I would agree with OP in blaming the Borium for horse soreness. The Farrier adding so much MORE to the shoe, is increasing the hard stop Borium puts on the hoof in movement. He might have used Drill Tek instead of Borium, it has larger crystals of carbide which wear off slower, bite the dirt or any paved surfaces a lot harder than Borium. Both Borium and Drill Tek are the trade names of the product using soft metal to hold Tungsten Carbide crystals in place to prevent wear on metal surfaces.
I HATE when someone thinks they are saving money by resetting shoes. Adding more Borium to prevent wear is going to make horse have issues in other body parts. What is the price difference in using new shoes and reset? Usually there is not a lot of difference, not enough to keep using shoes that may have worn nail holes, don’t stay firmly in place. You are paying Farrier for his skill in shoeing horse. The cost of new shoes is a small part of that expense. I have found it a false economy trying to reset shoes. Think of humans who run replacing their running shoes every few weeks because worn shoes throw off their movement. Shoe doesn’t “look worn”, not old, but wear has changed how the shoe works while running. People need new shoes to keep things working well.
We used to use Borium, in dots on the horse shoes for our traction application. Then we found pin studs! These also are based on a softer metal holding the Tungsten Carbide pieces in place for traction under the horse. The advantage of the drive-in pin studs is that they are small, allow microscopic “slip” of the hoof so it doesn’t stop hard each time the horse puts his foot down. Borium and Drill Tek do stop the hoof hard, yet force of horse moving has to go someplace, so it travels up the leg. The microscopic slip of hoof allowed by pin studs allows landing force to dissapate thru the hoof as horse is designed to do. No extra forces travelling up the legs. You can’t see the slip, it is so tiny, but it sure makes a huge difference to the horse in comfort while being used.
We use both the plain pin studs and the ice studs, which are actually pin studs with a collar for wear in wintery conditions. These type of drive-in studs stay sharp with constant wear of the soft metal on the ground surface, so they grip at all times. The ice stud models are not really large, like caulks of old. Horse is not up on stilts on the barn aisle. Does not make a huge hole if someone kicks another horse. We keep horses shod with drive-in studs of both types year around, for using the horses in work on pavement and keeping their shiny side up in winter weathers! Some have been kept in shoes for years with no problems. They don’t get sore from their shoes.
Unfortunately, if horse is large, wears larger than size 5 shoes, his weight and impact force landing on shoe, will tend to break off the drive-in studs. So horses can do very well on both types of drive-in studs, but very large horses do not. The Hunt horses are shod with the snow rim pads, the drive-in ice studs, for their winter “package” while hunting. They have terrific grip, gallop freely with these shoes on because they can trust their feet to grab the ground and not slip.
OP should consider changing to drive-in pin studs or ice studs if she thinks the cold will last. They do need to have straight holes in shoe to be put into, so Farrier having a drill press will insure they can do it correctly. Pin studs can be driven back out, reused if you want to pinch pennies. Or OP can go back to what the horse wore originally in Borium dots. Not sure what her Farrier charges as a difference in costs.
We have been using the drive-in studs now for over 20 years, on numerous horses, after using Borium dots before. Love the pin studs and ice studs, no sore horses after long years of hard use. Just no leg issues at all, and we do travel on pavement quite a bit, getting to the gravel roads.
