[IIIBarsV]

Well, he's a great guy. Does a really nice job with the shoes.

I finally got my hands on the Natural Balance Shoes and really like how they're built, but I can see how they would only really do the trick in certain cases.

I had the Lite Sport fronts put on two horses (barrel horses- one my sister's congress champ and the other my little roan mare), and Elite hinds on the back.

Sugar Bear (sister's horse) was good, and we were able to bring his toes back even better (he needed a good half-inch off- he started with extremely long toes and very underrun heels, and bull-nosed hinds). I'm hoping the lack of pressure on the toes will keep encouraging them in the right direction. I'm also interested to see if his heels will start underruning again.

Wisher was a one-woman rodeo show after the first front hoof. She's so dominant, and when she "doesn't really like something", she just flies back, jumps around, etc... after a twitch and an hour and a half we were able to get the shoes on her... lol. I have been happy with where her feet have been coming- her heels are great, she has no flaring, short toes, pastern alignment. But she does need a little more grip to run barrels with because her feet are not quite as concave as some others.

For the trouble she gave us just because she's being a dominant "coming into heat" silly mare, I might say "to heck with it" next time and just go barefoot and run barefoot with her. I don't want her hurting herself or my shoer and I don't want to have to twitch her the whole time (my shoer takes his time, very careful with his work). Sometimes she just gets in this "mood" and it's just a fight the whole time. Whereas she never gives me any trouble like that when I trim her so that idea is looking REAL good right now.......... we'll see how she acts when it's time to reset.

As for my other barrel horse who came out of shoes sore and is now 99%-100% sound, I will probably end up keeping him barefoot to run. He's got great traction as he proved yesterday when he was burning it around my extremely-in-need-of-maintainence riding ring on his own. The hoof is more of a concave hoof than others that is starting to de-contract. I'm working on growing out some pretty bad toe flare on him, and even the NBS rims would be counter-productive for him at this point. Also considering he ran in the top 3 times with horrible feet and flat steel shoes (like, -traction) on really really bad footing and never slipped once when everybody else's horses were falling down, that tells me this horse with a really good bare foot would definitely be in the top times, or faster with no worries about traction.

The white-footed thoroughbredy sore-in-shoes and pads horse who "could never go barefoot because his feet would fall apart" is doing great barefoot, running around more and pitching big bronc fits here and there. Last time I checked his feet hadn't fallen off. And he's actually GROWING bars (he hasn't had anything but flatness in years).

I really am liking the looks of the NBS Lite Sport and Elite Hinds. They are not as "squared" as you'd think by looking at pictures of them. Of course, a horse who has a nice round little foot on them already will not make as much of a change as a horse with hoof capsule issues. If they maintain the hoof capsule form where it is now or improve it, I will definitely continue to use them on certain barrel horses. But I can see they do have to be applied by someone who actually cares about their work and does it properly. A sloppy shoer would not work well with these shoes.

I will grab some pics of them tomorrow, maybe some video for comparisons, and update on how they are to ride with.

[Nevada_Silk]

Originally Posted by IIIBarsV

For the trouble she gave us just because she's being a dominant "coming into heat" silly mare, I might say "to heck with it" next time and just go barefoot and run barefoot with her. I don't want her hurting herself or my shoer and I don't want to have to twitch her the whole time (my shoer takes his time, very careful with his work). Sometimes she just gets in this "mood" and it's just a fight the whole time. Whereas she never gives me any trouble like that when I trim her so that idea is looking REAL good right now.......... we'll see how she acts when it's time to reset.

Are you sure it's not a pain issue with the shoes? The reason I ask is that she gives you no trouble but to get her shod you had to use a twitch.

My gelding was a horror to shoe. That's why I decided to take him barefoot to begin with much to my farriers delight. Now, he's an angel. Some don't seem to handle it as well. Maybe she is like he was.

[IIIBarsV]

She probably was not impressed with the concussion from the hammer- she'd start ******** after he started to set the nails. She didn't show any signs of tenderness afterwards or today. Wisher is an oddball sometimes- she freaks out over the weirdest things, randomly. I've had her vision/hearing checked and everything so I can only assume it's her attitude, or past traumatic experiences bubbling up from her previous owner. This is why I like breeding my own or buying weanlings.... LOL

I was wondering that myself, so I'm definitely keeping a close eye on it. He also mentioned that the shoes were almost too small (000) and he'd rather use the 00 next time, but that's what they measured as according to the sizing chart.

Barefoot-wise, her feet are right where I want them with the exception of a little more concavity. She's not a big-boned mare, and her feet are supposed to be tiny, short-walled little things, not clodhoppers. Personally I think a 00 would just make her feet flare out again, unless he's planning to set the shoe back a little further on the heels and keep the same breakover point.

If the shoes become a problem, you can bet I'll have them pulled in a heartbeat. I'd rather keep her sound and run barefoot.

My sis reports the shoes on her gelding worked great- I guess he was digging the arena up more (they're sort of a rim shoe), but he felt solid. Really I think the only difference between the shoes going on him and another trim by me would've been that he's digging in more with the rims, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to run faster. For all we know, he could run faster period with the toes where they should be, shoe or no shoe... lol

I got the "all clear" from my vet on my other gelding who will definitely be running barefoot (guess the large solid bump on his jaw is calcification, probably from a concussion injury, ie, a horse whacked him in the jaw), so it'll be interesting to track his development this year.

My student is also running her mare barefoot (she did as well last year too, but at faster speeds the mare would slip or stumble and had developed very long toes from a typical pasture trim by the old farrier).

Now if only it would stop raining so I could go ride aforementioned barrel horses....

[Nevada_Silk]

Well, it sounds like you've covered your bases! Good luck!