When I studied @ Davis, we were donated horses that no one could work
with for study. One beastie came in for surgery and was totally
unmanageable. And I mean he was a dirty, mean snake of a horse. He was
eventually sedated enough for his shoes to be removed for surgery. We
had traced his hoof outlines on paper before the shoes came off. After
surgery, we traced the feet again. In a little over an hour, they had
INCREASED in circumference by 17%. And now the horse was manageable,
calm and friendly.
In my experience, horses pay more attention to painful feet than any part
of a pained body (except maybe for colic). Anyone who has seen a
foundered horse can attest to the agony they are experiencing. They WILL
let you know if something is amiss. Horse shoeing is and always will be a
science and an art. If my horse is suddenly going bad or is suddenly
irritable, I always check the feet first. I don't mean to ramble, but I
thought the observations were valid for this discussion...
Jen Heim & the Sunman
(who's gone thru more farriers than we care to 'fess up to - and thanks
J. Layman for the referral, that farrier even has a cute butt - although
he told me to say that!)