[QUOTE=starlight;6251006]
Has anyone used the wedge shoe before without a pad?[/QUOTE]
I liked the wedge on my mare who was recovering from a pretty bad abscess and then developed other random lameness. She moved comfortably with them. We called them her stripper shoes since the wedges were so big :winkgrin: oh the joys of having a large energetic mare.
For those who were interested, I did the whole, “Why are you videoing your horse’s foot in the driveway while talking to yourself?” today.
These shoes were put on after almost a year of farrier drama and Alph has not missed a day of work for lameness or a pulled shoe since. So I’m a huge fan! 
I have a horse with coffin joint rotation and he is in a 2 degree rim pad with steel shoes. This has been working for a few years now…however if your horse tends to be rough in turnout I would not recommend aluminums as they wear out super quickly.
My horse has flat footed. Do they have to have the pads summer and winter? Can I ride with no shoes on pavement?
My thin-soled, flat footed pity-buy pony is in pour-in pads year round. We ride on gravel roads, logging roads, beaches, do arena work & jump a little. She would not be doing any of this without pads.
You know, it just really depends on the horse.
My horse has fabulous large strong feet but yet he is very sensitive when walking on surfaces such as gravel. Now, I don’t make it a habit to ride him on gravel but we do rodeo and show and travel and I sometimes cannot control the ground that we have to warm up on or ride around on. So, I put regular steel rim shoes on his front feet during the competition season and then he is perfectly fine. I can ride on any surface and he is fine.
My vet says that he is thin soled, but my farrier disagrees. I have talked to numerous other people who have horses from the same line of breeding of my horse, and they also seem to have sensitive front feet, so I wonder if it may be some sort of genetic thing?
I opted to try plain shoes first to see if they helped enough. If they had not, I would have went back and tried various pads to find what worked for him. In my opinion, less is more!
Just wanted to point out that this thread is 7 years old and I’m fairly certain that Claudius passed away a few years ago.
Yes, Claudius did pass away several years ago, I miss her posts.
I had a horse with mild pedal osteitis (coffin bone inflammation) who would go lame every few months until we finally got the diagnosis. We put rim pads under aluminum shoes and never had another issue. My farrier suggested rim pads because we also battled with thrush previously and he was concerned that a full pad could create the perfect place for thrush again.
OK pads full or rim are ABSOLUTEY COMMON, NO BIG DEAL especially just leather or whatever to protect thin soles. They can be used with any type of shoe. If horse was thin soled before why weren’t they used then? or were they? I would respectfully acknowledge trainer’s input and leave the final decision on what to do to the feet up to blacksmith and vet. Others may take the route of trainer is ALL KNOWING GOD and not question, especially on the internet. And if horse is really stinging then did trainer recommend doing something topical to alleviate it in the mean time like hoof dressing or packing.
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