Farriery is not about nailing metal to horses' feet; it is about removing excess growth and distorting horn to restore function within the individual horse's confirmation.
It is always a privilege to be part of an equine team and it's like Formula One. The rider has to have the skill and knowledge to ask the horse to perform the task in hand; the farrier, body-workers, equine dentists & vets to the team in the pits, all trying to get the horse into a position which will enable it to perform at the best of its ability without stressing or straining its body.
In farriery the trim establishes soundness and the shoe enhances performance. With the trim, the farrier is trying to get the horse's weight to descend through the centre of each joint allowing connective tissue to perform at optimum efficiency.
The shoe should reflect the activity the horse is carrying out and this could best be demonstrated by ourselves. If we play tennis we wear tennis shoes, for football we wear football boots etc. We need to recognise, therefore, that just as with ourselves, the appropriate footwear is essential to support whatever task the horse is being asked to perform and we must change our thinking that if a horse is not shod hunter-style there must be something wrong with the it.
Very few horses hunt today, with most being worked on a variety of surfaces and should, therefore, be shod with shoes appropriate for the activity they are doing and the surface on which they are working.
With the rider's understanding and feedback given to the farrier, fine tuning may occur and it is really satisfying when the small changes made have a big impact on the horse's performance.