HOOF HELP!

[Statua]

Situation:

Mare with sensitive feet and club on RF

CANNOT be traditionally shod - over steps and rips off shoe - bell boots last less than a day on this mare.

Stays consistently sound with shoeing - NOT consistently sound without

Stays more sound on soft footing (sand or good grass) worse on hard packed dirt - we avoid anything rocky

Currently worked in Easyboots and they help but not as much as shoeing because she only wears them riding - they also do not help correct the problems in her compensating for the club.

I am looking into alternative shoeing - namely glue-on shoes, does anyone have any experience they can offer on this topic? Any brand to recommend looking into?

This mare currently is used for light pleasure work and will remain so if we cannot find alternative methods, I have interest in training her to do some low-level dressage work. She will never be expected to be a high performance horse but if we can find a reasonable method of keeping her sound so she can do more than she is currently capable of.

Thank you for any advice!

[merrygoround]

A different farrier who can balance her better.

[sascha]

Dressage work will help in time, but until then you need a better shoeing plan. In my layman’s experience (with short backed, long legged shoe ripper offers) having the farrier rock the front shoes to make break over as fast as possible works the best. If that’s not enough, slowing down the hind end with appropriate shoeing in addition to rocked front shoes, should more than do it. If your farrier doesn’t understand those concepts, see merrygoround’s post above.

In my experience, horses that have had to have serious shoeing changes to prevent shoe loss will eventually be shod as normally as possible IF their dressage work has been thorough and correct.

[Chapstickglue]

Definitely a new farrier and hoof supplements. Has she been standing on wet ground?

[mzm_farm]

Easyboot makes a glue on shoe - one of the options is to glue on a “glove” - ya got boots 24/7 unitl things change.

One of my horses (also with a club foot) used to have the back ends of the shoe curled up - it did not press his foot, but offered support and was harder to step on then regular straight ends. Clips also seemed to help.

[S1969]

My farrier has put regular shoes on my mare with acrylic…can’t remember exactly what it’s called…but it works pretty well. However, if she oversteps, the glue won’t be any stronger than nails to keep them on. It might be less damaging if she rips it off, but not sure I’d guarantee that either.

I agree about looking at the trim and balance. My mare is hi/low and it took some time to get her back into balance when I got her (and she pulled off a few shoes at that time), but knock on wood…haven’t lost a shoe in a couple of years now.

[DancingArabian]

You can try something like these: http://www.shoesecure.com/

[dehere98]

Have had a similar problem with my horse who is clubby on RF. What worked:
As mentioned, having a good farrier is paramount. We found that my overreaching TB did much better in aluminum shoes and bell boots. We really don’t know why the aluminums work, but he doesn’t pull his shoes off every week and has only pulled two shoes in almost a year. The shoes are also shorter than the ones previously used, though not by much. Magic Cushion to tighten up soles. It’s amazing stuff. DIET. High fat/low starch, vitamin e, grass, quality hay. Every horse is different, but this combination has been working very well for us.
Glue ons are expensive and they don’t typically last as long as nail on shoes.

[Ambitious_Kate]

I agree, you need a different farrier. A good farrier would be addressing this.