I shoe a lot of barrel horses and have had some input from owners and read some input from people like Josey .. They talk about cupping the front feet , can someone explain what cupping the foot is ? From my perspective I try to trim the foot as short As I can without making the horse sore , is cupping the foot removing more sole in the middle of the foot? or is this just some idea that people talk about but don't really understand what they are saying ? On another note I've always tried to shoe the horse so it would grow a cupped foot I.e. A tight white line and proper hoof function .. I didn't think you cut a cup Layne
Your best bet is to pin down someone who has just used that phrase and say please explain. And once they have explained ask them why!
Pretty easy to leave a "cupped " if it is anatomically cupped, one works with ,that, which is presented' Layne, who or what ,may i ask , is Josey? thanks ray
Martha Josey is a famous barrel horse rider/ trainer and seems to have a lot of "influence" in the barrel world Layne
If your worried about losing customers then nod your head, say "no problem" and clean the foot up and shoe as you normally would. If your horses are sound and/or winning some money then your fine. If your NOT worried about losing customers then hand them your knife and ask them to show you how much "cup" they would like. Have a bottle of strong iodine handy for when things turn red. You probably know by now , but, some customers you can explain things to and some you can't. For me, the ones I couldn't explain to just got the "nod". At least until I'd had enough, then at some point I'd ask "Are you a fu#*in' idiot'? Then I didn't have to worry about the "nod" ,horse, or customer anymore usually.
Had a client who bought a horse from Martha. Had pedal oseititis. Think she may have been cupping it?
If you aren't cleaning up the sole like you should, that's one thing but telling someone to "cup the sole" if you are already paring away the proper amount is stupid. Why would you want to thin the sole more than necessary? If the owners/trainers/riders are wanting a foot with more cup for traction then maybe they need to consider a different type of shoe. By the way, WHAT was the reason the owners/Josey/whoever else gave for wanting a farrier to cup a foot more?
The trainers are looking for feet to be cuped like a saucer and the sole to be very smooth so th sand ect won't lodge in there
in your opinion while the trainer is looking for it, does the "cupping" keep the sand etc from lodging , and can a flat hoof be cupped via the knife? interesting that they want the feet to be cuped like a saucer,..............brings to mind cup and saucer, the saucer to catch the over flow/spillage that i produce drinking from a cup,or not drinking from the cup, would that mean that the trainers want the cup or the saucer....................i m sticking with paper cups ray
Probably where this idea comes from is the Strauser contention that all feet should be concave like the Mustang feet are. Dr. Redden did a study in 2000 of this phenomenon. He found, through digital xrays, that the feral feet had extremely cupped coffin bones. So much so that he said they were almost a different spices. So just cross some Mustang stud with those high dollar barrel mares and you'll get plenty of cuppiness in the feet. Another trick would be 3/8" x 3/4" concave stock.
I prefer the the bottle straight from the cooler, which has nothing to do whith this topic, but you brought up drinking containers.
Bill, You may be right about Srausser as the origin, however this was something heard all the time at the track. Of course once they had a good cup in the foot, then they started "stinging". So then the trainers bought sole freeze, or melted mothballs in their feet. Reasons for "cupping" (the foot) are as Smitty said and in turn to get more traction. Reasons for other types of "cupping" are most likely varied depending on who's the cupper and or the cuppee. I tend to agree w/ Bill and if a bit of concave isn't enough then one can add a rim pad to add a bit more "cup". As for Bill's breeding program, YEAH RIGHT.
folk were talking about cupped hooves in the 1970 s and probably before that, sorry Bill ,ya can t blame every attempt to have the"one true answer" on frauline Strasser! Regsards Ray
