Careful study of a large number of wild horses has had a startling effect of the way we look at hoof care. A common recurring theme that ran through many of these hooves was a short overall length but with a lot of horn mass in the walls, soles, and frog. The walls, sole, and frogs were thick and dense. This allowed these horses to travel great distances over very hard terrain bare foot every day and remain sound. It was noted that natural wear patterns results in the main support of the foot to be concentrated in four areas of the sole, that have been labelled as "pillars" of the foot. Several very knowledgeable foot experts, including veterinarians, farriers, and people who make their living using horses say that by accentuating the pillars with trimming results in a stronger healthier foot growing out.

There is one principle that all the proponents of the natural trim will agree on. Modern trimming technique leaves a foot too long and the tip of the toe, usually the point of breakover, too far out in front of the foot. The result is the force required to rotate the foot off the ground is greater and the force exerted on the toe at this point is increased. It is simple physics: the greater the distance from the center of gravity in the foot to the forwardmost point of the foot contacting the ground the more force is required to "rotate" the foot off the ground.

Breakover is defined as the forward most point on the foot in contact with the ground that the foot rotates around as the foot begins to leave the ground. In a normally shod horse, it is the front edge of the toe of the shoes. To better picture how breakover affects gait let us use our imagination. Imagine that you glued your feet to wooden boards of different lengths. Let's make the first length the same length as your feet. Walking about would be a little awkward but not that difficult. Now imagine the length is twice the length of your foot and it all is sticking out in front of your foot. To lift your foot up and forward would require an incredible effort and make normal walking almost impossible, the effort to rotate your weight over the front edge of the board would be impossible to generate. You would have to lift each foot straight up then advance the foot forward and then place it straight down. It does not even require your imagination if you ever have walked around in a stiff pair of diving flippers, you know how difficult it is to get around when breakover is pushed way out front. It is a tiring process.

The increased force of a long toe is concentrated at the toe, the flexor tendons, and the navicular area. When you think about it, these are three primary areas of lameness in the horse. Founder occurs mostly at the toe, pain referable to the navicular area is a common cause of lameness, and of course, flexor tendinitis is a common entity. Interestingly it has been recently hypothesized that navicular syndrome/disease is a result of strain at the attachment of the DDF tendon and the impar ligament of the navicular bone.