Detailed Hoof Wizard Information

• What Does the Hoof Wizard Do and Why Was It Invented?

The Hoof Wizard is a visual aid that helps you to preserve your horse’s comfort and soundness by helping you to identify whether or not your horse’s hooves are properly balanced for his unique conformation. Proper balance is the foundation of stress management, reducing stress related injuries to the joints and tissues of your horse’s foot and lower leg.

The Hoof Wizard was born of a deep and abiding devotion to horses that spans over six decades of combined service to them. Taught by master farriers during long and demanding apprenticeships, the inventors of the Hoof Wizard developed a system for balancing the equine hoof that consistently improved the movement, performance, and soundness of the horses they served.

Seeing the success of this system, farriers, horse owners, trainers, and veterinarians began to ask how they too might assess whether their horses were properly balanced. They recognized that when their horses were properly balanced according to this system they suffered fewer injuries, had lower foot and leg related veterinary costs, and competed more successfully.

Farriers wanted to learn this system because they recognized that they too could enjoy helping horses perform better with fewer soundness problems. Veterinarians recognized that properly balanced, horses with soft or bony tissue injuries of the limb healed better and faster with an improved long-term prognosis.

But how do you teach something that takes a lifetime of experience to learn to someone who needs the information right now? Simple enough! Create the Hoof Wizard!

The Hoof Wizard takes a lifetime (two lifetimes, actually) of experience and condenses it to a single, simple line. Properly used, the Hoof Wizard helps all horse care managers, whether back yard hobbyist or olympic champion, to evaluate this very important component of their horse’s comfort and performance.

In the end, that is why the Hoof Wizard was invented: To help horses live and work in comfort by giving all horse care managers the tools to evaluate the unique and proper balance of their horse’s hooves.

• Can You Be More Specific About What the Hoof Wizard Does?

Sure! But remember, for us the real answer to this question is: The Hoof Wizard gives everyone who works with horses a chance to make their horses’ lives better.

Here is the long answer. Horse owners, farriers, veterinarians, and trainers can now identify potentially damaging imbalances in their horses’ hooves before they become expensive, often career breaking, injuries. Imbalance often causes low-grade discomfort in our horses that does not manifest as head nodding lameness. Often, this discomfort makes our horses seem resistant and less willing to perform as well as they did a few days, weeks, or months before.

When the hoof is perfectly aligned with the bones of the leg, then it is balanced. If the hoof is not balanced, the hoof must have grown unevenly, broken or worn unevenly, or been trimmed out of balance.

Imbalance in horses living in the wild tend to be self-correcting, although often painful. The instant that man gets involved, everything changes. We remove horses to a softer, often moister environmnet where normal wear of the hoof stops, we shoe them to protect them from the abuses of riding and to keep them going when they would simply limp around in the wild, and we modify their diets. Improper, unhealthy imbalance can persist without self-correction, resulting in long-term unsoundness and discomfort.

The Hoof Wizard identifies those portions of the hoof wall that are too long or too short for a horse’s unique leg alignment. Once identified, the overly long sections of hoof can be reduced, much the same way as nature would do, although less aggressively. Also, the overly short sections of the hoof can be preserved, creating support for the short side.

The beauty of the Hoof Wizard is that, once achieved, balance can be maintained by making subtle changes to the horse’s hoof, not the dramatic changes that occur in the wild. As a result, by using the Hoof Wizard, your horse will stay more ideally balanced than possible for wild horses whose hooves are ripped deeply, often painfully, from the nail bed by the rocks. By balancing the hooves, one is assured that the hoof capsule will not distort and impinge on the internal tissues of the hoof, thereby preventing injury and unsoundness such as side bone and navicular syndrome.

In addition, the properly balanced hoof is the only foundation that guarantees the proper alignment of the joints of the horse’s lower limb. If the joints of the lower limb are aligned then the horse is far less susceptible to stress related lameness such as arthritis, torn collateral ligaments, and fracture. In short, the Hoof Wizard saves your horse from unnecessary discomfort and saves you the time and money that difficult to diagnose and treat lameness can cost.

