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Let's talk about forging and corrective shoeing.

 

I may not be the most intelligent person here on RC, and I am sure that I am not the most perfect farrier.

 

BUT, I do pride myself on my ability to stop forging.   I struggled for a couple years right out of shoeing school trying to stop my endurance horse from reaching up and ripping his front shoes off.  After going thru all the ways listed in the textbooks, which included extended heels on the hind feet and extended toes (to slow down the back) lowering of angles on the hind feet, again to slow down the breakoff, higher angles on the front feet with rolled toes (to speed up so they get out of the way) and everything in between.  And still, no luck solving the problem. 

 

So, I began to "play" with the back feet.  Working with the square toe.  I had this same horse a couple months later at MSU vet school for a stone bruise/hoof absess.  One of the vets there was also a farrier.  And not just any farrier, but a track farrier/vet that worked on the track horses up on the east coast.  When I say that, I mean he worked on the Kentucky derby horses.  He looked at my horse feet, and said, "I see what you trying to do, you just aren't doing enough of it".  He explained to me more about how he did their feet and told me to try it.  Well, to make a long story short, I did.  By squareing the toe, and raising the angle of the back feet, you are changing the breakover.  That translates into, the hoof will breakover sooner, making the hoof come off the ground sooner and higher during the stride.  Then the flight path of the hoof will be slightly shortened.  Thus, setting the hoof down just short of the front feet, in case they are not out of the way.  What this does, is it allows the front feet to be shod however need be for the horse.  How many times do you see horses with this problem that the farrier out of desparation leave zero heel expansion room?  How many times does this lead to contracted heels and underslung heels?  The answer...Many.  So, by altering the flight path of the hind feet, the front feet can be shod CORRECTLY.  Leaving tons of heel expansion without the fear of the horse ripping a shoe off in competition. 

 

In most cases, the front feet are already at "fastest/near fastest set breakover"...IF they are shod correctly.  So, they can't be made to breakover any faster.  Extreme high an angle on the front is not great for long term soundness.   So, what that leaves is to correct the back feet.  They are the offender in the situation, and they need to be changed. 

 

The point to remember here is:  Faster breakover IS a shorter stride.  So, just because it breaks over sooner in a forward manner, doesn't mean that it is the same LENGTH stride.

 

Endurance horses have this as a common problem.  Mostly because they are Arabs, with shorter backs and huge strides.  Longer backed horse tend not be as bad about it.  Or a horse that doesn't reach way up underneath himself.

 

So, if this is such a bad thing, how is it I have multiple long mileage career horses?  ALL of which had/or have this type shoeing.

 

Jody #1114

 

 

 

k s swigart <katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Kathie Ford said:
>
> > They are heavy, she's forging and she's never
> > done that before and the shoe is set so far
>  back
> > in the rears, ...
>
> It is entirely possible that the reason she is forging has more to do
> with the shoe being set so far back and less to do with the weight of
> the shoe.
>
> Many farriers make the mistake of thinking that if a horse is forging
> that the way to "fix" it is to either square off the toes in the back or
> set the shoe back on the foot. This is totally the opposite of what you
> really want.
>
> If your horse is forging, it is because the horse is not getting the
> front foot out of the way fast enough before the back foot comes up from
> behind. Consequently, speeding up the breakover of the hind foot (and
> making the hind foot come forward even sooner???) is hardly likely to
> "fix" this.
>
> If you are going to speed up the breakover of any foot in order to
> mitigate forging, it is the FRONT foot you need to speed up, not the
> back one.
>
> The only way that squaring off the back shoes or setting them back
>  will
> keep a horse from forging is if by doing so and having tripped the horse
> slightly on every stride, it starts short striding with its hind feet as
> a defensive maneuver.
>
> Personally, tripping my horse into short striding behind isn't something
> that _I_ would be wanting. If my shoer ever "set back" my horse's hind
> shoes, I would probably hit him over the head with his hammer.
>
> You could, I suppose, SLOW the breakover of the hind feet by putting
> more shoe in front of the toe, but this will make it so breakover is
> more work. Much better (if you ask me) to quicken the front end a bit
> by making it easier for the front feet to breakover more quickly.
>
> kat
> Orange County, Calif.
> :)
>
>
>
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