Heart Bar Shoes

[ottbbabe]

My horse usually wears a bar shoe on one foot (he fractured his coffin bone a year ago and is now 100% sound and back into full work, but we use extra support just to be safe), but my farrier put on a heart bar shoe this time. I don’t know why he did this because my horse has no hoof problems and is sound, but I’m guessing it was the only thing he had in his truck at that moment that fit my horse well. I don’t know anything about this shoe so I am wondering if I can still keep my horse in full work with this shoe one? Full work meaning w/t/c on the ground and under saddle, trotting over poles, and occasionally turn out in the arena, where he gallops around.

I was not at this farrier appointment, but my mom was. I trust my farrier, he had been in the business over 50 years and is highly recommended in my area. I just want to know more about the heart bar and what my horse can do in it.

[IPEsq]

Yes you can work a horse fine with heart bar shoes.

[CindyCRNA]

By bar shoe, do you mean your horse was originally in an egg bar but is now in a heart bar? I event my TB gelding in heart bars on the front. They can be a bit more slipperier so when we run on grass, I put a road stud or something on. My gelding is an over-reacher and we can’t keep egg bars on so went with a heart bar.

[ottbbabe]

He was in a straight bar.

[Clair2014]

You can definitely work in heart bar shoes. I had a gelding that needed them for a while and was working at the Prix St. Georges level in them. He even showed Prix St. Georges at USEF rated dressage shows in them one summer. The only issue I had was that they were definitely slippery, even in the sand. I couldn’t do extensions, as I was afraid I would hurt the horse. To solve this problem, my farrier ended up custom-making heart bars for this horse that had much better traction. If your horse ends up in them for an extended period of time, make sure you pick his hooves daily and keep and eye out for thrush, as it can definitely become a problem.

On a slightly different note, I have a quarter horse gelding with an old coffin bone fracture that I’ve been managing for almost 20 years now and he’s remarkably still very sound. The best arrangement for him has been bar shoes with the Equi-Pak hoof packing. Switching to this was probably the best thing we ever did for him. Good luck!!

[Manahmanah]

If it’s the same horse as was in the “horse is lame on hard ground” thread you started in April the farrier probably did it so he would not be lame on hard ground.

[merrygoround]

I would be interested in hearing the reason behind the change. Please do ask him!

[goodhors]

I expect the horse needs the pressure from the heart bar, to support his inner hoof. I can’t see the Farrier putting them on a horse for fun, fitting the heart bars is not easy! Perhaps with horse going back to work, he needs more support than he had with straight bars he wore while healing.

Good grief, call the Farrier and ask why the change! Are these pre-made shoes or did he make the heart bar shoe in his forge? I am sure he chose to use the heart bar because it was needed, NOT because he didn’t have another straight bar shoe.