Ridecamp: [RC] Under run heels

Karen Webb kpwebb@xxxxxxx
I bought my Arabian stallion at three and a-half and it was obvious that he hadn't had much farrier care for about a year prior to that.  Someone had cut off all his heels and he was barefoot traveling around in about a half acre paddock running all the growth off his feet.  He is now seven and in a set of four shoes.  Three of his hooves are now in good shape.  However, the front right continues to be a problem.  The farrier I am currently using seems to be doing a good job.  The stallion is in an egg bar shoe on the front right which has helped to improve his hoof angle, but it still does not match his left hoof.  A vet/farrier recommended putting him into an aluminum shoe with heel caulk that would compensate for the lower angle on the right front, but my farrier argued that with the liberal turn out I give my guy and some slope to his pasture, that he would likely just keep catching the heel caulk and ripping the shoe off.

Anyone have any experience correcting this problem and what did you do.  I haven't really pushed this guy as I didn't want to make him lame and so far he's been extremely sound.  We've done one LD ride, a NATRC ride and some cross country jumping and lots of trail riding.  But since he's seven, I would like to get going but realize his feet need to be in the best possible shape first.

Any ideas?




=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-