Linda,
One basic concept to keep in mind is to put the shoe where you want the foot
to grow. In this case the shoe should stick out slightly (1/8 inch) along the
quarters with no nails "beyond the turn". The heels will gradually spread.
Meanwhile, don't allow the shoer to curl the ends of the shoes up under the
foot--instead, let them trail straight back, sticking out slightly behind the
bearing surfaces of the hoof wall. Finally, in general, with a fresh shoeing,
there should always be some shoe beyond the hoof, all the way around. Putting
on a shoe that is too small, then rasping down the hoof to make a
neat-looking job is what I call "horseing the shoe". You can expect all sorts
of problems from this kind of technique.
ti
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Tom, I can't thank you enough for writing this!! I have been
dealing with exactly this problem, and my shoer just was not
listening. He would refuse to leave any shoe trailing, and instead
was curling them in toward the foot-which caused a great case of
thrush becuase the whole area was covered and hard to access. He
would rasp the hoof down to fit the shoe, also. It also seemed
that the heels were just too high. I really got concerned this
summer when an endurance rider I really respect saw my horses and
asked why they were shod so "tight." At the last shoeing job, it
looked to me that the heels were too long, too high, and the back
of the shoe was way far forward of the leg, in other words, no
support at all behind the heel (which was growing more and more
slanted forward, if that makes sense.) Then the toe got rasped back
to the shoe-it just looked like too small a shoe for the foot.
I asked the shoer if he could put a larger shoe on, but all I think
he did was spread the shoe at the sides, and curl the ends in.
Enter another shoer to do my bigger mare. Shoer #1 had been
squaring the back feet, I'm not sure why, but she dragged them
some going down hill. New shoer thought the angles were too
steep, lowered the heel, and put a larger shoe on this horse.
Didn't square the back feet, just trimmed them naturally. Now
the mare doesn't drag. The entire foot looks more balanced,
when he was done, there was an edge of shoe all around the edge
of the hoof, and some branch at the back. Seems like a much
better fit to have a #1 size shoe on a horse that is big boned
and 15.2h, than an O! The mare still had pleanty of heel when he
was done.
Tom, I am saving all your posts, as well as many others lately.
I really appreciate your imput and that of all others. This is
great!
Karen
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