Shoe wear vs. miles ridden

[twoodcock@lendleaserei.com]

I haven't been riding much because of the heat.  Even in the late evening, it is
just so hot that neither Roo or myself feels like doing much.  So when the
farrier came yesterday afternoon to re-shoe Roo, I told him that we could
probably reset those plates instead of firing up the forge to get a new set.
But after pulling off the old shoes (and the hunk of mane hair wedged under the
off fore... still don't know how Magi's mane ended up wedged between Roo's shoe
and hoof) we found the shoes couldn't be reset because of excessive wear!  About
60% of the toe was gone...  On the hind.    A bit more was gone off of the fore.
I admit to not having paid much attention to wear before, I just check to make
sure the nails are tight and the hoof is clean.

Theses shoes were 6 weeks old to the day.  And here lately I've ridden MAYBE
twice a week.  If the shoes wore that much with so little riding, how much are
they going to wear when I really start conditioning this fall?  Roo has good
feet, and even through the weather is very dry, he had good hoof growth, but I
don't know if he can sustain a good hoof on a 4 week re-shoeing schedule.  He
was just at the ready point at 6 weeks.

I'm using medium-weight wide-ish plain plates on the hind and medium-weight "rim
shoes" on the fore.  These rim shoes have a profile of an upside-down pyramid,
the pyramid point (which is on the ground) is grooved for the nails, and the
base (against the hoof) is almost as wide as the plates in back.

To those of you who put lots of miles on your horses on rough ground, do you
have to use a heavier weight shoe, or what?  How have you managed the shoe wear
issue?  Most of my miles are on hard ground, either rock-based roads or very
rocky trails.

Tamara
with Roo (who is sure I ought not to ride so much if I'm worried about shoe
wear)
Magi (who isn't sure how his mane ended up under Roo's shoe)
and the gang Pitty Pat, Falcomaar, Rusty, Blaze, Sally, and Tooty the horses,
Buttons and Missy the Dalmatians, and Sasha, Turtle, Furball, and Demon the
cats.

"Harry Browne for President"