Re: Re: Feet (was Thoroughbreds as Endurance Horses)

["Dave & Abby Bloxsom" <cyclone@snet.net>]

For those with religious breed allegiances that cause them to flame people
who criticize their horses, please delete this post now.  Save me some
trouble.

> Re: Shelly hooves in TB's:  We have had many a TB used for polo and most
all
> of them had good hooves. But then we seldom had them up in stalls.  So
from
> my perspective it seems to be a problem with keeping a grazing herd
anilmal
> in a stall too much.
>
My experience w/TB feet is that it's easy for a shoer to let them flare
because they seem to "want" to.  I use hind pattern shoes on their front
feet, and often have to trim them short - sometimes 2-1/2" on a size 0 or 1
foot - and while none of mine are doing distance riding, they live in a
hard-soiled pasture and work 2-3 hours a day in the lesson ring, with two
4-5 mile trail rides a week.

I have to say I do have trouble keeping the shoes on TB's for the first year
... it takes a while to get the good horn grown down to where it will hold a
nail.  I much prefer an Appy foot to a TB, but most of the horses we get
here have their share of problems ... QH's & those w/a lot of QH blood
(paints, some apps) have thin walls, Morgans have club feet, ponies don't
want their legs bent that way, draft horses have good horn but they are a
royal pain to hang onto (and their shoes are so hard to bend!)...
        Actually, the Arabs we get usually have inherently good feet, and
they
        are usually sooooo patient as schoolies.  (You know what?
        As camp horses, they almost never spook either!  We have to
        put the riding staff on them and go out and tear up the trail a bit
        before they start to get spooky.)
Mustangs just don't even need shoes. They also seem to be offended by the
whole shoeing process, so I'm just as glad!

-Abby Bloxsom
(shoeing 30-35 horses for 6 months a year - 25 of them are new each year)