Horse Shoe Alternative

[JB]

@J-Lu;8222373

Wouldn’t laminitis be caught by the vet who examined the horse?

:lol: :lol: :lol: Oh my…

Sorry, not laughing at you You put too much faith in too many vets who often can’t even see deformed feet, much less consider laminitis at such a (possibly) low grade.

It sounds to me like the OP thinks that ALL nails hurt a horse, and is one of her objections to getting shoes.

Yes, I do think that’s what the OP thinks (as do many others). I just wanted to point out the reason that getting shoes on can hurt the horse

I can’t imagine a vet would prescribe wedge shoes if the vet thought it would hurt the horse.

See above - you’re assuming a vet knows what they are looking at regarding feet

Seems like additional information would make this story clearer.

Pictures really are a must.

[Guilherme]

[QUOTE=J-Lu;8222373]
Wouldn’t laminitis be caught by the vet who examined the horse? It sounds to me like the OP thinks that ALL nails hurt a horse, and is one of her objections to getting shoes. I can’t imagine a vet would prescribe wedge shoes if the vet thought it would hurt the horse. Seems like additional information would make this story clearer.[/QUOTE]

Sadly, not all vets are created equal. Not all lamenesses are easily diagnosed in 15 min. session. Something “off” might be noted but figuring out the cause is another question than can have a long and complicated answer. This is particularly true in lower priced horses where the PPE will be less intensive than somebody buying a $100,000 animal.

I suspect that the observation that nailing a shoe onto a sore footed horse might cause some pain. If the nailing will reduce, or eliminate, the pain is the nailing “justified?” I suspect the general answer will be “yes.” We do lots of stuff to horses that cause discomfort and we do it anyway even if we do try to reduce that pain. Consider teeth floating; that’s going to hurt and we do it anyway because it’s necessary to basic equine husbandry. Add inoculations, palpations, etc. to the list.

Newbies often fall into the orbit of some “guru” (do we really need to name any names, here? ). Their lack of knowledge and experience makes them “marks” for these sellers of snake oil. It can be painful to them to have their inaccurate conceptions of good quality husbandry corrected. But if they genuinely care for the health, safety, and welfare of their animals then they have to “suck it up” and deal with that pain.

G.

[Bogie]

OP - I have had my horses barefoot, I have had them shod. It depends on the job they are doing, the quality of the hoof, and the comfort level of the horse. It is not evil to put shoes on your horse; if your horse is tender, doesn’t want to walk on rocky ground, etc. without shoes then it is not (currently) a good candidate for being barefoot.

Shoes vs. hoof boots – if your horse is comfortable except for specific circumstances, such as being ridden on rocky trails, then hoof boots can be very helpful. I’ve used Cavallo and Easy Boot hoof boots, depending on the shape of the horse’s hooves. For awhile I even hunted in hoof boots.

Wedge pads – these are a double edged sword. If your horse needs to have its angles corrected, they can help. But I’ve also seen farriers adding wedge pads for the wrong reasons and then it becomes problematic to take your horse out of wedge pads.

Soreness after trim – this is not good. Your horse should not be sore if it is done correctly. Even when I took my horses from shoes to barefoot, they walked off sound. I agree that you need another farrier or at least another opinion.

Farrier vs. vet - Not all vets are good at evaluating shoeing issues, but if the underlying cause is medical (not just removing too much sole or bad angles), they should be consulted. Unfortunately, I’ve also come across some terrible farriers who left my horses with toes that were too long and feed that weren’t balanced properly. It’s very hard when you are a new owner to assess something as technical as shoeing.

It sounds like you are being “bullied” a bit by your BO and the farrier to let them do business as usual. There is nothing wrong with asking questions. If your horse needs wedge pads, asking them why. If they can’t give you an explanation, bring in someone else and ask the same question.

Good luck!

[EvanK]

I normally empathize with an OP broaching this topic, and look to protect him or her from overzealous pro shoe or pro barefoot responders, but something doesn’t sound quite right here. After repeated requests for more info, all this OP can offer is her horse “apparently” needs wedge shoes, no further explanation or inkling this OP understands why one would need such info but on the other hand this OP is savvy enough to tell farrier and trainer a horse is too far back on her heels?!? I’ve been in the position of badly needing help on this topic before, and have posted to that end here and on other forums, and I don’t mean to unnecessarily interfere but any additional time commenting further on this thread may end up being time wasted. Something just doesn’t sound right–sorry!

[DJohn]

Regardless of why the horse needs wedges added to the shoes, the initial shoeing will hurt. Not in the sense that the nails will hurt the horse, but the act of driving the nails (hammering) can cause a sole-sensitive horse some discomfort. I will say though, that it is better some discomfort in the shoeing process than constant pain of thin soles on hard ground.