He is now very choppy at the trot and canter. Horse doesn’t want to extend and almost shuffles/paddles in the front at the canter. Farrier said he moved the breakover back and that this is normal. UGH, I am in the process of fixing his hind end, the last thing I wanted to do it meddle with the front! Why don’t people explain things before they just do them???
[QUOTE=LarkspurCO;8219511]
The Natural Balance line of shoes includes both front and hind pattern shoes:
http://www.shopedss.com/brands/Natural-Balance.html
About a decade ago, Gene Ovnicek started experimenting with using front NB shoes on hind feet for certain lameness issues, and met with some success. He put them on one of my horses and it helped his sticky stifles, until I got him stronger and he no longer needed them. The NB hind pattern shoe is a good fit for many horses, and even some farriers who eschew the NB concept like to use the NB hind shoe on some horses.
I have noticed that the traditional NB front shoe (this one) can make the stride choppier regardless of how perfect the trim job is. Some horses benefit from this extreme breakover but for some it alters the gait. One of my mares wears them and they work well for her – she is laminitic. She just came out of glue-on Easy Shoes (loved them but they were kind of a pain and expensive).
My current farrier is an EDSS/NB shoer but uses many other types of shoes, depending on what the horse needs. My young dressage horse wears a more conventional wide web shoe.[/QUOTE]
Huh. Ya learn something new every day! OP - sounds like this just isn’t the right shoe for your horse.