• How Does the Hoof Wizard Work?

The Hoof Wizard is a cuff-like device that fits around your horse’s hoof. Using the Hoof Wizard, you can identify and correct imbalances in your horse’s hooves that cause misalignments of the bony columns of the front and hind limbs. These misalignments include the pastern joints, fetlocks, and knees of the front limbs; and the pasterns, fetlocks, hocks, even stifles of the hind limb. A well balanced hoof and leg is your first line of defense against lameness and improper movement.

The Hoof Wizard is a template of an IDEALLY balanced and shaped hoof. This ideal shape and balance is the same for every horse, large or small, draft or Arabian, crooked legged or text book perfect. It works because it is based upon a revolutionary new understanding about balance, movement, and the horse’s hoof.

Traditionally, farriers and veterinarians have assessed the balance of a horse’s hooves by taking a snap-shot glance at the front of the horse, noting if the horse toed in or out, and then tilting the bottom of the hoof to compensate for the snap-shot assessment. This ground-up method of balancing disregards the alignment of the joints and limbs of the horse.

The Hoof Wizard turns the theory of balance upside down–literally! The Hoof Wizard starts at the hairline of the hoof, the point of first evidence of hoof capsule deformation resulting from imbalance. Using the hairline, not the ground, as a baseline, the Hoof Wizard creates an ideal ground surface pattern, called the Balance Line, that is uniquely correct for your horse’s hoof and leg.

Armed with this information, one can identify those portions of the hoof wall that are too long or too short for proper hoof balance and leg alignment. Over time, using the Hoof Wizard as a guide, your horse’s hoof will regain its full and undistorted shape and your horse’s joints will be aligned once more.

Pain generated from hoof deformation or misalignment of the joint spaces will ease and your horse will be more willing to work, often with more animation and engagement. Show ring hunters point their toes and float across the ground, dressage horses power across the diagonal with joy and suspension, and jumpers leave the ground with more confidence and scope.

Now your horse can be balanced consistently. Now, instead of wondering if your horse will move as well after this shoeing as he did after the previous shoeing, you can be confident that he will have the same advantages of being well balanced every time he is shod. With the Hoof Wizard, you know that your horse will get a great shoeing job because you know whether or not your horse is being properly balanced. If you are at a show or your regular farrier is not available, you will set the standard of craftsmanship because you can assess your horse’s balance with the Hoof Wizard.

This consistency of balance that is available through the Hoof Wizard has an even greater advantage. The Hoof Wizard makes it possible to balance (trim) the horse’s hoof precisely the same way every time it needs trimming. Now researchers can make carefully calculated changes that can be tracked over long periods of time, always starting from the same base point. With these true control subjects double blind studies can be conducted. Horse shoeing has moved, in one swift step, from art form to science!

Apprentices and attendants of farrier schools can learn true balance from the first day of their enrollment and training. The key word here is learn! Farrier students now have a formula that they can learn and apply. They do not need to be gifted, other than with the desire to use the Hoof Wizard properly.

You can hire with confidence the farrier who uses the Hoof Wizard, even though he or she might be less experienced that you would prefer. You the horse owner do not need to wonder if your horse has been properly balanced! You can check your horse’s balance any time you suspect that something might be getting out of wack. There is no more guessing at the proper balance for your horse. The advent of the Hoof Wizard marks the end of the secret, artistic, magical method known only to a few master farriers and, therefore, available to only a few lucky horse owners. Armed with your own Hoof Wizard you will make certain that it is used every time your horse is trimmed and/or shod. Whether your farrier owns a Wizard or not, you will know that your horse has the advantage of a proper, balanced trim.

Your horse needs and deserves proper hoof balance! Now you can be certain that he gets it.

• Who Should Use the Hoof Wizard?

