need shoes? Should you shoe the front only or the whole horse? Some horses do very well bare foot, however extra effort by you must be made when deciding to leave your horse bare foot. The first and most important factor is owner commitment. Are you willing to change an area of your pasture (key stone, river stones, etc.) to help harden your horse’s feet? Do you have an area that is relatively hard that your horse can start walking on for a few miles a week? Can you invest the time to find a farrier that specializes in barefoot trims and will you tend to the daily/weekly upkeep? Is the size of your horse’s feet adequate to support the forces, stress, and the changing environment that horses live in? Do you have a breed that lends itself to going barefoot? Most importantly, do you need shoes for the sport that you want to do with your horse? Does your horse need additional
traction with the use of studs, or is he/she subjected to major changes in footing, work, training, or weather?

The next question is how many shoes does my horse need? If you are in a sport that is judged on how much your horse uses their hind end, please put shoes on behind. Collection is a learned movement, therefore teach them with proper equipment. They may only be carrying their tail, but they are judged on impulsion from behind. This is one of my pet peeves. If you have a rear wheel drive vehicle, do you put bald tires on the back end? I hope not. If you are only going to put two shoes on, put them
on the hind feet. I know this is not done, but what the heck? Try it, if nothing else you will give your farrier something to talk about over coffee with his fellow farriers, and it just might work.

By now you are probably thinking, I thought this article was entitled “Size Does Matter”. Well, it is about size, but an understanding of a hoof’s roll needs to be mentioned before we can talk about shoe size.

A shod hoof has about half the ground surface of a barefoot horse. If a horse has a small hoof area relative to their weight, and it’s more then the hoof wall can support in various environments.
Without sufficient support, excess pressure from a shoe is applied to the hoof wall, and failure begins. A formula that has worked well to determine the right size shoe is taking the weight of the horse, remove the first digit, and the second digit will give you the size shoe needed for proper support. For example, a 1200 pound horse should need a size 2 shoe. This formula helps determine the proper size shoe for the weight of the horse, not the size of the hoof. Hoof wall overload can lead to, among other things, quarter cracks and run under heels. Often owners will say their horse does not grow heels, or that their farrier cut them off. The latter may be true, but I see more horses that simply do not grow heels. When a foot is functioning properly, blood feeds the foot and removes acids and other debris from the hoof. However when a foot is inflamed, the hemodynamics and lymphatic system (HLS) are compromised. This compromise to the HLS will greatly slow down hoof growth, and increase sole and hoof wall abscesses. A way to determine if there has been a compromise to the HLS system is compare the growth of the front feet to the hind feet. If your farrier is cutting more hoof off the hind feet than the front feet, you have a physical HLS problem, not a dietary deficiency.

The most effective way tom improve hoof wall quality is to increase the weight-bearing surface for horses without shoes. Next is to use pour in pads and increase shoe size. Pour in pads are effective in increasing ground surface, and healthier than leather, plastic or rubber pads. Conventional pads are sometimes counter productive due to the fact that moisture is increased in the sole, leading to softer soles and hoof walls. This added moisture also contributes to softer walls, more lost shoes, and an increase in anaerobic bacteria, which leads to white line disease.

Pulling shoes helps by increasing the weight bearing area. If you add additional temporary support to the walls by casting the hoof, it can be very effective. Additional temporary support is added to both the hoof wall and the sole as well as increasing the weight bearing surface. When the size of the hoof is increased, the pounds per square inch decrease. The decreased pressure on the hoof wall allows nature time to restore hoof wall integrity. This reduced pressure addresses white line disease, quarter cracks and run under heels. As the hoof wall improves, the HLS will also increase due to a stabilized wall which supports the sole and internal structures. When additional temporary support is added to the walls, it addresses the cause and result of hoof wall failure.