Natural balance shoes

Porkie

Porkie

Well-Known Member
Joined
4 May 2007
Messages
581
Location
Kent
Visit site
My friend has been advised that natural balance shoes should help her horse

He has been lame and x-rays etc have located it to the foot and they think it is either concussion or soft tissue damage through one of the ligaments that run to the foot. they have said these shoes should help him recover quicker and prevent it happening again.

Does anyone have natural balance shoes on their horse or know anything about them? How do they work and what do they look like ???
confused.gif
 
Hiya. I have NB shoes on my horse and now that I understand how they work, personally, I wouldn't go back to traditional.

A very over simplified version of how they work is that they allow the foot to break-over (leave the ground) at the optimal point, reducing stress and allowing the horse to function in the most efficient manner. They are set forward of the widest part of the foot (not back from the toe as often thought). This link will give you far more information:

http://www.hopeforsoundness.com/natbalance/nbguidelines.html

One word of caution, please ask your friend to enquire what courses he's been on to make sure that the farrier she chooses is properly trained in NB techniques as it is pointless to put a NB shoe on a traditional trim - any farrier can buy the shoes and many will tell you they know all about it but don't and blame the shoes when it doesn't work! Hope that helps.
 
My horse also uses them!

Use the link given by Sally2008 as its by far the best!

Ditto to what she says-your farrier must have been trained to put the shoes on as the break over point is totally different to normal shoeing.

Good luck and once in them you will never come out of them!
 
Thx! You guys on this forum are so helpful!
smile.gif
And am finding I get a much quicker response on here than just randomly google searching stuff myself!!
smile.gif


Thanks for your help
 
One of my horses arrived with natural balance shoes when I bought him. There isn't anyone close to me qualified to do NB shoeing so my usual farrier has reverted him to more traditional shoeing.

One thing I noticed when I first got the horse and he still had his natural balance shoes on was that he slipped terribly on tarmac, much more so than any of our other horses. On looking at the natural balance shoes they have a wider surface than trad shoes, hence seem to be more slippy on the roads.

The second thing I noticed when my farrier removed the natural balance shoes for the first time was jus how long his toes were (horse not farrier!) and how low his heels were... The horse had only been trimmed and shod 6 weeks before so of course you'd expect his feet to have grown but the correct foot/pastern axis was all wrong...

My farrier has plenty of time for natural balance shoeing but only in the right circumstances... it suits some horses but not others. Mine doesn't need it and is now quite happy in his trad shoes (plus he doesn't slip all over the place on the roads anymore)

Have to say if I was going to move away from trad shoeing I'd rather try barefoot than anything else but that's just me. Horses are all individuals and what suits one won't suit the next so the best thing is to listen to the horse, your farrier and your vet.
 
If your horses toes looked long when the NB shoes came off then I would have to say that I think they were probably applied onto a less than good trim - if anything I would expect the toes to look far shorter than they look when done traditionally.

I've had the total opposite experience from you with regard to slipping on the roads - my lad turned into a complete mountain goat as soon as they were applied, which is fortunate as I live in a very hilly area.
grin.gif
I do have roadnails in them, but I used them in his old traditional shoes too but it didn't seem to make much difference, which I'm told is because they are often put in completely the wrong place to be effective.

Properly applied NB shoes should improve surefootedness (is that a word?
grin.gif
) as the horse will land heel rather than toe first, giving better grip from the frog and bringing any roadnails squarely into contact with the floor.
 
That's really interesting Sally. Perhaps the person who did the natural balance shoeing on my boy wasn't that great? Certainly seems that way... but he's in a totally different part of the country so there was never any danger of him shoeing him once I'd bought him. And, as i said, there isn't anyone near me who does it so I doubt I'll ever have opportunity to try it again...
 
Could well be that they were applied by someone who wasn't an expert - hence my paranoia about finding someone who knows what they are doing! LOL!

I remember when mine first went into them I was amazed at how short his feet looked, even with the old long toe distortion he had, which is what makes it look like there is masses of foot hanging over the front of the shoe to begin with when you're used to traditional. Now there is no overhang because the distortion has been eliminated and I have a happy, sound, 20 year old horse with lovely unflaired feet.
smile.gif
 
Natural balance shoes tend to be put on horses with naturally long toes and low heels to help them - this is probably why the horse had them put on, not caused his feet to grow like that.

OR they were not trimmed properly in the first place.

No shoe, no matter how good, can make up for a crap farrier!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top