Everyone should use the Hoof Wizard! The Hoof Wizard is a tool. Just as every home owner needs a few basic tools to maintain the home, so should the Hoof Wizard become a basic tool for horse owners and hoof care professionals. Sure! You can drive a nail into a board with a rock or a brick, but doesn’t a hammer make the job easier and better? The Hoof Wizard is to your horse’s balance what the hammer is to the nail.

It makes no difference whether your horse is bare footed or shod, pasture ornament or hard working competitor, mineature or draft. If your horse is standing on balanced hooves with aligned joints then he will be more comfortable and better able to do his job. The Hoof Wizard helps you do a better job for your horse.

Horse owners, farriers, veterinarians, and trainers can now easily and accurately identify potentially damaging imbalances before they cause expensive, often career breaking, injuries. Proper balance, as identified by the Hoof Wizard, may relieve pain in horses who are hurting as a result of imbalance but who may or may not yet be head-nodding lame.

• I Like the Concept but I Don’t Really Understand. Tell Me More About How the Hoof Wizard Balances the Forces Acting on the Hoof and Leg.

It’s only fair to warn you. The answers to the next couple of questions get pretty technical. If you don’t care much about the whys and hows of the Hoof Wizard, you might just want to skip to other questions. If you are interested, here we go!

In looking at balance from the top down, the Hoof Wizard evaluates the effects of impact forces on your horse’s hooves. The traditional, bottom-up way of looking at balance attempts to change the way these forces act on the hoof without first considering how those forces affect the hoof. The problem with this approach is that (1) it presumes all horses are balanced the same way and (2) it has no mechanism for equalizing impact forces throughout the hoof.

Of course, horses, like people, are individuals. It is a rare person who can buy a suit off the rack and have it fit perfectly. Likewise, it is the rare horse who can be balanced according to an industry standard and be balanced appropriately. The perfectly fitting suit and the perfectly balanced hoof must be customized to the individual!

To understand how the Hoof Wizard does this, we must first understand that the horse’s hoof is a relatively “plastic” organ. Because it is so tough and tolerant of abuse, it is easy to think of the hoof as wooden and unchanging. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

The hoof responds to uneven surfaces by deflecting upward or downward amazingly quickly. This deflection is visible as a deflection of the hairline of the hoof. In the perfectly balanced hoof, which is as hard to find as any other “perfect” thing, the hairline forms a straight line or gently downward curving line, free of the peaks and valleys of “pushes,” from the toe of the hoof to the bulbs of the heels. The deflection of the hairline is the earliest warning that the hoof is imbalanced.

Don’t take this statement as gospel. Conduct a little experiment to prove it to yourself. Stand your horse on firm ground or on pavement and look at his hairline. Keep a mental picture of what his hairline looks like. Next, put a 1/4 inch thick piece of wood that is approximately 2 inches long and 2 inches wide under one side of his hoof. Now compare the hairline with the mental picture you took a few seconds ago. Notice how the hairline has “pushed” upward, just above the block of wood that you put under his foot. When you remove the block of wood, the hairline will return to its original position.

FYI: There are photographs, drawings, and videos elsewhere on this site that show examples of various hairline “pushes” and the hairlines of nearly perfectly balanced hooves.

This deflection of the hairline is made possible by the Velcro-like attachment of the horn to the coffin bone inside the hoof. Up to a point, this soft tissue attachment is structured to give to uneven forces, being the first line of defense against concussion. If, however, the hoof wall gets too long in a spot, the limit of the deflection is met and the hoof capsule must deform by creating concavities and flares. When you think about it, this is the only way that the hoof can compensate for unnatural lengths of hoof that are causing imbalance–put a curve in a straight line and the ends get closer together.

As the imbalance worsens, which it must do unless someone recognizes the imbalance and intervenes, the long side of the hoof gets progressively longer and the shorter side of the hoof begins to crush. This crushing effect is the result of the hoof absorbing the forces of impact unevenly. The high side of the hoof hits the ground softly first and then the lower side comes crashing down.

