Friend just got a 6mo Belgian Colt.
Sweet baby, but… He is shod in front 
WhutTheWhut?
Does anyone, any breed, put shoes on what is basically a weanling?
If so, WHY?
Friend is having shoes pulled.
But it made me 
Am I overreacting?
Shoes are used on babies to correct some limb deviations. Perhaps find out from the old owner what the deal was?
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Was the baby shown in hand already? That might also be why it has shoes on.
I can ask that too.
Only place I can think of where Colt might have been shown was the Topeka (IN) sale in October.
Would a 4 or 5 month colt be shod for that?
Good point about a show - I don’t know if there might be a reason a draft foal would be shod to “enhance” stance or movement, but that’s also a possibility
I had a baby much younger that had abscessed horribly. The fronts were shod with tiny round shoes. Unfortunately she would not leave them on and would lay down and pull them off with her teeth. Had she left them on her hooves would have grown normally. Instead the one she weighted pancakes and the other was clubby. It took years to even them up after the abcess was resolved.
No abcess (I think?) & these look like keg shoes.
Which baby is already growing out of.
We use the same shoer & he’s due 12/6 to trim my 3.
Friend is literally across the road.
I may suggest he pull baby’s shoes & put that on my bill, same day.
I know friend usually runs a tab with shoer.
Assuming someone can hold baby - he seemed very sweet/quiet when I met him across a gate, but… 
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I haven’t seen shoes on one that young in person, but I have seen it in sales ads for weanlings, especially hitch bred Belgians and Percherons. It may be a show/sale related thing. Shoes can help produce ‘hitchy’ action with higher knees and more action at the trot. So that may be the reason, especially if they are just standard keg shoes.
I’d pull them. But, be aware, just because the baby is shod doesn’t mean it knows about the farrier, he may have been done in stocks.
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Yup.
I have a feeling this colt is from Hitch stock.
& That is why I would not be the one volunteering to hold him for the shoer.
He’s already near the size of my TWH.
Shoer works with his son, but they may not want to hold an untrained baby Draft either.
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The only good thing is that in my experience most draft horses (at least young ones) really want to please people and try hard to do so. They are just So Big. And So Uncoordinated. I wish your friend luck.
As an aside, I was awfully glad when my farrier’s next to last apprentice left…he could not, or would not, get the fact that the Big Boy was never going to take a step back if you pushed on his shoulder, no matter how often I told him. Say ‘step back’ and he will back. Push on him? You can do it till you are red in the face, he will just lean in to it. Happily!
Friend is 3rd generation breeding & showing. Mostly Hackney Ponies, but
at one time they had Clydesdales.
Shown Halter, but Mom rode her mare.
Baby makes 3 for their current lot of Belgians.
Son has a 19h gelding who had been used as a Hitch Wheeler. At one point part of a 10.
Dad got an older 18h gelding, broke to cart.
I believe son plans for this baby to pair with Dad’s as well as do Cart.
Things go as planned.
The Big Guy is a gentleman on the ground for the most part.
Awesome!!
