But just because they’re shod frequently doesn’t mean they’re trained to stand. I have one that was likely drugged and or twitched for his shoes and then ran the entire (short) season on that one set. Another seems to think it’s her JOB to wiggle. Neither one is sore or lame or anything else…
Some come out of race training with very professional manners. Others… :sigh:
Neck arthritis made my horse very difficult to shoe. It took years to figure out why he was so tough but now I know for sure he’s not being bad.
The worst thing for him is the stand. My farrier is patient with him and clenches the front feet on his thigh instead of the stand. Things go much more smoothly if I give my horse Equioxx for a few days in advance of shoeing. He still has some anticipation but far fewer freak out and fly backward down the aisle moments.
Very true. I’ve had a few too that weren’t great coming off the track, too. Then a couple that you could tell were just doted on and well-trained.
Semi-related but since I saw it was brought up, my horse that was PTS for Cervical Arthritis was always great for the farrier up until CA came out of nowhere. He didn’t really have a lot of signs that CA was going to hit him with a vengeance when he was older, other than he was always so tense in dressage. Towards the end it was way harder to shoe behind … Meanwhile… I do have a TB in our barn now with thin soles we have been struggling to improve… he is not great for fronts and I think his thin soles has something to do with that. He also has had hot-nails more consistently than any other horse I’ve had, regardless of who shoes him. Horses!
It’s interesting how different the c spine horses all present. Mine has some difficulties holding up her hind feet, and she’s not quite sure where they are in space…but she’s very, very polite about it and really pretty easy. Trustworthy enough that the farrier has trimmed her while resting her foot on the toe of his boot. We always start with her because she’s the least likely to be trying :lol:
The wiggly horse is the worst. I swear, someone taught her at some point that’s how she’s supposed to act and she’s just very dedicated to it :rolleyes: :-/
Can he back up normally? Or will he drag the front feet? What about going up and down hills?
I’m very sorry, but both behaviors you describe sound like a lower neck issue, not a hind end issue.
Update on this guy: I decided to switch farriers for a variety of reasons and hold off on the vet appt until after I evaluated his behavior with the new farrier. The new farrier came this week and she was a thousand times more patient with him than the previous farrier. For example, she’d get two nails in then put his foot down and work on another one for a few minutes to give him a break. She also had a cradle-type hoof stand and did some of the work with his front foot resting on that. No anger, frustration, or calling him a jerk. It was so, so much easier on all three of us!
She also immediately honed in on the things I didn’t like about how the old farrier was shoeing him (shoe too small, not enough heel support, toes too long) and made as big an improvement as she could have in one shoeing, I think. What a huge relief! I really appreciated that she explained everything she was doing too.
She thinks he has a lot of anxiety about shoeing though at this point we don’t know if it’s a reaction to physical discomfort or some bad memories. She suggested trying Banamine, a small amount of Ace, and maybe some alfalfa to nibble on next time. I hope that as his feet get in better balance and he has some positive experiences with a farrier who isn’t yelling at him, we will see some improvements in shoeing behavior. If not it will be time for the vet.
I’m so happy to hear this update! I’ve been wondering how he’s doing.
Farrier demeanor can be such a huge factor. I know it is with my horses.
Call the Farrier back, "say “Horse is still lame, can she come check him?” He might have a nail issue, but it could easily be something else. Give her a chance to see if it is a shoeing issue, fixable, before calling the Vet. You liked her ease with him, he worked comfortably with her too. May be nothing she did shoeing, horse has something else going on. Her visit back should be free, checking him for you.
I am guessing you have either already let farrier know, by all means do. Wwwwwhhhhheeellllllll since you asked my thoughts on the show job are “lil less toe lot more steel under the heel” and the nails I can see look high…I realize they are not the ones you mentioned and I am not a professional just an owner of tender tootsies TBs GOOD LUCK!!!
Whoa. That nail looks way too high.
Should have said, I let the farrier know what was going on yesterday and she can come look at him Friday but if it is the nail, I don’t want to wait that long. Once the hour is a little more civilized I’ll talk to her again and see what she thinks about me pulling the nail myself. Since there are only two on each side I’m not sure how good an idea that is though.
I hoof tested him yet again this morning and thought maybe I got a bit of a reaction near that nail. It maybe felt a little warm too. But I feel like if it were the nail I wouldn’t be saying “maybe.” Obviously I do hope it’s the nail because that would be a much easier solution than other things!
She did put him in a larger shoe than he was in before and shortened the toe considerably. I wish I had taken “before” pictures because his toes were so long that I didn’t ride for a week because he was tripping (one of my reasons for switching farriers). So while I agree the shoe could still be bigger and the toe shorter, I also think it was a big step in the right direction, though I could be totally wrong.
