Well, Curly, lots of things cause navicular. It is commonly caused from leaving the heel too long and it grows forward, ya know,
and gets the foot out in front of the leg. When this happens, the heels take a pounding as
the horse carries 60% of his weight on his front end. Sore heels
are the predecessor to navicular. Also, some shoers close the heels
of the shoe up which can cause contracted heels. That can cause navicular disease as well.
Lots of people in your part of the country use heel and toe shoes
because they last longer because of the rocks. We lived near Deer Lodge for 18 years and we never used heel and toe shoes.
The neighbors said they could always tell where we had been riding, because of the
hoof prints we left.
Think of heel and toe shoes this way: if you were on a mountain and were wearing the old (what they called) 'waffle stompers' and you started walking down that hill; when you got to the bottom, your knees and legs would be hurting you because those shoes (like heel and toe horseshoes) really take hold and don't have much give to them, so the legs take
the torque. I don't like heel and toe shoes. I think they cause problems; especially in an area where they wear them for 3 shoeings in a row.
Make about as much sense as mud?
Go to www.newhopeforsoundness.com and see what Gene Ovnicek has to say. That's who we learned a lot from. We don't shoe our horses much over here, so I've lost track of some of the new information.
Hope this helps!!!
