If you understand how your horses hooves function, you would never consider nailing a metal brace (shoe) to your horses hooves. Consider these next FACTS about horses …

1. Hooves grow from the coronet band, down to the ground everyday, expanding at the base.
2. The hoof flexes open with every foot fall to absorb the shock of the earth.
3. 80% of impact is absorbed by the hoof.
4. Horses legs are HINGED joints. They move back and forth only. They are not meant to withstand medial/lateral impact. The hoof capsule is designed to flex and undulate to compensate for uneven terrain … essentially it is the “ball and socket” joint of the leg.
5. Hooves are auxiliary heart pumps … assisting your horse’s heart in pumping blood.
6. When the foot is weighted, it opens up … when off the ground it closes. Therefore its an impossibility to place a shoe on a open foot. The “shoe“ is too small from day one.
7. The magic of the shoe is that there is a significant decrease in blood flow to the shod hoof, therefore sensation!
8. Most performance horses are started at 1.5 – 2 years of age. They have not finished growing yet. When started, its routine to place metal shoes on their hooves.
9. Horses don’t reach maturity until 5 – 8 years of age, depending on size/breed.
10. When shod, the capsule cannot expand as intended, shunting the blood supply, and contracting the development of the coffin bone. The joint between P3 and P2 will be incompatible. This also can happen due to lack of correct trimming, in their young developing horses.
11. Lameness tests begin (at great expense to owners) at around 5 years of age, and the animal is given up on between 8 to 10 years of age.
12. Horses used to live/work into their late 20’s – 30’s. Performance horses are lucky to see 15 years.

Bracy Clark lived in the mid 1700s-1800s. He discovered that horses hooves were meant to flex. He was SHUNNED, and his research hidden for over 200 years.