Just because a nail is high doesn’t mean it’s hot. I’ve always read that high nails aren’t as effective for holding shoes on, though.
I’d try pulling the nail that you think might be hot, and then if it was that nail the farrier can put another one in another hole, and that nail wasn’t the problem then a new nail can be put back in the same hole.
Just be sure to straighten the clinch before you pull the nail so it won’t ream out the hole.
I agree. A high nail doesn’t necessarily mean a hot nail.
Maybe it’s the angle or quality of the photo but do you have some coffin joint effusion going on in the white leg?
Just a thought, might not mean anything but the feet don’t match up. Compare the slope of the front of the white foot from coronet to the shoe with the slope on the dark foot. The white foot looks straight, the dark foot dips in below the coronet then bulges out to the shoe. Not sure the patstern angles match up but that could be lighting or just the way it’s standing,
To me, something has gone on with that dark foot. Now, might not be anything acute or have anything to do with the current lameness but that would be something to investigate. If you didn’t get x Rays when you got him, you might want to at least shoot the front feet to be sure there’s nothing going on inside the hooves that you need to know about so you can manage the horse properly and not waste money on things that are not wrong.
This sounds like a nail but sometimes a new farrier tweaks the angles a little too much and the horse can get sore. She’d probably like to see some x rays too and work with the vet to get thus sorted out, It saves time and money in the long run and gets everybody on the same page.
Most vets have a portable x ray machine on their vehicle and front feet shots are pretty reasonably priced.
Ok so farrier is making improvements which I realize can not be made over night. Looking at pics on a bigger screen seems like nails went as low as they could due to old holes. Honestly you may want to get xrays( I do also see what looks like some puffiness aka coffin joint effusion/inflamation), pull the shoes n wrap your horse has a chance to grow out some quality hoof and spread so farrier has more n better hoof to nail to. I FEEL YOUR PAIN have been through what you are going through and although it was an tough few weeks for me my horse was happier within days and has been since. I am Not a barefoot fanatic by any means, but my old farrier had left literally nothing for new one to work with and too cold n wet for glue ons so we could not put a shoe on and was I amazed how his feet grew and how sound he was after a week, then shoes went on after like a month and his whole body changed.
The farrier was able to come today, whew. She agrees he’s lame on the LF. She redid the high nail just in case but it was completely clean and painless so we don’t think it was that. He was sensitive to the hoof testers farther back, around the medial heel. Hopefully he’s just working on a bruise or abscess…
I made an appt with the lameness vet for next Friday. The last time I had a horse with mild-moderate lameness on the LF it ended in a collateral ligament injury, DSLD, and euthanasia so I am feeling pretty discouraged. This horse has 40+ starts and some jewelry so I’m concerned it might be hard to sort out what’s actually bothering him. Ugh.
Not that I can detect but I’m not a vet. Left and right feel the same to me. Could it just be the way the hair is lying? I had to clip his pasterns to fight some scratches and I don’t think I did a very good job because the hair is all different lengths and lying in all directions.
The horse has pretty significant arthritic changes in the RF fetlock from his racing days. Could that be causing what you see? He’s been sound on it though. I’ll ask the vet.
I was wondering about that too. If that’s the case how long should it take to resolve?
ETA: @Haylter, funny you say that, the farrier and I were talking about pulling shoes too. I want to see what the vet/x-rays say first but it’s definitely an option. Of course fly season will be in full swing soon. I kind of wish I’d done it when I first bought him but I didn’t want to change too many things about his life all at once and was hoping the old farrier would make more progress than he did.
Probably not from the hair–I could tell it was clipped. More likely the angle of that photo.
Honestly if you can even get a couple of weeks for his feet to “heal themselves” with some help from dr duct tape and nurse vet wrap it may be all you need. Definitely xray first.
One thing that’s tough about undiagnosed lameness is that it may not be just one foot. That may be the one that bothers the horse the most, but if it were cleared up, maybe others would be ouchy as well. As it was explained to me, they can only limp on one foot as a time, so they favor the ouchiest one.
You said his toes were shortened a lot, and I wonder if that might be causing some soreness. As I understand it, as toes grow too long, the inside of the foot tends to move forward with it. So pulling the toes in brings the front surface closer to the tender part. Gradually this corrects itself, because as the toes come in, gradually so does the inner part of the hoof.
There is a trick an older veteran farrier used that I won’t even begin to try to describe here, but it involved flammability. It sort of shocked the sole of the foot, and as it was described, this moves the inner portion of the foot back from the sole and hoof wall, and relieves pressure and pain. It worked on my horse. It’s not something for anyone to try for the first time without experienced oversight. 
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