Hoof care practitioner and EasyCare dealer, Cindy Meyer, of Carbondale, CO sent in this fun tidbit of information. She says, "Looks like the same stuff we’ve been saying about the horses holds true for us too."
Why do we wear shoes when it took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the foot? "Humans have been wrecking their own feet with every step since they first donned shoes" says Adam Sternbergh. He calls the ubiquity of footwear a "conspiracy of idiocy."
His article "You Walk Wrong" sounds very much like all the educational articlesout there today on the Barefoot Horse. Why did we put iron shoes on the horse? To protect the hoof. Why did we put shoes on our feet? To protect the foot. The purpose of shoes back in the middle ages was so that people didn't step in other people's waste. I think our sewer systems work pretty good now. At least we aren't walking in it.
Have you ever thought about those rickshaw drivers in India. They make their living in barefeet and the ground is quite hard, but the rationale for shoes is that the ground is hard and our feet need the cushioning of footwear. Our shoeless ancestors were able to walk on that "hard" ground. My grandfather went to school (I know both ways uphill) in barefeetin the summer. Winter time was the only time they had shoes and that was for the cold.
A study done in South Africa examined 180 people's feet to each other (Sotho, Zulu, and European) as well as to the feet of 2,000 year old skeletons. The healthiest foot was the 2,000 year oldfollowed by the Zulu, which often go barefoot, and last is the European (the shoe wearer) with the unhealthiest.
Just like shod horses, a natural gait for a shod human is biomechanically impossible. What is your horse's alternative? Remove the shoes. The unfettered foot: a paradigm change for equine podiatry clearly explains why horses no longer need the shoe. So what is your alternative? Walk Barefoot.
You don't like that alternative? Since there is Horsehoeing alternativesout there, there is most certainly other alternatives out there but you will have to read the article. Just think, horses havebootsto protect their feet, what do you think is out there to protect your feet from glass, grime and just gross things? The Vivo Barefoot from the Clark shoe family. Click hereto finish reading his article.
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