Dominik was a Trakehner cross whom I bought at the age of 5 as stallion, and he never had shoes in his life, but also was kept in a stall only.

When I got him, he had lots of horn on his hooves, which back then I considered to be a good thing, but he used to trip an awful lot. But the more I worked him and drove him on roads, the better he became, until his hooves were so short that I thought now he really needs shoes. He was okay with the shoes, but tripped more again.

When he was 7, I took him with me to live in the US. I found a farrier who also was a vet, and considered myself very lucky. After one year in the US, he clearly started to show signs of discomfort, and the vet said he had navicular.

A long odyssey started to make him feel better, drugs, different shoes, chiropractic, massage, energy healing and what not. He was a wonderful horse with a huge heart and did everything for me I asked him to do: dressage, jumping, eventing and driving. What a trooper. His only way of telling me that he was uncomfortable  was a swishing of the tail when I touched him with the whip to ask for a bit more energy, speed etc.

He became gradually worse and I decided to have his nerves cut. This made no difference, if anything he tripped more and still seemed the same uncomfortable. Often I truly considered putting him to sleep, but he did not seem to be ready for that. He still enjoyed life on many levels.

Although he did not work much any more, just easy trail rides and drives, he kept wearing shoes. Matter of fact, I was so convinced that he needed shoes, that I wrote in my will that he needs to have “orthopedic” shoes until he dies.

He also had increasingly hard wind puffs on his hind legs, and the vet told me there is nothing one can do, the best would be to put him down. But the puffs always went down with exercise, and although I could tell that his fetlocks were quite stiff  when the wind puffs got full and hard, it did not seem to warrant to put him down.

At the age of 24, he started to abscess several times on his front hooves, always in the bar area. So I decided to take his shoes off and see how he would do.  That was in 1999, when I had taken all my other horses out of shoes. I started with the hind shoes. It was incredible. After two weeks out of shoes, his windpuffs diminished amazingly, never to bother him again. He could easily flex his fetlocks again. Then I took off the fronts. After healing his abscesses, he still seemed uncomfortable, but somehow more perky and happier. I had to keep him in boots as it was winter and the ground frozen hard. Came spring, I saw a totally new horse. He looked like he shed 10 years, his eye looked so full of life again, and for the first time in 2 years he shed his winter coat without any problems. He looked incredible. And all signs of “navicular” discomfort went away. No more pointing feet, no more hesitant movement on asphalt. He still tripped some, most likely from the nerving, but until the age of 29, when I had to put him to sleep as his hind end started to give out, he was the happiest I could ever remember.

If I needed anything else to convince me what harm shoes do, this certainly clinched it for me. What a magnificent horse I tortured a huge part of his life with those iron shackles on his feet.

Dominik at the Advanced Single Competition in Gladstone New Jersey in 1990, age 14, inspite of shoes and “navicular” pain. What a guy.

Dominik with his partner Ferdinand at the Preliminary Pair CDE in Gladstone NJ in 1989, age 13

Dominik with his partner Josephine at the Intermediate CDE in Myopia MA in 1992

Dominik at the age of 28, no hoof pain, a happy boy.