Re: hoof soreness

["Heidi Smith" <heidi@sagehillcmk.com>]

> If you think your
> horse's feet are any different, IMO, you ARE in denial. Plain and simple.
If
> you say your shod horse's feet are pain free after a long endurance
race...
> for me this only proves the theory that horse shoes are masking the
horse's
> ability to feel the pain, soreness, damage, what ever.

Horses are notoriously honest.  If they have pain, they compensate for
it--by limping, by shortening their stride, whatever it takes to move with
less discomfort.  If a horse moves out willingly in a big flying trot after
completing a 100-miler, you don't need ANYONE to tell you he is pain
free--he is telling you that himself.  And once again, if his nerve endings
are intact (neither surgically altered nor drug altered), there is no
"masking" of pain--if he isn't feeling it, IT AIN'T THERE!!  (Refer back to
the definition of "pain.")  What the shoes have done is PREVENT DAMAGE, not
mask pain.  These two things are NOT one and the same.  And riding the horse
without causing him damage is precisely what endurance riders try to do.

Heidi