The next time he came out to shoe, I asked him why he did this and he
explained that it was to make the horse break over faster behind...in
essence by tricking him into thinking that his feet were somewhere other
than where they really were (i.e. tripping him on every stride).
I told him not to do that anymore, that I would find some other way of
keeping my horse from forging.
At the same time, I discovered that he (this is not true with every
horse) only forged (cosistently) when he was under saddle. Not at
liberty. Which led me to believe that this was clearly rider error.
I found that he showed a marked tendency to do this when he was not on
the bit, but had his nose stuck up in the air (he was a green arab) and
had hollowed his back. This was accentuated when I rode him because my
weight was causing him to hollow his back even more.
As my horse developed the muscles and the training to round his back and
support my weight....the clicking disappeared.
Additionally, that "clicking" is a very useful training tool...it tells me
when my horse is not in a nicely rounded frame. In the early stages of
endurance training, a horse will not have sufficent strength to support
the rider's weight for the entire ride...this is an indication that the
horse's back is not sufficiently prepared for the extended effort.
My recommendations to people who have horses that forge is...train your
horse to round its back, develop the physical strength to do this, and
use bell boots to protect the fronnt feet until the horse does. At the
same time, trim the horse to its natural hoof angle and shoe it so the
shoe is a natural extension of the foot.
My farrier does not do any "corrective" shoing. I do "corrective" schooling.
Just my 2 cents.
kat
Orange County, Calif.