From an article by Joe Camp from "The Soul of a Horse" website.
"For all of you who could not attend the clinics both Pete Ramey and Dr. Bowker were simply incredible in their ability to simplify to the point of injecting our brains with true understanding of what the hoof is all about. And why following the wild horse model is so logical.
Dr. Bowker nailed a point I had never really thought of. He uses the term "peripheral loading" when referring to a situation where the hoof walls are carrying all of the weight when a horse's hoof hits the ground. Which is almost always the case when he's wearing a shoe, and often the case when he's barefoot and his hoof walls are too long. Dr. Bowker's point is that the hoof walls should never carry all of the load. The load should be shared by the bars, the frog, and even the sole. Why? Well, picture a small diameter tube inside a slightly larger diameter tube... with nothing locking the two together except a fiberous spongy material called the lamina; connected only laterally, on the sides. No help from the bottom. And nothing touching the ground except the rim of the larger, outside tube. Now start applying 300-400 pounds of pressure on the smaller, inner tube (as in every time the horse's foot hits the ground)... and imagine the shearing pressure on the lamina trying to hold everything together (from the side) with no help from below. That's an over-simplification, but pretty much what's happening with your horse's hoof mechanism when each step is loading only on the periphery (the hoof wall).
In the wild, if a horse is on rocky terrain, his hoof will usually be concave, because the rocks above ground will reach up and wear and callous the frog, bars and sole. If a horse is barefoot on concrete, like the Houston Mounted Patrol horses, there will be less concavity naturally (flatter) so there can still be load support from the frog, bars and soul. That's why both Pete and Dr. Bowker emphasize so strongly that the shape of the bottom of the foot can not (and left to nature will not) be the same when living on different types of terrain. If your horse is on soft arena-type footing most of the time, his foot will wear differently than if he's on concrete, or hard rocky ground, or grass. This is why Pete spends very little time trimming the bottom of the foot, preferring to let the horse tell him how he'd like it to be, and then just helping him get there.
There's so much too all this that I very strongly recommend that you spend as much time as possible on Pete's website and Dr. Bowker's website, reading their articles. It takes time to get a handle on all this, but it's so worth it for your horses. Here are the two website links:
Pete's website: http://www.hoofrehab.com.
Dr. Bowker's research rticles: http://cvm.msu.edu/RESEARCH/efl/index.htm
or http://wwwthehorseshoof.com."
"I would go a step further with the 'bare is better' and say shoes are TERRIBLE, causing more harm than good and NEVER the answer to any foot issue. Boots are great, when needed for transitioning but otherwise, leave it a lone. That is a myth that TB's have 'bad feet'...they have bad farriers, or owners involved in activities like racing or dressage where they THINK they 'need' shoes".
I believe her statement to be ignorant and very rude. I would like for everyone to tell of their preference to shoes or barefoot and why.
