It seems certain lines of quarter horses are bred for size, but have less than ample hooves to support them. I am curious if anyone has dealt with a larger framed horse that had tiny teacup hooves and what you were able to do to keep things like navicular, 'box' shaped hooves, etc. at bay. I've heard some farriers suggest things like pads or heartbar shoes to alleviate some pressure, whereas others say barefoot. Any experiences with this conundrum? To clarify, I'm not talking about horses with small feet due to improper trimming or diet, but horses that genetically have small hooves due to breeding.
What Gary said. Trim them as best as possible. Treat the problems as the arise. Most of the ones I get start w/ quarter cracks. I'm usually tired of dealing w/ them (horse/owner/trainer) by the time the cracks are grown out and someone else gets to deal w/ the nav and such.
