Natural Balance vs unnatural

The first photo shows Doru with his new Natural Balance shoes. They make quite a contrast to the raised draught horse shoes used so commonly out here. I am very pleased to see him nicely shod.

The second photo shows a shoe being fitted to a smallish draught horse by a blacksmith who works in this village. It isn't a form of shoeing that I endorse, however it works tolerably well on draught horses that only move slowly. Plus, the locals are extremely resistant to change.

This shoe conforms quite closely to local practice, which applies the biggest toe pieces and calkins possible. That way the shoe lasts longer on concrete roads.

The shoe also has an extra piece added to the middle of one branch "because the horse wears its shoes unevenly". The outside calkin is angular, whilst that on the inside is rounded to minimise the severity of brushing injuries. At least the farrier knows that long toes and dropped heels are a bad thing.

Comments

[Jennie]

Good God. I assume there are plenty of horses out there with the sort of joint problems more frequently seen in Victorian Veterinary Books . . . I wonder what your neighbours would have to say about Natural balance shoes?

[Mikey]

I think I like the Natural Balance better :)
Those caulks are something else... Neat to see though!!