The problem is that the proposed regulations do not keep consistent language throughout the document…sometimes “related breeds” and sometimes “breeds with accentuated gaits” and sometimes “breeds in which soring is suspect” this leaves the regulations open to interpretation and as someone indicated, allows for “cherry picking.”
Sure, they may pass the law now and say that it “really” only applies to the TWH and the breeds they are already inspecting, but what will stop the next director at the USDA or a new Secretary of Agriculture from expanding it specifically because the regulations are so broad and unspecific? It creates a loophole for future exploitation.
Once the TWH industry is under control, APHIS still has their funding and will broaden the shows that they inspect and will move on to another breed, then another,. If they don’t use the funding, it will be cut from them on the next budget. That is how these things work…
As for the pads and bands, it isn’t necessarily “nailing on talent.” You have to have a little knowledge of physics to understand.
Horses that do not perform with any kind of motion have a leg and shoulder that swing forward and back move the hoof like a pendulum. Horses that do perform with motion have conformation that allows their legs and shoulders to move the hoof in a circular motion from the time the hoof leaves the ground to the time it makes contact, it travels a circular path.
That circular path, especially as the horse moves out at faster speeds of the trot, creates forces on the hoof and shoe. You have centrifugal/centripetal force, you have g-force, you have tension. If anything is out of balance, the circular motion and the speed at which the hoof travels creates more imbalance. Think of your tire on your car when it is out of balance, you hit a certain speed and the wobble gets worse.
As an example, a horse has one hoof with a higher heel and one hoof with a longer toe…a true club foot with the x-rays to prove it. You can only do so much trimming to balance them because you have to keep the bony structures in the hoof capsule balanced. This horse with a high heel will not bend that knee as much. Horses “pull” the weight differently. A heavy heel opens up the knee and gives more “reach” with the hoof. The other hoof that is balanced heavier at the toe, will have more bend at the knee and a shorter stride, because the heavy toe is pulled up under the horse more.
The ability to put a wedge under the short heel and maybe a little toe weight on the hoof with the tall heel will help to balance out the horse’s gait to make the strides more evenly match each other. Otherwise you would have a horse with an uneven trot that would be more easily subject to injury.
I have this exact case in my barn RIGHT NOW. He is a clubfooted horse with a very clubby right. He is a SUPER talented horse who was a mediocre park horse and has been an outstanding Walk/Trot Pleasure horse for us with a 3rd at Nationals and 7th in the World Championships.
This horse gets his shoes pulled when we are on breaks from the show season and sure enough, he was barefoot in pasture and tore his superficial flexor tendon in February.
Another example is a horse that hits himself. I had a saddlebred in training who would travel in with the right front and hit himself in the left leg. He had already broken the top of his left splint bone before he came to me. I lightened up his shoeing and we added weight to the underside of the shoe but instead of centering it we offset it so that the horse would slightly pull away a little more and avoid hitting himself. That horse went on to win quite a bit in Amateur and Junior exhibitor Show Pleasure.
The shoeing didn’t “create” the motion, but it helped to even out the strides to keep the horses from injuring themselves.
Right now the only horse I have in pads is my 25 year old Arabian lesson horse. He just is more comfortable in pads. He travels like a daisy-cutter and has slightly more motion than a WP QH. The pads don’t create the motion, it is the “whole package” that does.
What is the “whole package?” It starts with having the correct conformation (the lay of the shoulder, the position of the foreleg under the chest, the position of the withers in relation to the shoulder and back, having an uphill build), after you have the conformation then you need to have the correct balance on the horse…he has to be able to work his hocks up underneath his body (or at least not trail them out behind) and lighten his forehand and this comes from the rider asking the horse to use his conformation to this benefit, then the horse has to have the athleticism…he has to have the shoulder muscles developed to lift the foreleg high, he has to have the neck muscles developed to allow for a tuck to the nose and a lifting of the crest, he has to have the haunches developed to carry his hind end underneath him and propel him forward (he should have “rear wheel drive” pushing him forward and not be pulling himself along with his forelegs).
It is more than simply slapping a pad and a heavy shoe on the horse.
As for the bands, I am in FL and I have to rely on bands quite a bit because of the wet that we get here. The rain starts in June usually and doesn’t end until September/October. One big late summer Tropical storm can drop 15 inches of rain on already saturated ground. When you have to work your horses on soggy ground they sometimes need a little help keeping those shoes on.
The reason for the bands is to relieve the stress put on the nail holes, especially since the back of horse shoes cannot be nailed to the hoof. All of those aforementioned forces…G forces, Centrifugal, centripetal, tension…all cause the shoe to “pull” on the nails. Soft or crumbly walls need a little help sometimes so the shoe doesn’t come off and tear the hoof wall with it.
As for the need for pads for “concussion” you need to consider that yes, even though the arenas are groomed, many of the high-motioned horses are hoof pounding machines. They slap the ground pretty hard with every step. The footing for these horses cannot be overly soft or deep because deep footing causes stifle problems in these breeds.
So, in summary, the ability to use pads helps us even out the motion of our horses and helps against concussive injuries, the use of weights allows us also the ability to even out motion, the use of bands helps to take stress off of the nails where the hoof wall may be weak.
I know the question that many of you will then pose is “why have or why show horses with those defects…breed for more correct horses”
Our gene pools are small. Nobody breeds for these defects on purpose, they breed for the athleticism and the conformation. Unfortunately you do have a club foot or legs that are less than straight. What do you do? Do you take the otherwise talented horse out back behind the barn and shoot it, or do you find a use for it? Obviously you don’t want to continue to breed for it but with so few horses already in the gene pool we have to work with what we have.
There are a lot of people that have their Morgans and their Saddlebreds who keep them flat shod and do flat shod events with them. That is OK. I don’t have a problem with it. But there are plenty of other people that prefer the look of the high-headed, high-stepping horses.
The pads and bands and weights do not hurt the horse. In many cases as I have pointed out, they can help the horse. Why take it away from EVERYBODY because of the few that abuse it?
Do we take cars away from everybody because a FEW people drink and drive?
Do we take guns away from everybody because a FEW people commit crimes with them?
