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Re: [RC] natural balance shoes - Connie Owens

Hi Karen,
Go to www.hopeforsoundness.com and you will find out lots and lots of info on natural balance shoes.
 
My mare has been in NB shoes for several years. First alum., then steel, and now the Polyflex NB. Like the Polyflex best, seems to be working very well for her. I think to benefit the horse the most with these shoes is that the hoof should be trimmed in a NB trim first, and then shod with the NB shoes.
 
I will say that the NB trim doesn't work for all horses, I have seen a few that exhibit movement of what your now seeing. Some horses need a transition period, and some people go crazy thinking these NB are making their horses lame in the meantime, in fact I've seen this mostly with dressage people!!
 
Connie
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 4:27 PM
Subject: [RC] natural balance shoes

Hope I'm not opening a can of worms with this one...

I am looking for some feedback about natural balance shoes.  I am working for a dressage trainer right now whose horses are shod in these, and has since had a lot of soundness problems that look familiar to me.  In the past I've seen endurance horses with natural balance shoes exhibit this pattern: horse looks great for several weeks, moving well using his hind end, etc., then begins to have sore feet, suspensories, and hocks (presumably from compensating for front end soreness). 

My memory sucks and I can't recall all the details, since the endurance horses were not mine.  From what I remember, they were getting a lot of concussion to the coffin bone because of the shoe being set so far back, and changing the breakover point was causing the sore suspensories.

This trainer that I'm working for now seems to think all this lameness will pass, that the horse is having to adjust to the new method of shoeing, but it's been a couple of months.  Can someone explain to me the details of how these shoes are supposed to work, or the reason they don't work?  I'd love to be able to provide this trainer with some info, and satisfy my own curiosity!  :)

Thanks,
Karen


Replies
[RC] natural balance shoes, Doubledal