Against everything we hear from the commercial hoof care industry
Nature alone, with no human intervention, is fully able to provide a horse with healthy, well-functioning hooves, and the exact form those hooves will take is heavily dependent on the environment the horse lives in.
Unfortunately though, most people don't believe that, because it goes against everything we hear from the commercial hoof care industry. Both main branches of the hoof care establishment, conventional farriery and natural hoof care, tend to isolate their attention on the hoof itself. Both view the hoof as more or less an independent entity in that they view the parts of the hoof themselves as dictating hoof function. Both, therefore, concentrate their attention on the form a hoof should take in order to maximize hoof function.
That is why, in a farrier book, one will see a picture purporting to be an example of a "well-shod hoof," and in a natural hoof book, one will see a picture purporting to be an example of a "natural hoof." In both cases, the concentration is on the form of the hoof; in other words, how it looks. However, the Shackleford horses demonstrate that the form a hoof needs to take in order to function properly is heavily influenced by the environment. In fact hoof form is much more heavily influenced by the environment than is commonly appreciated. A hoof form that provides for a certain hoof function in a hard, harsh environment will not provide the same function in a soft environment.
Both conventional farriery and natural hoof care alike have, in actual practice, overlooked that and have concentrated on the form of the hoof itself and on the isolated function of the internal parts. In actual practice they have shown little appreciation for the role that the environment plays and have overlooked the following truth: A hoof form that allows proper hoof function in one environment will not allow the same function in a completely different environment.
