My Horse gets toe sore in her front feet 7-10 days after new shoes on and off for last year; not every shoeing but a lot of them. Vet has checked her each time it happened and says Farrier is taking off too much toe; Farrier says if he took off too much toe why is she not sore as soon as she gets new shoes instead of 7-10 days. Farrier always thinks its her thin soles have gotten bruises and packs her feet with magic cushion and then adds leather pads temporarily as her sole builds up quick with pads on. Then usually within a week she is sound again. This is very stoic mare that doesn’t show symptoms of pain easy, so I am thinking the soreness is not noticeable at first and just builds up with the new short toe changing her breakover and then packing and a little toe growth has her sound again around day 15 or 17. I have used this farrier for 6 years and my horse’s angles are great even confirmed by vet xrays last year first time this came up. She has had a couple high nails that turned hot in those first 5 years but not much else. Farrier just doesn’t seem open to leaving more toe on the horse. I have had a couple trainers comments how short my horses feet look when she has had recent shoeing done and I agree they always look very short when he does new shoes. Should I switch farriers to one who will leave more toe like Vet recommends? Thoughts?
I would try another farrier.
I always believe the owner/rider knows the horse best. My horse has terrible front feet and my farrier has worked with me to find what works best. That includes experimenting with different types of shoes and trims. Your farrier should be listening to you and be willing to change the way he trims for this horse. If he can’t do that its time to find a new farrier. It is not fair that your horse should go through weeks of pain.
Sounds like you do need a new farrier. I would talk to your vet about doing x-rays again first before you fire the farrier though. Sometimes it’s better to keep the devil you know.
BTW, I have/had the EXACT same issue. Including stoic horse & hot nails! Horse would jog fine after shoeing but the next couple of days would be sore, and about a week or two later would be worse, sometimes hotnails, sometimes not. Then a week after perfectly sound again. His lameness was very intermittent (he also started tooth grinding) and I chased other diagnoses (like saddle fit, chiro, EPM, Lyme, etc) before turning to looking inward, as from the outside he has some great feet.
I had his hooves x-rayed and was shocked by the amount of sole - he had less than five mm of sole and he is a HUGE horse. I was frustrated because I told the farrier to never take sole off of the horse (when I got him he had 13mm sole depth). Unfortunately, the farrier situation is a “devil-you-know” type deal and while I really, really don’t love how this farrier shoes, he’s better than other options. He was really pissed off when he heard I had the horse’s feet x-rayed, but I’m glad I did. Surprisingly, the vet said the horse’s hoof angles were good and matched the angles of all inward structures (p1, etc). We decided to change to pads and the first few months were spectacular with no more tooth grinding or soundness issues, but that has lead to a whole new host of problems (horse’s heels are now contracting and the frog has collapsed). I’m not happy about it, but I don’t have other farrier options.
It can be hard when your two professionals don’t agree – especially farrier/vet combo. I’m in the same boat as you and it’s been a very trying relationship. Both my farrier and vet have absolute disdain for each other - part of it is the male ego and part of it is their differences in opinion on hoof angles and soundness.
What I don’t understand about farriers, yours and mine included, is why they don’t listen to the damn owner when the owner says the horse is lame. if the horse is lame after a shoeing it should tell the farrier they’re not doing something right by that horse – and it isn’t personal – it’s just that the horse needs a different type of trim/shoe. By god, some farriers think this is a Slight from God and just cannot wrap their minds around it. Mine also refuses to listen to my vet or me and continues to shoe/trim however he damn well pleases. His go-to is that neither the vet nor I went to school for trimming/shoeing and that we should keep our opinions to ourselves. In some ways I agree, but I think anyone who has been around horses long enough gets a good idea of what good feet look like. They might not know how to trim them, but they sure can recognize a balanced hoof when they see one. Taking off too much toe is pretty easy to fix - how long are your cycles? If they’re longer (8+ weeks) perhaps he’s trying to do it to prevent the toe from running forward and the heels from becoming underslung.
Long winded post aside, OP, I have thrown upwards of $2,000 at this point on “remedial” shoeing for my horse when all he needs is a new farrier. Don’t do what I’m doing - x-ray the hoof again, talk to your vet, and ask your vet for new recommendations. I think it is immensely important to have a farrier/vet combo that see eye to eye.
Beowulf, I am lucky we have a lot of good farriers in my area (although a lot are difficult about working with vet recommendations) and my Vet is a dressage rider like myself and has a farrier she uses for her own horses who she says works very well with her on recommendations if I want to change. I will talk to Vet about xrays but right now she just wants to leave the shoes alone as she thinks mare needs more growth before anyone works on her feet again.We are just packing with Magic Cushion without pads, keeping horse off turnout, and just doing light undersaddle rides for movement in our arena which has great footing. We usually do 6 week cycles in shoes.
by the way, I forgot to mention - this horse went from barefoot and fine on all surfaces to NEEDING 4 shoes and front pads just to be comfortable in the paddock. Unfortunately I couldn’t see the forest for the trees here because there is a lot of loyalty in the family for this farrier, which I understand – but it should have been a red flag and I am not proud I missed it.
Sore toes often means Toe-First Landing. Highly common in the shod horse. Should be a barely-heel first landing.
Would love to see pictures!
