Probably a used horse dealer in Spain in the late 1400s, was asked to sell some horses to explore the New World, so he thinks; "I'll send the ones with the cupped feet, I can finally get rid of the whole lot of them".
Back in the 70's, early 80's, the National finals single steer roping (tripping, jerking whatever ) was here in Laramie. I came in one Fri afternoon, my wife said to call the vet clinic, someone out there seemed pretty excited. I called, talked, told the wife it was likely a stone bruise but I was going out. She asked why the owner seemed so excited. I said when the national finals starts tomorrow and your horse is lame it's a reason to get excited. If I agreed with the vet on bruise, we'd pad him, bute him and play him. If I thought something more they would withdraw. The horse had been cupped and the owner had stopped in Casper for a few practice runs in a somewhat rocky arena. Yes a bruise, He didn't have a great finals, but that bute also numbs the horse to leg and bridal aids so it was expected.
I have some clients that go to Martha's 2 week camp every year. One of them had one of Joseys guys reshoe their horse after some sort of lecture on shoeing. Honestly, I hope the guy was lying about working for Josey. All left shoes, St Croix Lites, short shod, low nailed, long medial toe quarter behind and zero lateral support. You would think the bumped lateral heel hind shoe that had the balls safed off from lateral toe nail to medial heel quarter might have indicated something was up with the horses hindend. If he really is Martha's farrier she needs to stick to talking about training.
