Shoeing and hunt horses

[jawa]

I’m looking for ideas on how to keep my horse in shoes for longer than 3 weeks!! during hunt season.

Here’s my issue: When I’m riding at home, I do some, but very little riding on roads. My shoes tend to last 5-6 weeks depending on the amount of saddle time I put in.

Once I start riding on Hunt Trail rides, roading hounds, or actually hunting, the nail heads get worn down to nothing and I start having issues well before I need a trim.

Does anyone else have this issue? If so, what do you (your farrier) do to make this less of an issue.

Thanks in advance.

[Foxglove]

My current hunter goes barefoot (QH from ND --hooves like rock), but my previous hunter (QH/Arab mare) wore shoes. To keep them from wearing, shoer put on Borium. The only downside was when she came into the barn (cement aisle) she scored the cement. She’s been gone 25 years and I still see the scrapes on the floor from her shoes. She was a game hunter --still miss her. Once the huntman’s horse became mired in mud. He took my mare while we whips worked to get his horse out of the bog. At the following brunch, he couldn’t say enough things about my girl --brave, light, fast, hound sense. I dont’ think I’ve ever felt that much pride in a horse before or after. She was a great whip horse too --as a young whip, I was social awkward (shy) around all the “adult” hunters --I used to volunteer to look for every lost hound just to avoid sitting at the brunches like a bump on a log. That mare loved to be out and we’d hunt hounds until dark. Oh, another thing about her --we whips had a contest to see who could untack quickest --after lots of practice I could (and did) learn to ride behind my saddle, unfasten my girth, put my saddle on my arm, then, just as we came to the hunt stable, pull the mare’s bridle over her ears as I slid off --she’d keep going right into her stall while I hung my tack up. I started doing that a bit too early (riding a saddless, bridless horse up the drive to the stable and was “spoken to” by a field master --I still did it, but not when he was looking. Well, more than you wanted to read, but hunting season hasn’t started yet and I’m bored!
Foxglove

[Beverley]

Ditto the borium, though I only put it on the heels of the shoes, typically. However, these days you can use borium tipped nails, I would think that would solve your problem.

[gypsymare]

How are you losing them, meaning are the nail heads wearing through and pulling out from the bottom of the shoes? If so, you could add borium dots to the toe and heel to keep the shoe a bit elevated when on asphault/concrete. Small drive in studs would work to the same effect.
http://www.soundhorse.com/images/series3-hunter9.jpg

Careful, some folks confuse borium with drilltex which is chunky and usually gold in color. That stuff would be more traction than you need and is usually reserved for driving horses.

If the whole shoe is loosening over time, clips help take some of the force off of the nails.

There’s also a fine line between leaving too robust of a clinch and risking pulling part of the hoof away if the shoe gets stepped on and leaving so little that there isn’t much grip and the shoe is easily pulled off. You could buy yourself a pair of clinchers and tighten up the clinches after they start looking loose. It might buy you another week but usually not much more.

If the shoe is getting stepped off, some things that help are shortening the breakover of the front feet by setting the shoe back a bit and backing up the toe. This gets the front feet off the ground faster, hopefully before a hind can grab it. This is a bit extreme and it’s a flex shoe but it does demonstrate the principle:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eL7RiwWSP7o/U1O0QWtgt7I/AAAAAAAACZo/3WEDsV-a76o/s1600/IMG_3058.JPG

Also, grinding the exposed outer heel branches helps an offending hoof that might step on them to slide off more easily. Also leaving less heel exposed which is not great for hoof health but is not as detrimental on a short schedule.
Ground down shoe: http://www.horsekeeping.com/images/Klimesh-underrun.jpg

And then there’s bell boots.

[tabula_rashah]

Not a hunt person, but endurance rider who trains on super rocky ground with a good bit of pavement thrown in. I go the borium route with my girl- I’ve tried the nails with the borium heads but they were a little too much traction for me.

[Belmont]

Find a good cowboy shoer.

If you can’t do that, then I third the borium.
You could do bells, but I know our horses tore up bells and boots while trying to hunt.

[jawa]

I have side clips on all four.

When only riding at home I tend to lose shoes by being stepped off at around 5 weeks, even though he is wearing bell boots. I did just find some thicker at the bottom bell boots that weren’t outrageously expensive so I’m hoping that will solve that problem. We already rock the toe and grind the shoe to make it less likely to get grabbed.

The clinches do tend to come loose mid way through the cycle riding at home or more intense riding away. I tighten them when I notice them.

My farrier is very careful about how he nails so that if they should pull a shoe you won’t lose much hoof.

On one hoof, I’m not sure how the nail came out, but it is completely missing. On the other hind, he came up lame while I was riding during the hunt trail ride. I got off and checked the shoe. The clinch had come undone and that part of the nail was between the shoe and hoof. I was able to wiggle it free with much work on my part and pull it out. He was sound after.

I was wondering about the borium tipped nails. Does it really provide more traction than borium on the shoe? I was thinking the opposite.

My first hunt horse went with front shoes only. I never had an issue with him losing shoes (same farrier). The previous hunt pony went barefoot!

What if I used the drilled in road studs? Would that help to protect the nail heads when on roads.

Some parts of our hunt country have quite a bit of roads. I am trying to gear up for the up coming season!!