Trimming and Shoeing

I have a mare 9yrs old who has had a mystery lameness started about 3yrs ago, and to keep this short.. after alot of x-rays blocks, and nuclear-grams.. there was never a positive dx.. finally a farrier...excellent guy.. went out on a limb did such a mild change based off of how she moved and it fixed the problem... unfortunaly he went MIA,and now my mare went back to having a lame issue.. when Ive consulted w/ other farriers they want to take all these drastic steps, that for her dont work well... she is a horse who will spit on you when it doesnt feel right to her then it causes other issues in her body while she compensates...what doesnt seem drastic is too much for her to handle.. I

So my issue is, how to I find a farrier that is willing to listen my feedback and all that has already been tried to her in order to do whats right by her, yet being conservative at the same time.. The guy I found was the only one that would only work on her after he saw her move and often changed what he did by how she moved.. the others when I mentioned it seemed to for like 2secs just because I mentioned it, and already had a solution... which I know from past experiences would go wrong for her.... I am at a loss... Im northern Illin ois about 50 miles west of chicago....I need someone who isnt threatened by questions I ask and who is willing to listen to old things gone wrong that wont work... HELP.. my mare depends on it...

If it was fixed by one farrier it sounds like a loading problem. Have you tried having a good barefoot trimmer who knows about balance trim her up. Like farriers there are good and bad trimmers. I'm from Australia so dont really know who is who in the US but you could contact TODD JAYNES who also works with the Institute of Equine Sciences (google him and you'll find him) and he may know of someone close to you. Barefoot trimmers get handed problems like this all the time and routinely are able to help them. Depends on what the problem is though. But if you think about it...if the horse has a lameness issue then putting a shoe on it is only going to mask the problem, not sort it. And in the process its going to put a heap more shock into the system from running on metal. And there are alternatives which are working although it seems that barefoot is nowhere near as big in the US as it is in Australia so probably good practitioners are  few and far between. Just try and get a GOOD practitioner as a bad one will take you backwards. All the best with it.

Rebecca in Oz

How 'bout subscribing to the AFJ? When you have some articles in front of you that support what you are asking for, you tend to get a better listener. You'll also be better able to articulate why a certain "cure" has not worked for your horse in the past.