A secondary problem occurs as a result of this uneven distribution of impact. As one side of the hoof begins to crush, the circulation in the crushed area diminishes because the blood vessels are getting squeezed. On the other hand, the circulation on the long side increases. The crushed side stops growing because of decreased circulation and the long side grows faster because of increased circulation. It is now a vicious cycle. The imbalance can only get worse and worse.

By this point, the hairline has deflected upward as far as possible, the hoof capsule is deformed, and the joints of the lower leg are painfully misaligned. All because traditional balancing technique ignores the consequences of uneven impact on the hoof.

Until the advent of the Hoof Wizard, the traditional balancing theory was the only method known for balancing your horse’s hooves. As a result, many horses have suffered “phantom” lamenesses which have been variously treated at enormous expense without success. Obviously, treating a horse for colic when he has a bad tooth does not help the horse. If we treat our horses for a high suspensory tear when he is lame from an impinged lateral cartilage in his foot, then he is unlikely to return to a sound and useful life. This happens often and is the unfortunate consequence of using traditional balancing technique.

The problem is two-fold: (1) Force cannot be seen directly so one can only assess its influence indirectly by observing the visible changes it causes when acting on the hoof. And (2) because the horse must move around at different speeds with different levels of intensity, the forces acting on the hoof are as variable as the weather. The hoof is in a constant state of change. It is dynamic in its shape and it responds to dynamically changing forces. The world’s greatest physicist could only approximate the complexity of forces acting on and endured by our horses’ hooves!

Because it is based on position (stance) and a single observation that is frozen in time, traditional balancing technique is limited to an assessment of the hoof as a static, unchanging object. Unequal forces acting dynamically on the hoof are impossible to recognize when evaluating the hoof in this traditional way. Because it effectively disregards the complex of forces acting on the hoof and leg, traditional technique often makes imbalances worse rather than correcting them.

Traditional balancing technique cannot be consistent or repeatable. Change the stance or change the time of observation and the assessment must also change. A horse may look pigeon-toed at first glance and then look toed-out a moment later. Each of these assessments may be accurate for the horse at the moment of observation! The problem is that the horse may alter his stance, alter the turn of his leg, or stand on a slightly different surface from one moment to the next. These subtile, continuously occurring variations in our horses positions can have considerable impact on the assessment of his balance and the method of correction, if one follows with the traditional balancing technique.

The Hoof Wizard changes all that. It is aligned with the hairline to evaluate balance. Remember that the hairline reflects all hoof capsule deformation, which has developed over the lifetime of the horse. Using the hairline as a start point, all the dynamic forces acting to deform the hoof are automatically factored into the balancing process.

The Hoof Wizard is essentially a copy of a perfectly balanced and formed hoof capsule. By using the Hoof Wizard as a template to trace the shape of the perfect hoof onto our horse’s hoof, it is a simple matter to see how our horse varies from the balanced hoof and make corrections that effectively equalize all the forces acting on the horse’s hoof.

• How Does Traditional Balancing Theory Work and How Is Is Different From the Hoof Wizard Theory?

Whew! The answer to this question is as complex as the question is simple. But this is an important question. So please try to get through it with me.

When balancing a horse’s hoof in the traditional way, one first looks at the front of the horse in order to decide whether or not the horse is pigeon-toed, toed-out, or straight. This preliminary assessment must be made with the horse standing as squarely as possible on a surface that is both smooth and horizontal.

Next, the bottom of the hoof is sighted in order to evaluate the flatness and tilt of the ground surface of the hoof (the point of contact between the ground and the hoof). Traditional theory states that the balanced hoof must have a table-top-flat ground surface which must be tilted in a way that turns the foot either more inward or outward depending on the stance of the horse. If the hoof points straight ahead when the horse is standing squarely on a smooth and horizontal surface, it is considered balanced. The conformation of the horse’s leg makes no difference except that it is considered defective if it makes “straightening the leg” impossible.

