The unspoken assumption

Well, our internet woes continue – a different problem from last time (when it was simply that we temporarily disconnected it because of the work on our roof).

This time its transmission of the broadband signal which has gone down – so somewhere there is a problem with incoming broadband but only the internet company knows where that is…and the internet company has apparently imploded in a financial meltdown and is no longer answering its phones…

So, the blog may become a bit intermittent until we have a fallback position or the transmission starts up again…I can still receive email though so I’m not completely incommunicado at least!

Back to the world of hooves and horses, I had another interesting call with a vet – this time a vet who had been asked by an insurance company to (in his words!) “do a bit of digging” to find out what on earth goes on at Rockley and (presumably) whether the insurers should include rehabilitation here as a therapy which they cover under their policy.

We had a good conversation and he asked lots of searching and sensible questions (and I found out today told the insurers to approve the claim - yay!) but it was one of his comments which particularly got me thinking. 

He said something which I have heard said before by many farriers and vets – that one of the reasons that horses have apparently increasing lameness problems is that they are no longer given a break from shoes each year.

It’s a familiar complaint – that in the old days hunters had their shoes off for the summer and eventers and showing horses had their shoes off for the winter, but as a rule most horses had a few months turned away unshod.  Received wisdom is that this allowed them to maintain healthier feet than they can if they are shod 365 days a year, and I am sure that’s a correct supposition.

This is a commonly held view, and one which some of the best “old-fashioned” equine practitioners espouse.  But let’s just think about that for a second.  

They aren't saying that horses need time off work or a few weeks’ holiday; the specific requirement is for time out of shoes.

If the “gold standard” for hoofcare in a shod horse requires them to have several weeks a year out of shoes for improved hoof health, then the clear assumption is that shoes are a something from which horses need periodic relief. I must admit I've never thought about it quite like that before...