natural balance shoes in OTTB

[hlp29]

Hey all,

I’m a new poster to this website, but long term reader and can usually find good advice here, so I thought I’d give this a shot.

I have a 4 year old OTTB with the notorious thoroughbred feet. He has had issues pretty much since I got him last fall with his feet - long toe/low heel and couldn’t stay sound. I’ve had the vet out numerous times and x-rays taken. My vet originally recommended bar shoes, but my former farrier thought that he would be better off in an aluminum wedge so that’s what he’s been in for some time now.

I sought the opinion of my vet, and obtained a 2nd opinion from a different farrier. He really shortened his toe and put him in a natural balance shoe (saying it will help with his breakover) with a pour in pad due to having many pressure points (as tested using a hoof tester) all over his soles, but particularly near his heels. My question is what is everyone’s opinion of NB shoes/pour in pads? I’ve read some things on the Internet and am not convinced that they won’t cause more harm then good.

Finally, if this farrier does not work out, anyone have a suggestion for a good farrier in the Harrisburg/Lancaster PA area?

[kookicat]

You’ll likely get more answers/advice if you can post clear pics of your horse’s feet.

[hlp29]

This may be a silly question, but how do I attach pics? I don’t see an attachment symbol.

[Simkie]

You have to buy premium membership to attach pics to your posts.

You can upload them to photobucket or the like and link, though.

I am generally not a fan of the NB shoes, but as with all things, it depends.

[DJohn]

I don’t know much about the NB shoes, but I love pour-in pads, especially for an ouchy-soled horse. I’d have to see some pics of the feet level to the ground (taken from the side), to see what the horse really needs.

[HorsesinHaiti]

Hi! If you look up posts by Patti Stiller, she is a Natural Balance farriery instructor and has explained the concept behind those shoes on this board in the past. Be warned, the discussions between farriers on the Horse Care forum have a history of being, ‘lively’, no matter what the topic.

[wildlifer]

I’ve had them on both my horses quite often, both with & without the wedge. Worked great for the purpose they are designed for! Only downside of the shoe itself is the AL wears faster, so there wasn’t much metal left on the toe after 5 weeks of schooling eventing & riding mtns!

Just like any shoe, it’s only as good as the hands that put it on…

[kookicat]

[QUOTE=hlp29;7832334]
This may be a silly question, but how do I attach pics? I don’t see an attachment symbol.[/QUOTE]

Upload them to somewhere like imgur.com or photobucket then post the links.

[hlp29]

OK. I think I figured it out. I don’t have any before pics, but here are some after pics. Hopefully this works.
http://s1289.photobucket.com/user/hlp29/library/Mobile%20Uploads?sort=3&page=1

[hlp29]

Also, I have been driving myself crazy researching this stuff, but after talking to a few people, I’m thinking it’s the pour in pads that may be making him sore (not the actual NB shoe), by putting to much pressure on the sole. What are some opinions of pour in pads?

[yourcolorfuladdictio]

So I can see why you may be a little iffy about them. They always make me a little wary as well. I would suggest to look up how to take proper photos of the feet, though, before anyone gets too judgmental as some of what we are seeing/not seeing could be just from the camera angle.

From what I see the front feet look small, almost smaller than the hind feet. Again, I can’t get a good idea without better pictures, but he looks very upright without any toe at all. Taking some toe is nice and all but you shouldn’t cut it so far back that it throws the balance of the foot off.

My last horse had paddles, never grew heel. It was so bad that by week 5 I was uncomfortable jumping her or working her in the “all weather” ring because it was harder. She was not a 6 week kind of pony, at all. She was shod every 5 weeks aluminum wedges in front and rim pad wedges behind. When I bought her she was in Natural Balance shoes and they did nothing for the issue at hand (not growing heel and growing tons of toe) because at 5 weeks her toe was still grown out and now she had these huge flares as well.

If you horse is foot sore, pour-in pads will help as well as a balanced trim but you need to have both not just one or the other. The ideal situation, if you haven’t already tried it, is to have the farrier THERE when you x-ray the feet, so that he knows what the horse is currently standing on (angle wise) and then let the vet and the farrier discuss options with you TOGETHER. Just be warned that sometimes farriers and vets get a little up in arms with each other over feet lol.