It is easy to understand the allure of this traditional theory. Certainly, it is pleasing to think of our horses landing on a perfectly flat bottomed hoof. And who doesn’t like to think that our horse has text book “perfect conformation?” (You’ve seen the picture in one of your books! That’s the picture with the caption that proclaims the desirability of the “straight legged horse.”)

So farriers have traditionally done that! They have learned to flatten the ground surface of the hoof to a table-top-flat surface and they have learned which way to tilt that surface in order for our horses to look like the picture-perfect horse that we’ve read about in all those books.

We have asked our farriers to make our horses look “straight and level” because those same books have taught us that “straight and level” is the best thing for our horses. We have come to believe this fairy tail because almost every book about horses tells us the same thing!

The problem is, this version of “straight and level” totally disregards our horses’ individual conformations. And it is that innocent disregard for our horses’ conformations that hurts them long before they tell us that they are hurting. In the name of “straight and level” we have neglected the true balance of our horses’ hooves and their unique conformations.

But it is not only our horses’ conformations that we have neglected! The notion that one can make an accurate assessment of balance by taking a snapshot of the front of the horse as he stands before us is simply not reasonable. The balance of a horse’s hoof is influenced by a multitude of factors, which are impossible to identify with the horse simple standing on a smooth and horizontal surface. (Assuming that a smooth and horizontal surface is available!)

For example, the horse’s conformation has a great deal to do with the balance of the hoof. Other factors include: how the horse moves; what surface the horse is working on; climate; the type of work he is asked to do; how often he is ridden and how active he is in the pasture; and the severity of the imbalance he is currently enduring. One must always remember that a horse’s balance is affected not by a single footfall but by a cumulative combination of the thousands of steps he has taken throughout his lifetime!

Clearly, no simple glance at the front of the horse, as he stands before us on a less-than-perfect surface can help us help our horses! And how, given all the variables upon which we should base our balancing decisions, can we possibly do a better job assessing balance? That is the beauty of breaking with tradition and turning balancing upside down with the Hoof Wizard!

By using the balancing technique available to us all via the Hoof Wizard, we can look at the results of all the factors impacting the balance of our horses’ hooves.

Think of balance in the same way that you would think of being sick with the flu. You don’t have to see or understand the complexity of the virus or know what it is doing inside your cells to recognize the symptoms you are having. When you have the flu, you know it because you recognize the symptoms. And you know what to do for it.

The Hoof Wizard helps you to recognize the symptoms of imbalance and to treat them. It works so well because those symptoms are the net result of all the steps your horse has taken throughout his life, not just a single instant when he is standing in front of you! And here’s the most wonderful part of all! The Hoof Wizard works for every horse, standing on any surface, and any horse person can use it! (Of course, I think everyone should use it! I want you to take care of your horse!)

Without knowing it and with the best of intentions, we have fallen prey to traditional balancing technique. We had to! There was no alternative. As a result, we have all asked our horses to work in pain and ultimately injured them beyond repair. Like it or not, that is the history of balance.

Until the Hoof Wizard!

• From Your Last Answer It Sounds Like You Are Doing the Same Thing As Traditional Balancing Theory–Balancing Every Hoof the Same Way. Please Clarify!

The beauty of the Hoof Wizard is that it creates a simple solution to a very complex system. It is able to do this because within that incredible complexity exist a very reliable and simple truth: Every hoof is attached to a leg and must come into contact with the ground with every step. In the end, that is all that matters!

We don’t need to worry about the physics of the dissipation of the energy through the hoof, whether created by the weight of the horse and transmitted to the hoof via the leg above or by the concussive impact of the hoof with the ground below. We don’t need to try to figure out what direction the leg is pointing and try to match the angle of the hoof with the angle of the leg. We don’t need to worry about the speed of the gate or the terrain upon which he spends his days.

All of the forces of movement act upon the hoof either evenly or unevenly with every step the horse takes. If the sum of all these forces equals an uneven distribution of energy in the hoof, then the hoof capsule deforms. If the sum of those forces is even, then the hoof capsule remains normal and healthy. Evenly distributed forces can change to uneven distribution; and unevenly distributed forces can become even.

