Pulling Shoes

[katiepadie12]

I have recently purchased a 5 yo 16.2 irish draught gelding, and am super happy with him. However, he has pretty poor self-carriage and while it has improved he still likes to lean on the forehand despite tripping every time he does so. Now, he is shod up front but he has pretty good feet and I’ve been playing around with the idea of pulling his shoes. The only reason I haven’t done it yet is because I figured he could use the 1/4 in up front to help him balance. Anyway, I rode him a few days ago and he slipped in the middle of a line. I am curious if possibly his shoes enabled the slip and his poor balance was unable to avoid slipping. Would being barefoot help with his balance/grip? Or was this just a fluke? Do the shoes help his self-carriage at all? Thanks in advance. Attached is the video of his slip.

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[beowulf]

Nice horse, OP.

From the brief video, I think he’s not quite right behind. He was traveling in a fourbeat, crooked, to the fence.

It could be he is not quite muscled enough to balance a rider yet (possible if he is very green) or it could be something else. I’d investigate why his default is a fourbeat canter first before I pulled any shoes.

[Posting_Trot]

I own an Irish draught mare that I bought when she was 7. She was green and sound, but hadn’t been ridden much in the previous two years.

At the canter at the time that I bought her, she was very unbalanced. Either slow and four-beat or rushy and careening around. It took a fair bit of time and consistent work to get her to be able to use herself properly; I’m talking about more than a year’s worth of work. Really.

She has been barefoot all along; as far as I know, she’s never had shoes.

Shoes don’t really have anything to do with whether the horse can carry itself or not. Most of the ability to carry itself comes from steady and consistent work over ground poles, up and down hills, transitions between gaits, etc.

From the video (beautiful horse, BTW), what your horse seems to need first is to learn to “go.” You were working way too hard to make the horse canter and then stay in the canter. Work on that first.

Advice you didn’t ask for, I know, but I hope it’s useful.

[Highflyer1]

If you are somewhere where it’s hot and the ground is hard I definitely wouldn’t pull shoes right now. To me he looks mostly green and a little goofy which isn’t uncommon in big young horses, but regardless a good shoeing job shouldn’t cause him to trip.

[Willesdon]

A 5 y.o. Irish Draft is a goofy baby with at least another couple of years of growing up to do. Ride him consistently as a young, green horse and work to build up his strength and balance.

[Tha_Ridge]

Didn’t so much look like a slip to me, as it did a big unbalanced horse who slightly tripped up front since he’s heavy on his forehand and not being asked to go forward. I wouldn’t change anything about his shoeing situation based on that video. This is the type of horse that I like to get 2-3x per week lunging in a Pessoa rig—works wonders for strength and balance.

[Posting_Trot]

I’ll re-emphasize what Willesdon said: that an Irish Draught at 5 is a goofy baby.

They have only a superficial understanding of where their feet really are at any given moment or how they got there.

What’s going through their minds instead is: When’s dinner? Why is this fence here? When did you say dinner was again? Did I just go through that fence? Is that a problem? Those horses over there look like they’re having fun. Maybe they’re eating my dinner?

Etc.

[Bogie]

Agree with the consensus that your adorable horse is a baby. He’s heavy on his forehand, you are working very hard to keep him in the canter, and the jumps are an afterthought. I don’t believe it’s related to shoes/no shoes.

My Trakehner was a complete klutz until he was about 7. He could trip over a stick on the ground. He need a ton of work on the flat teaching him how to control and balance his body.

If I’m going to pull shoes, I wait until the ground is softer. One or twice I’ve had to use hoofboots to transition them.

[TwilightJumper]

I agree with the replied to statement.
I would also add generally no shoes provide more grip but I would investigate this behind first. Idk if he needs more help back there.
When my horse was showing we briefly switched her to aluminum idk if that is an option for you but they make all different types of shoes nowadays maybe you can experiment with one of those to give you an idea. Before you make the leap into no shoes.
I will say at 5 years old my mare tripped over herself too many times to count. She’s still a little. Bit of a klutz but developing a rhythm helped her tripping under saddle. (she was evaluated many times for anything neurological so it wasn’t that)
Having someone really watch the horse go at a all gaits may help.
Your horse is cute I wish you luck.