mustang roll

Question
My 4 quarter horses have been barefoot for 2.5 years. All are trail riding and doing well. My EX trimmer says that he went with Ramey's brother-in-law to do trims and now the mustang roll is obsolete. Is this a fact?

Answer
Hello Mike,
I must admit that this is a strange comment from your EX trimmer since there is nothing "magic" about the mustang roll, all it really is is a strong bevel of the outer rim of the hoof to prevent breakage and to minimize "pull" on outer layer of the hoof wall. What farriers do when they prep a foot for shoes is to make the hoof flat and level and leave as much hoof wall as possible, then they put the shoes on. The shoe then protects all these outer boarders of the hoof. In barefoot horses, the outer area of the hoof, you can see this in mustangs from dry hard areas of the US, hence the name, the hoof is basically rouded up all around. Unfortunately, there are "barefoot trimmers" out there who think that a good barefoot trim equals a nice agressive mustang roll and nicely rounded hooves, and that's it....for any hoof care professional, its not so much the look that you want to achieve but to assure that the natural biomechanical balance between the hoof and the leg/comformation of the horse in MOTION in established and maintained. The mustang roll is only on minor tool in this and helps avoid breaking of outer walls, helps rehabilitate certain balance issues but is NOT a remedy by itself, it just helps....so, in my mind there is no such thing as the "mustang roll becoming obsolete" since it never was critical in the first place. An over-emphasis on rolling the hoof while not emphasizing enough what appropriate balance means has certainly been done and I wonder whether your EX trimmer was someone who focussed on rolling rather than balancing....
In Pete Ramey's first book, he seemed to indicate that as long as you lower the heels and roll the hoof, all hooves will eventually come around..he has since long revised this statement since many  horse owners suddenly thought that all that is needed to maintain healthy hooves is to chop the heels of and round the hooves, and suddenly there were also trimmers out there that did just that. It works for a while and may be ok with horses that have straight healthy limbs and good quality hooves but is completely inadequate and dangerous for any horse being rehabilitated or transitioned to barefoot.....Barefoot maintenance of hooves is just not quite that easy....

Hope this was helpful!

Christine