The impact of all these forces can be evaluated by a single simple line that you draw on your horse’s hoof using the Hoof Wizard. That line shows where the hoof is excessively long or short. If those imperfections are removed, then it is possible to create the perfect hoof for your horse. Miraculously, if one balances an imbalanced hoof as if it were the perfect hoof, which the Hoof Wizard duplicates, then the hoof rebalances and reforms, loosing its original deformation over time.

The dynamic and resilient hairline explains the Hoof Wizard’s universal effectiveness. Once one accepts that the hairline is constantly looking for its own balance, its own dynamic stability, it is easy to understand that the hairline will continue to change as long as the hoof’s balance is being changed. If one continues to make changes to the hoof capsule until it stabilizes, regardless of the terrain upon which the horse is roaming or working and regardless of the conformation of the overriding leg, then the hoof has attained true balance.

Said another way, when the dimensions of the hoof capsule are correct all the forces acting upon that hoof and leg will equalize, the hairline will come to rest, and the hoof capsule will be symmetrical, aligned with the leg, and balanced. The Hoof Wizard provides the most efficient mechanism for finding the dimension of hoof that will bring stability and balance. If the hairline is pushed, the Wizard dictates that the hoof on the side of the push be shortened to allow the hairline to settle. It cannot fail because it follows the hairline and the hairline tells the story for every hoof!

A balanced hoof must be aligned with the leg and must land gently upon the earth. The forces of concussion will be most efficiently dissipated throughout the hoof and leg. The horse will be more comfortable, sounder, and more willing to work because he is no longer worried about his feet–whether because of pain caused by misaligned joints or impinged tissue, or because his leg twisted when he tried to engage his engine and that hurt his lower back.

• Would You Please Tell Me More About Cumulative Injury?

Cumulated injury is really nothing more than repeated “sub-clinical” trauma to tissue. Sub-clinical trauma is not immediately apparent and usually does not cause long-lasting damage with any one occurrence. However, with repeated occurrences sub-clinical trauma can do significant and permanent damage. At some point, depending on the toughness of the horse, the damage is so extensive that he can ignore the pain no longer. Only then, when our horses can no longer ignore their pain, do we know that anything is wrong!

You can try this. With the pad of your finger tip, not the nail, begin tapping on the muscle in your forearm. Don’t tap hard, certainly not hard enough to hurt your arm. Just tap lightly and keep tapping on the same spot.

After a few minutes your arm begins to be irritated by this tapping. If you keep tapping for a few hours, your arm will begin to get sore. In fact, your arm would be so sore that you would start using it more carefully. Imagine what your arm would feel like after a few days of doing this! You would have a bruise the size of a walnut and your muscle would be damaged. It would hurt to open and close your fist.

Imbalanced feet are like that tapping finger, only worse. Your horse has no choice but to stand on his feet all day, every day, 24/7. He can never take a break from them, never take a break from the pain that they might be causing him.

But our horses can’t just stand around being careful with their painful feet. They must constantly pick them up and stamp them on the ground to chase the flies. Then, because we don’t know that they are uncomfortable, we ask them to trot and canter in a ring, on hard ground, out on trails, or over fences.

Sadly, the little traumas that our horses suffer because of imbalanced hooves can go on for literally years before they can tolerate the pain no longer and suddenly “go lame.”

Only, it’s not so sudden, is it?

• How Can I Know For Certain That My Horse’s Hooves Are “Perfectly” Balanced?

With proper and regular use of the Hoof Wizard, your horses feet will be balanced “perfectly.” It is just that simple. Here’s why the Hoof Wizard is so effective.