If it’s just a matter of maintaining the correct angle throughout the trim, and protecting the tender sole-- that needs to be sorted out in a way that everyone is happy. If the vet thinks the farrier is damaging the horse’s feet, and the farrier thinks the vet needs to mind his own business; that is a problem that needs to be talked through. So that if the feet aren’t the reason your horse isn’t NQR, no one is pointing the finger at the other anymore.

[CrowneDragon]

Pour-in pads can be nice for horses with crushed heels, because you can spread some weight-bearing across the rest of the foot. Some horses can’t handle the sole or frog pressure though, at least with the packing material filled to ground level. The job your farrier did looks fairly good to me. If he wanted to facilitate even easier breakover he could have set the shoe back off the toe a bit, and he could have given a bit more heel support with the shoe extending further back under the foot, but these are personal preferences and overall I would be happy with this job.
Sometimes you have to take the test drive approach to seeing what makes the horses happy. Maybe the horse doesn’t like the wedges. Maybe he would do better with a roller motion shoe, or a bar shoe, or a backwards shoe, or … Try it for a couple shoeing cycles and see how it goes. I would give this shoeing a while before deciding on whether or not it is a good fit. You need to give the horse time to adjust, especially if angle changes were made. It looks like your horse has some old tendon injuries, and you have to make sure that the changes you make don’t aggravate those.

Good luck

Edit: I got my wires crossed, and some of the above was for a different thread (re: ankle arthritis), so take whatever makes sense :lol:

[walktrot]

My 20-year-old gelding (Paint with tons of TB in his pedigree) has been in NB shoes since he came to me 13 years ago with long toes and underrun heels. He cannot keep aluminum on, so we’ve been using the NB Lite shoe. It is narrower and lighter than the regular NB, so weightwise it is close to the aluminum shoe. He also is in a 2 degree frog pad. My farrier uses regular hoof packing. She blends 2 brands together because one has more venice turp and the other more something else, and usually some sort of antibiotic powder. His feet look terrific, especially the frogs. If there is anything suspicious going on, which is rare, we squirt a little Thrush Buster in and all is well.

My farrier is not certified for NB, but she has been to a number of Gene Ovnicek clinics and I think does a better job than another local farrier who is NB certified. She certainly has far more experience than he has. She shoes in other “styles” and trims also, and does a lot of work with local vets. I won’t go anywhere else for shoeing and, regarding her retirement, she says that she should outlast my horse.

[Patty_Stiller]

Natural Balance, if done correctly, is not just a shoe. It is an entire protocol that encorporates specific hoof balancing guidelines in the TRIM, which is the most important part, along with centering a shoe, any shoe, correctly around the anatomical structures inside the foot.
The brand name NB shoes make it a lot easier to get the correct form and fit of the shoe but any shoe can be modified by a skilled farrier to do the same thing.
The biggest benefits of the aluminum NB shoes are that they DO wear out at the toe so as the foot grows the breakover point stays much in the same place relative to the bone inside. And the wide design of the rolled toe with it’s built in sole relief protects the coffin bone under the shoe and totally prevents sole pressure . So it makes it a very good shoe for thin soled horses.

Adding a pour in that fills the entire sole area on a thin soled horse may create too much sole pressure n the sole in some horses. If the horse needs more spread out support over the heels and frog area, then making a little duct tape “dam” across the shoe and only pouring the material in the rear half of the foot over the frog only, is often better.
For more information on the shoes and the recommended application guidelines visit their website at www.nbhoofcare.com.

[chicamux]

Have been using NB shoes on my endurance/trail horses for many years, steel version. Also have routinely used pour-in pads for rocky competitions. After having to switch to a new farrier who just didn’t get how to set the St Croix eventers back off the toe I researched the NB shoes, then got him to research the use/application of the shoes. WE made the switch to NB shoes on my horses and what an improvement for my horses and for that young farrier. He switched his wife’s navicular barrel horse to NB shoes and was really happy with the improved soundness of the horse.

I got him to do pour-in pads on my endurance horse. This gave him another tool. He began shoeing a TB that had the WORST feet and couldn’t hold shoes. He put NB shoes and SOFT pour-in pads on the TB and the shoes stayed on, the hoof walls improved, the heels improved!

Do be sure that your farrier is using the softer pour-in version. I always had the firmer black material used for the really rocky rides just to make sure it lasted thru the ride but the softer stuff is more typically used.

Chicamuxen

[JB]

Reported the spambot post