The unfettered foot: A paradigm change for equine podiatry

Abstract

E quine veterinarians have a responsibility to study the evidence that shoeing is harmful to horses.1-34 At graduation, we swear an oath to use our knowledge to enhance animal health, and we accept, as a lifelong commitment, the obligation to continually improve our knowledge and competence. In the last 8 years, a quantum leap has been achieved in the understanding of hoof care. The speed and distance of the leap have left many veterinarians and farriers feeling, in the words of the old song, “bewitched, bothered and bewildered.”1 The result is that for a period of time yet, a widely stretched spectrum of professional opinion will exist, together with some tension, concerning what is considered to be appropriate hoof care. At the traditional end of the spectrum are farriers who combine their knowledge of hoof anatomy with blacksmithing skills to provide a metallic system of hoof care that has been firmly in place for over 1000 years. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the new paradigm that first emerged in the closing years of the 20th century. These are barefoot systems of hoof care initiated by 2 pioneers, a veterinarian, Hiltrud Strasser, and a farrier, Jaime Jackson. They are based on and nourished by knowledge gained by research, observation, and trimming to provide physiologically acceptable, non-metallic systems of hoof care.2,4,5,7 Many farriers, and many veterinarians who have previously obtained farriery credentials, remain ardent advocates of shoeing. Though they damn their craft with faint praise when they concede that shoeing is a necessary evil, they revoke this weakness by citing the millennium-long history of shoeing, under management strictures imposed by non-leisure usage, as evidence that horses suffered no ill effects from such a practice.26,2