Re: NATRC shoeing rules

[jlong@mti.net (Joe Long)]

On Sun, 31 Jan 1999 19:52:09 -0800, Nancy DuPont
<htrails@earthlink.net> wrote:

> but remember the original founders of NATRC designated that horses in
>competition should compete as naturally as possible. 

>The purpose was to develop a better breed of horse and condition that
>animal to the optimum fitness level. The participation in these events
>would a partnership between you and the horse that would win for both horse
>and horsemanship. 

>Once you pad a horses foot you have a different goal- because you are
>acknowledging something is wrong with the foot.  

This is false logic.  By that same reasoning you would not allow any
shoe at all, but require the horses to be barefoot.  Bars and pads are
nothing more than devices with the same purpose as any shoe ... to
give support and protection to the hoof not because of any defect in
the hoof, but because of the unnatural demands being made on it by the
riders (unnatural in terms of distance and terrain).  Horses running
free in nature are not carrying weight, going as far in a day, or
travelling over rocky and artificial surfaces.

Kahlil has excellent hooves, with nothing wrong with them.  He
completed thousands of miles without pads.  But I padded him for rocky
trails, because even the perfect hoof can stone bruise ... pads were a
reasonable precaution to protect him from a painful and unnecessary
injury (and protect me from having to pull from a ride for a
preventable accident).

It is refreshing to see that NATRC finally recognizes this.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
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