shoeing

Tivers@aol.com
Tue, 26 Nov 1996 23:32:49 -0500

<< To the list: Help. My farrier also squares hind feet and sets the shoes
back
to increase breakover and so that my mare won't pull off her front shoes
(though she has never pulled a shoe). Now my mare has a couple things going
on: she is not great up hill, wants to lunge up not trot, she often has sore
hamstrings and has pulled muscles in hind end in the past. Also at last ride
vet said her flexor tendon in back leg was sore so I pulled at 13 miles.

Could this be a shoeing problem???Maybe on top of other problems???Please
help.

Thanks.

:-)Jessica
>>
Ok, this gives me a clue or two--never even considered what would happen
trying to trot up a hill. Here your horse is having difficulty reaching up
and under. Short feet don't want to reach. But there may be other things
going on here, too--sore hocks don't want to flex--nor do sore stifles. The
tendon is probably a secondary effect of her attempts to do as asked despite
bad biomechanics--caused, in my mind, by "quick-fix" shoeing. Again, I would
advise correcting interference, if there is any, by quickening the front and
slowing the hind.

I find myself starting to sound preachy with this shoeing stuff, so I'm going
to back out of this particular discussion for a while and let the rest of you
have at it.

ti