Our research has revealed three very important qualities about equine hooves:

1) Imbalance in the hoof causes uneven concussion at the time of impact of the bottom of the hoof with the ground causing the deformation of the hoof wall and a displacement (shift) in the Hairline. This deformaton of the hoof and displacement of the Hairline happens with repeated or continuous impacts (thus, cumulative effect). A balanced hoof does not deform, nor the hairline shift, even if the horse is constantly moving and working on uneven terrain (the cumulative effect of concussion on a balanced hoof is even distribution of concussion and therefore no deformation);

2) The angle of hoof growth from the HAIRLINE is a constant 100 to 105 degrees;

3) Relieving the cause of hoof wall deformation and hairline shift allows the hoof and hairline to return to their normal, “perfect” shape and position.

These postulates apply to every horse no matter what size or breed!

The question then becomes: How does one stop the cumulative effect of the uneven distribution of concussion and thereby promote the even distribution of concussion.

Of course, the answer is found in how the horse’s hooves are trimmed. With the Hoof Wizard, you can actually see those areas of your horse’s hooves that are too long or short. Those too long or short portions of the hoof wall are the cause of uneven concussion at the time of impact of your horse’s foot with the ground. Fix them and you have made a world of difference in your horse’s comfort and durability! And, you might just save on your vet bills as well.

In case you’re interested, the Hoof Wizard is actually a model of the “perfect” hoof. The perfect hoof is a hoof that is evenly shaped with no deformations and a straight hairline. Put the Wizard on a table and you will see what I mean. If your horse’s hoof matches the perfect hoof, then it is guaranteed to be perfectly aligned and balanced–no matter what his size or conformation, no matter if his leg is straight or crooked as a pretzel. If his hoof is not deformed or his hairline pushed, based on the postulates stated above, his hoof must be balanced and aligned!

When you have used the Wizard to guide you to this perfect hoof you will discover that your horse’s hooves no longer flare to one side or the other, his hairlines will be even and straight, and most important of all, he will be more comfortable than ever before.

• I’ve Had Horses For Years and Never Worried About Balance. Now You’re Telling Me That Balance is Critical To My Horse’s Comfort. Why Do I Need to Start Worrying About Balance Now?

You know the old saying, “No foot no horse.” Well, there’s a reason for that saying. Everything, absolutely everything, about your horse’s health and welfare depends on his feet! If you don’t believe this, talk to someone with a foundered horse or a horse with ring bone.

Maybe you’ve been one of those lucky horse owners whose horses simply didn’t get too out of balance, for whatever reason, and so your horses really didn’t have any problem. Or, maybe you believe that everything has been just fine with your horse’s comfort and maybe it isn’t. That happens a lot. Many horses are exceptionally tough and simply tolerate their discomfort.

Lots of times, we don’t realize that our horses are hurting until some wizard farrier comes along, balances them properly, and suddenly they are moving freer and stronger than we ever thought possible. When we finally discover what has been happening, we’re heart broken.

Wouldn’t you rather know that you are doing everything that you can to keep your horse comfortable and doing his best? The Hoof Wizard gives you that peace of mind and your horse that comfort. What could be better?

• I’ve Been A Working Farrier With an Excellent Business For Over Ten Years. It Sounds Like You Are Telling Horse Owners That I’ve Been Balancing Their Horses Wrong, Which I Resent.

At Hoof Wizard our only concern is that horses be treated with compassion and respect. That means doing the best that we can to preserve their health and comfort.

Our intention is not to criticize anyone, horse owner, farrier, veterinarian, or trainer. Rather, our intention is to add a new and effective tool to the horse care toolbox. Our hope is that anyone who cares for and about horses will study the Hoof Wizard and gain a broader understanding about balance and lower leg alignment.

Every time that we watch someone work with horses, whether trainer, vet, farrier, or other, we learn something new that we can use to help our own patients. We hope that the Hoof Wizard will bring new vision and insight to everyones understanding and that it will help all caregivers improve the lives of the horses whose care is intrusted to them.

Only by working together, sharing information, can we improve our understanding of how best to serve the needs of our equine friends.

• A Couple Of Months Ago, My Horse Went Lame. I Called My Vet and She Said Nothing Showed Up on Any of the Tests. Could Balance Be the Problem?

