Hoof Issues

[AshleyandAnnabel]

Hi there,

I’ve been trying to figure out what the best option for my mare is regarding her shoeing and can’t seem to find an answer. My 15 y/o Thoroughbred mare has had shoes her whole life. We recently started doing pour-ins on the front hooves with horse shoes. The terrain in the southwest can actually be very rocky. She lost both right shoes on Saturday in an LD and lost the first one at mile 15. I also did a ride in Utah which had a lot of slate rock and she would slip and slide because of the lack of tread.

I ordered some ground control shoes http://www.plastichorseshoes.com because you can use nails for them. It would solve my problem of lack of tread and support from rocks. I also wonder if transitioning to barefoot would be smart and using boots because of her delicate TB feet. When her shoes come off part of her hoof goes too.

I asked several farriers and they all seem to be against barefoot, boots, and plastic shoes. I even asked a farrier yesterday who said he shoes a lot of endurance horses and uses steel horse shoes but at rides I rarely see anyone with steel horse shoes like me. He said that he’s against plastic shoes because they are flexible and come off really easily. I can’t tell if farriers are telling the truth or being dishonest because either of my options would be less money for them. It’s super frustrating that I can’t seem to get an answer.

By the way, I’m not going behind my current farrier’s back but I live in Arizona but come out to southern Ca for the summer. So my mare needs a solution but my farrier isn’t out here.

[katyb]

Well, metal shoes aren’t staying on, so having plastic shoes come off doesn’t seem like a different issue to me.

I think at 15, having always been shod, going barefoot would be an intensive, longer prospect. If you are committed to finding boots that fit, you might have great luck.

Mine all go barefoot, and two have been shod most of their lives. I do pretty intense trails, but not LD. I will do 15 miles or so, 4 days or so in a row. My horses have done fabulously. I do have a wonderful trimmer.

I wish you the best of luck. My friends who shoe miss more rides than my barefoot friends - of course, if you lose a boot, you can have a spare. It’s not so easy if you lose a shoe.

[Stushica]

I don’t know your horse and her current situation so take this advice with a grain of salt. First off with GC or other composite shoes with nails you’ll need to watch out for the nails becoming loose from the flexion of the shoe, you can typically just re-clinch them and continue on your merry way. Because I assume Utah is fairly dry I doubt this will be a huge problem for you.

As far as transitioning barefoot goes, even at 15 I would give it a try but only if your willing to put the maintenance into a barefoot horse, barefoot isn’t just pulling shoes a voila’! My TB was 12 and lived in shoes his whole life until I got him and pulled them, he initially lost a lot of hoof wall and was actually pretty gimpy for a bit but within 2-3 cycles he was looking good and he was sound on the trail and jumping with no boots or anything in no time. With what I know now I may have booted him in the pasture for the first cycle, but alas, he lived and went on to be very happy and sound barefoot.

I think a lot of farriers are against such “modern technology” because it requires a different skill that they’re unwilling to learn and research. GC are just as easy to apply as steel shoes and if removed carefully can be reset a number of times, ditto on easy care shoes. If you do go the route of boots you can have easy boot gloves heat fitted for a better fit or look into renegade’s, they’re super duper easy to use and both provide excellent sole protection. That being said I’ve done a 34 mile LD totally barefoot and had high-vet at the end with my mare. I also have friends doing 50’s and 75’s and attempting 100’s (rider issues) totally barefoot on non-arabs and doing well.

Keep researching around, make sure your mare has good nutrition and treat for thrush if you’re unsure. There are so many options now days, plain steel isn’t always the answer for every horse. Also you can ask to have the heels turned down a bit or other similar techniques to try to get the other foot to “slip off” without pulling the shoe. I would also have the break-over checked on her fronts because the rears will forge if the fronts can’t get out of the way fast enough.

[Hampton_Bay]

I have used plastic shoes for years, and ground control are horrible. If horsey is prone to removing shoes, GC won’t stay on. The shoe will actually come off over the nails, leaving the nails in the hoof.

You need to figure out why the shoes are coming off. Boots may work, but you may just need to change something about her shoeing job. Or she may be like my gelding, who is so short backed and long legged that he rips his off even with bell boots. He just can’t wear shoes.

[AKB]

What about a cycle of glue ons and then go back to regular shoes? Some horses need to have the hoof grow out before there is an area of good hoof for the nails. Glue ons are expensive but often worthwhile.

[chicamux]

You said your mare lost both front shoes during one ride and it was after you added pour-in pads to those front shoes? Does she have a history of losing front shoes? Losing a shoe, is she actually pulling them off with her hind feet? Usually that is the case. Often something in the shoeing is causing the front feet to “slow down” which means it is staying on the ground longer so it doesn’t get out of the way of the hind feet. Pour-in pads are fairly heavy so they can slow down the “lift off” of the front feet. Long toes on the front feet will delay breakover and slow down the front feet. Shoes set too far forward on the foot delays breakover. Many horse owners and farriers are so accustomed to this type of shoeing that they don’t see it as the problem.

Sometimes the farrier makes a change to the hind feet/shoes in an attempt to stop the shoe pulling but what they have done actually makes the back feet leave the ground even faster so they reach forward and come down on the heels of the front feet before they get off the ground and out of the way. May farriers will square off the hind toes thinking this will help the problem but it actually worsens it. A squared off toe quickens the breakover so the hind feet move forward even faster and grab those front shoe heels.

So you want to speed up the front feet and slow down the hind feet. One trick that frequently works to slow down the hind feet is to straighten the heels of the shoes so they extend out behind the hoof a little further, not much. this slows down the flight and landing of the hind feet just a tad. I’ve had two long legged, short backed Arabs that would pull front shoes unless their hind shoes had those straight heels. They also wore Natural Balance shoes up front which have a set back breakover, more like a natural barefoot has. Those shoes allowed the front feet to breakover faster and get out of the way of the back feet.

Maybe your horse needs some shoeing changes?

[Hampton_Bay]

Chicamux has given you some good info. This has been my experience as well. My boy did best in plain st croix ez fit behind, not set back at all, and poly steels in front, set back a good amount. He needed pads and packing all around due to large gravel, and the front had to fit so tight that he needed a 4-5 week cycle. For him it wasn’t realistic to keep that up. It was killing my back, and I had no options for non-sucky farriers. But it did somewhat work, as long as he never went longer than 4-5 weeks. Hopefully the OPs horse is easier than mine.

[AshleyandAnnabel]

Just an update: The next time she gets shod I will offer my farrier the choice of Ground Control shoes or Epona Shoes which are both nail-ins with protection and tread.

[drkrysia]

Can I suggest you look at Easycare N/G performance shoes? Nail or glue on. They really worked for one of our horses with sensitive soles.