SOME HORSES HAVE LARGE HOOVES, WIDE. DOES THIS MEAN ANYTHING.

Yes. It means they have a good foundation. I personally like a horse with a bell shapped hoof because it usually means that they have more bone and substance to them. The wider hoof also places the frog closer to the ground allowing more shock absorption and therefore less stress on the bony column. If you ever look at a horse's hoof which is wide you will see the frog is also wide. They ususlly are also correct as far as alignment goes. The sad part is a lot of people have bred for a narrow upright hoof. That's one reason why there was so much navicular desease at one time.

it could also be interpreted as hardiness. The wide hooved horses that i have ridden can gennerally ride the terrain a lot better. It also means your horse probably will not be judged as high as the other horses in shows. I dont know why but everybody is in love with teeny feet lately. Big feet is mostly a good thing.

Have you guys heard of the Barefoot trim? I hope that catches on. I think the horses will all take a real sigh of relief! It's all about letting the heel and frog spread like it's supposed to..it actually moves and spreads with every step...now put a shoe on there and see what happens.
I saw pictures of a 16 year old mustang's foot who had gotten caught up on some human structure out in the bush (she was wild), so they took advantage of it and disected the hoof to see it. It was the most beautiful foot I had ever seen. Perfectly balanced, like she'd just had a trim. Heels 1/8" lower than the frog, natural concavity and the roll over at the toe was huge! Lots of healthy callous too! On the inside there was one full inch in depth of the lamanae from inside to outside. The navicular bone was parallel to the ground and there was a 1/2" of soul between it and bottom of the cleft beside the frog and another 1/2" from the cleft thru sole to the ground. So the navicular bone was incredibly well buried and protected. They said the tubules that make up the lamanae were also a lot coarser than our horses. It was just an amazing thing to see!

There's lots of good reading here if you're interested.
http://www.hoofrehab.com

I haven't put shoes on any of my horses for over twenty years. I trim my own horses feet and I used to be pretty much like everyone else and leave the heel deep but since I've been watching the natural hoof segment on Dennis Reis' show have totally changed the way I trim feet. The difference in their gaits was amazing to me. One guy used to stmble some but not anymore. I round the toes with the rasp and put a little rocker on the bottom to help with break over and they pretty much look like they wore them down on sandy soil. I know some folks on here live in rocky ground and maybe leaving their horses barefooted isn't pratical but in that case I think the natural balance shoes would work well. That's what I'd use if I had to shoe my horses. Paul

my horses are barefoot also. The 19yr old TB has real flat feet naturally but we haven't had any problems with him. My mare so far as I know has never had shoes on. She was a brood mare in Canada before I got her, and just kept in a pasture with other broodmares. If I have anything to say about it, she won't ever have shoes. The only place I have worked that the horses had shoes and needed them was a state park in Nebraska, but those horses were being ridden on a really hard packed trail for 8-10hrs a day, every day from April through November. They only wore front shoes and the shoes were changed every four weeks. By the time they were changed you could shave with them there was that much wear on them. I still have a pair from the horse I rode there for two years. In the winter time the state shipped the horses out to the pan handle of Nebraska and they ran the range for a nice break. They all went bare foot in winter.

I have never put a shoe on any of my horses, and never will if i dont have to. My sisters mare has mustang hooves obviously her hooves had not been handled in years, cause she looked pretty surprised when we asked her to pick up her hooves. Obviously once upon a time someone had worked a lot with her, but thats besides the point. We have had her for three years and have not once trimed her hooves. She has those mustang hooves you described. As for my horse he still has tender feet and occasionally I stll trim them, but nly when nessasary. Oh and those wide hooves this post was originally about? The wider the better cause it takes a lot of weight off of the rest of the hoof

My mustangs feet are just as their predicessors in the wild, and I have only shod one of them and very rarely..only on hard hunts in the mountains before I realized that he didn't need them...I no longer shoe him even in that scenario. Now we also have two domestics, both of which came to us wearing shoes, one of which we were told should never go without shoes (a TB) because he was so tenderfooted. We had their shoes pulled immediately, and just as told, they were both tenderfooted, however after months of care and slow desensitizing and allowing for natural hooves and hoof trims, I'm happy to report all 5 of my horses go barefoot all the time, the domestics have improved dramatically and no longer show as much signs of tenderfootedness as they had