Hot take: Seeing more fancy shoes than healthy hooves these days

Back when I started, we mostly fixed feet to keep horses comfortable and working. Now, I get asked for flashy shoes just for shows or photos. It's a gray area for me because the horse's needs should come first. For example, a barn owner once wanted silver tips on all his horses' shoes, but one had a history of laminitis. I said no to that horse, and he wasn't happy about it. Losing that job made me think about how the trade has shifted. I miss when our biggest concern was a horse walking right, not looking pretty. We have to remember why we do this work.

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin1791d ago

Seriously, my buddy who trims hooves told me about a similar situation. A client asked for fancy decorative shoes on a horse with bad feet, and my friend refused to do it. Stuff like that shows how priorities get messed up sometimes.

wesley_martinez1d ago

Decorative shoes on bad feet? That's messed up. Good call by your friend.