Shoes and scaffolding

I've been thinking a lot about shoes recently - nothing new in that of course :-)   The phrase "my horses' hooves need support" is one of the reasons which people most commonly give for not even considering an alternative.  Someone recently told me confidently that shoes "provide support" without even questioning whether that was a correct statement

I can see how appealing the idea of shoes as "support" can be.  Its something I've blogged about before because the word "support" is emotive - in the context of horses at least.  

Usually, shoes are supposed to be giving "support" because the horse's hoof is compromised and can't function as well as it should - because of caudal hoof pain, ligament or tendon strain, flat feet or thin soles, for instance - and the shoe is intended to enhance hoof function.

My suspicion, from the horses I see here, is that there is an issue with this approach.  If you simply attempt to prop up hooves with external support its a bit like putting scaffolding round a building.

This is how Wikipedia defines scaffolding:

"The key elements of a scaffold are standards, ledgers and transoms. The standards, also called uprights, are the vertical tubes that transfer the entire mass of the structure to the ground where they rest on a square base plate to spread the load. "

So, if shoes function like scaffolding, they've transferred the horse's weight so that its taken primarily by the shoe - round the rim of the hoof.   Its taken the function away from the weak parts of the hoof - it might externally "support" them, but so far its done nothing to improve or rebuild them.

The photo below is from a US site, and is billed as "a bar wedge pad for increased heel support."  Of course, this is an extreme example, but here the "support" has prevented any normal function.

Scaffolding is very useful, in the short term, if a structure would otherwise collapse, but the external support of scaffolding doesn't resolve a building problem or improve its construction.   Its a temporary fix and has limitations because  - while it may provide support - scaffolding restricts function.

I'm fairly sure that you can't construct or repair a building by using scaffolding.   To solve the underlying problem or construct the building you need to do some serious work on what lies behind the scaffolding.  You need to be working on the foundations, the internal frame and workings - the whole structure from the inside out.

If you do that successfully you might find that you have a building that doesn't need scaffolding any more - it might even function better without it.