Would you expect plastic surgery to make you fitter?

Imagine you were overweight, out of shape and had never done any exercise but your New Year's resolution was to get fit enough to run 10 miles by the end of this year.

You know that your muscles are weak and you are a bit flabby and you know from watching all that athletics on the telly that runners are lean, fit and toned.

So you work out that in order to be able to run 10 miles, your body needs to look a lot different to the way it looks today. Question is, how to change your flabby body into a runners body...??

Suddenly, the answer becomes clear - you need plastic surgery! Brainwave - get rid of all the flabby bits, you'll look just like the runners on the telly and you'll be able to run 10 miles - job done!

Except of course, that having plastic surgery won't enable you to run 10 miles - it won't make one iota of difference to your fitness - that has to come from you actually putting in the work, eating healthily and pounding those miles. There aren't any shortcuts :-)

I think people who have an obsession with trimming are a bit like this - they want to do hoof "plastic surgery" with their trimming - surely if you try and make a weak hoof look more like a healthy hoof, it really will become healthier?!

Problem is, expecting a trim to make a hoof healthier is just like expecting plastic surgery to get you fit. If you really want fitness, not just the appearance of it, then plastic surgery isn't the answer and there aren't any shortcuts.