Definitely! In many, many cases of unexplained lameness, balance has proved to be the problem. We know this because in many of those cases farriers have reported that when they “fixed” the horse’s balance using the Hoof Wizard the horse went sound.

I’d like to recount a story that a farrier told to me. He told me that recently he was watching a public television documentary about several bands of wild horses on a mountain range called Arrowhead. Perhaps you’ve seen this broadcast, too.

Anyway, he told me about a part of the documentary in which the young stallions were challenging the older stallions and each other for their own band of mares. Evidently the contest was pretty intense and the stallions weren’t kidding around when they chased the young stallions away to protect their bands. There was a lot of hard galloping and blood shed. A couple of the stallions even went lame. One of the older stallions went lame in the knee. He was still lame a year and a half later when the documentary continued following the horses. By then he had lost all of his mares because he could barely get around.

What’s interesting about this story, other than how it tugs at our heart strings, is that this farrier noticed that both of the horses that went lame were obviously imbalanced!

“Sure!” you say. “He could really see imbalance through a camera on television.”

The truth is, you can and he could! This farrier has been using the Wizard for several months on every horse that he trims or shoes. When you’ve used the Hoof Wizard that many times, you begin to know what’s right and what’s wrong with the balance of a hoof even before you confirm your suspicions with the Wizard. He said that it was obvious that those two lame horses were crooked, even from that distance, and he was convinced that both of them went lame because they took steps that turned bad because of the imbalance. He was convinced that these two horses would have been sound at the end of the day if their feet had been balanced!

Now, there is no way to prove this farrier’s theory, but it does give you something to think about. But it tells me another story too.

The horses he was telling me about are wild horses. They have never been touched by man. They don’t want anything to do with man. So, these are horses in their most natural state.

Here’s the point. We have all heard the hype about letting our horses be “natural.” We feed them with “natural” foods, we medicate them with “natural, herbal” medicines, and we try to let their feet be natural. I’m not suggesting that this kind of thinking is bad or wrong. But there are a couple of problems with it that I can see.

First off, we do not keep our horses in conditions anywhere close to natural nor is the work that we ask them to do comparable to what they do in the wild (not to mention the age-old argument about putting us on their backs!). We ask them to live in climates and conditions that are nothing like the climates and conditions in which we find wild horses. We confine them to small areas where they must stand in their own bacteria infested manure and urine. We provide grass that is fertilized and far richer than the grass that they eat in the wild. We give them grain to supplement their diets, or worse as their only diet, because we cannot provide the space they need to forage naturally. And the list goes on and on! How, then, can we pretend to be returning our horses to their “natural” state?

Secondly, why would we want to make life “natural” for our horses? Mother Nature is harsh, cruel, and ruthless in her treatment of wild creatures. The horses in her care are eliminated if they suffer the smallest defect, whether caused by genetics or the result of a simple miscalculation.

When it comes to the hoof, Mother Nature’s trim is crude and excessive. Large chunks of hoof are removed by the rocks, making dramatic, often painful changes, leaving the horse lame and unable to fully defend himself. Natural balance is a hit-and-miss affair and all too frequently Mother Nature destroys her mistakes. I don’t want her messing with my horses’ feet! I want my farrier to bring his Hoof Wizard to my barn and balance my horses’ feet with carefully measured precision.

There is no way to know if your horse is lame because of imbalance. But wouldn’t you like to know beyond any doubt that your horse is properly balanced and that imbalance is not the problem?

• Why Should I Be Interested In Balancing My Horse’s Hooves and Aligning His Joints?

Lameness is a heartbreaking battle for the horse to wage and a costly one. Now you can have a tool that can help you prevent lameness before it onsets. With the Hoof Wizard you can help prevent lameness, make your horse more comfortable, improve your horse’s movement, improve your horse’s performance and way of going and prolong your horse’s working life. These are only a few of the many benefits of balancing your horse with the help of the Hoof Wizard.