a shoe is fitted perfectly and doesnt move around. it doest rub at the coronet band, if your horse has 'odd' shaped feet (for whatever reason, not all down to trimming, club foots etc) it doesnt stop it from fitting well.
how much better than that can you get?!
It fits perfectly when its put on then the feet grow and it doesn't anymore..
If you get the right boots then you don't get the coronet band rubbed, you can get close fitting ones that don't get in the way, and you have the advantage of only having them on when needed and its easy to trim the foot as often as needed to keep it well balanced and without excess length. I like that version better
I chose to try an EP because my coblet's feet were getting worse despite the best farrier in the area shoeing her and then he was injured and I was pretty stuffed for finding another farrier as good. Tried barefoot and saw huge improvement very quickly so eventually learnt to trim my own (and not in 6 week!) and collected a couple more sets of 'project' feet
Really i don't care what the pony's pedicurist calls themselves as long as they do a good job and if there was a situation where I thought any of mine were better off shod I'd have them shod quite happily but for the last 5 or so years barefoot has worked very well for us.
I've learnt in a few different situations that blindly trusting the 'expert' can be a really bad idea. Obviously you can't know everything about everything but learning the basics can help you spot a muppet or a fantastic professional and help you get the best care for your horse.
how about when you go to the dentist- do you ask for step by step instructions and expect to follow them? or do you inspect your teeth looking for things they might have done wrong.
I don't expect to learn to check my own teeth and avoid the dentist completely but my old dentist did tell me, without me asking anything, a few useful things to watch out for when he'd retired and I had to go to a new dentist..
do you question your vet in his/her practises?
My vet is happy to discuss things and answer any questions, the one that 'knows it all' and won't discuss things is the one I don't use anymore.
