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Neal regularly works alongside Dr. Alex Rey, one of the world’s most highly regarded sports horses’ vets, Dr. Rey’s passion is foot balance and correcting the issues that a horse may have. Both Neal and Dr. Rey are firm believers in what happens at hoof level affects the whole mechanics of the equine athlete throughout its body. If the hoof isn’t correct and balanced and then the rest of the equine apparatus cannot perform to its peak. The slightest shave with the rasp to balance the hoof can make a tremendous difference in performance. In contrast incorrect shoeing and foot balance can be catastrophic in the equine athlete, not only limiting their performance but also can result in career ending injuries.

Neals theory is that the most important thing any horse owner should remember in terms of the needs of the equine hoof is that foot balance is everything, the most expensive heavily laden set of shoes is not necessarily the best set of shoes, get to know your horse and how he or she moves, use the ‘slow-mo’ feature on your phone to video them walking and trotting up on down on a soft and hard surface. Look if they are landing equally on each hoof and, does one side of the hoof land before the other and if the fetlock is falling straight behind the hoof, watch how the pelvis is moving, understand that at the end of shoeing or trimming cycle the balance may differ from when the job was first done. Get to know if your horse’s conformation is contributing to hoof issues, maybe you can feel it when you ride or see it when you lunge. Education is key and it’s all of our jobs to take care of the welfare of our equine athletes from the riders, vets, farriers, physios, grooms etc. Ideally the whole team should collaborate and complement each other’s work. In an ideal world the term corrective shoeing would be replaced with correct shoeing!