Hi I wanted to ask opinions and any advice anyone has that could be helpful!!
My horse has special front shoes, the denoix reverse front shoes,they go on his feet backwards, so the rounded part of the shoe is at the back of his feet and the opening is at the toe. He has a tendency to step close to his front feet with is back feet when he moves and he has been pulling off these shoes almost every week! he has had these shoes for a while now and it used to be occasionally, we stopped putting him out in the mud because he kept pulling it off in the mud last year but now he is pulling them off in his stall (we think maybe when he gets up from laying down) and when I am riding him. when he trots he has always stepped close to his front feet but since they hang off the back a bit because they are rounded he steps right on them and pulls them off.
we have put larger bell boots on him so that they hang low enough but that doesn’t seem to matter. they are just regular pull on bell boots, is there a good kind of special boots I can try. my farrier doesn’t know what to do because he needs these shoes to be sound.
I believe most of your problem is the mechanics of those front shoes themselves. I’m not sure there’s much that can be done with her ripping her shoes off in her stall, except those fancy rubberized, heel encasing “bell boots” a client used a decade ago… with varied results: https://www.doversaddlery.com/acavallo-no-turn-bell-boots/p/W1-C04196A/?eid=X18A00U1000&utm_source=google&utm_medium=PLA&mrkgcl=1131&mrkgadid=3259511446&rkg_id=h-bf5bc11226a0310b47fbde67ad292697_t-1522736884&utm_campaign=NB_PLA_Retail_Mid-Atlantic_GOOG&adpos=1o3&creative=194456253759&device=c&matchtype=&network=s&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqYfWBRDPARIsABjQRYzMZLVyMblLQehnK9ZQe5Gv4G8QbcztNk4jPdvzLEaoXbeKJd4dsbMaAk6kEALw_wcB
A quick google search revealed this, which echoes what many farrier friends have shared with me on the issue.
"Your farrier can also discourage overreaching by speeding the breakover of the front feet and slowing it for the hinds. There are many things that can be done along these lines including
- [B][SIZE=3]back up the toe, back up the breakover and support the heels of the front feet[/SIZE][/B]
- [B][SIZE=3]rock the toes of the front feet, use slightly weighted shoes in front[/SIZE][/B]
- [B][SIZE=3]lower the heels of back feet, shoe back feet with extended heels[/SIZE][/B]
- [B][SIZE=3]increase elevation and decrease forward extension of back feet with heel calks & rocker-toe[/SIZE][/B]"
I would agree with the above. A horse that is constantly (weekly) pulling shoes off, is not trimmed properly for the shoes they’re wearing. The breakover needs to be adjusted to avoid the horse stepping on himself. If your farrier can’t figure this out, you probably need a new farrier.
I must admit I never had an issue with them pulling off their shoes in their stall but for turnout I put hoof boots on…mine are Boa Boots but there are several on the market. I imagine they could be worn in the stall - although I would get a separate pair for inside in case the ones used for turnout are muddy or wet. You could also get a different (softer) type to use in the stall. A hint to help them last longer when horses have shoes…have your farrier cut a hoof pad to fit inside the boots. For riding…well it could be a farrier issue as described above - have you tried the no turn type bell boots? You might check out a tack store that carries tack for gaited horses…they have some “quarter boots” Here is one store I found by googling:
The horse is not balanced properly or the shoes are not fitted correctly.
Why has the horse been in reversed shoes?
I don’t know if they would work with backwards shoes, but I swear by Shoe Secures (www.shoesecure.com). Only product I found that kept shoes on a youngster I had that went through a funny growth phase where he was ripping shoes off every few days despite a fantastic farrier.
Can you explain the reason why your horse needs the reverse shoes?
Any possibility of hind end lameness?
There are ways to make the shoe a modified bar shoe and not have that end sticking back there.
Tell your farrier to check with a specialist vet clinic, those really good ones, for more ideas.
Here are some pictures, for those that wonder what that shoe may be:
http://www.euroforgesupplies.com/orthopedic-jean-marie-denoix-by-michel-vaillant/
Squaring the back feet may help ease the breaker and pulling the front shoes off. You also may need to look for a better shoe and a better farrier. I’m not kidding when I say these are the best shoes and best fit I’ve seen:
I grew up without “keg”, made shoes you could buy.
Our blacksmith shop made our own shoes for every horse, every time.
We had over 100 horses and practically all wore shoes.
We had a master farrier and helpers that came out every afternoon, five days a week.
I learned under him for nine months, how to trim, make shoes in the hand blown forge out of different kinds of bar steel and, as all shoeing was done, hot shoe.
I still can’t believe anyone can go just buy all kinds of horse shoes, of all kinds of metals, already made and in so many different shapes and sizes!
Sure takes a different kind of farrier today to sort thru all that.
We are lucky here that we have a veterinarian that is a specialist in horse’s feet.
He is an amazing farrier himself and has helped horses that looked beyond help.
I think the OP needs to find one such where she is.
It is not normal for a horse, no matter how you shoe it, to be pulling shoes regularly?
THAT problem needs to be addressed first.
No good to have special shoes if they don’t stay on?
