Can Someone Elaborate on this for me please (shoeing related)

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Tierra

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Hey guys,

Im wondering if anyone can elaborate on something for me.

Firstly, let me start by saying my Danish warmblood is of the low heeled long toed variety in front. He always has been. Im very careful about having him shod at exactly 6 weeks and he has zero soundness issues and never has had. He's 15 years old now.

In the UK i always chatted to my farrier frequently (the guy in question shod Jack when he was a youngster for several years and then again when i bought him at 12). He always said he needs to be shod with his conformation in mind (obviously!) but aside from that, hes got decent feet.

I moved to Denmark four months ago and my major concern was the new farrier. He's now on his 3rd shoeing and his feet look great in my opinion.

Now, my fiance called the farrier this morning because we lost his invoice and as he's ready for his next shoeing, we wanted to settle that first. The farrier said on the phone that he wanted to speak to us about Jack's shoeing. My fiance immediatly asked what was wrong and he said there was nothing wrong with jack.. but that he thought a "four point shoeing method" would suit him better and help to deal with his low heel, long toe conformation issue.

The only thing i could find on the net about this was:-

http://www.horseshoes.com/advice/dibbrn1/fcoftfrp.htm

and tbh, it mostly went over my head. (I would like to stress though that jack doesnt have navicular syndrome, this was brought up to try and help his conformation weakness)

Can anyone help explain a bit? I tend to be of the opinion that the guy knows what hes talking about and i should just go along with it. However that article mentioned that the shoeing can look quite peculiar and almost slightly shocking from an aesthetics point of view.

As i mentioned, hes 15 now and im also concerned that its going to throw everything way out of balance for him :P

Anyone help explain things a bit?

Thanks in advance!
 
My only advice is, if it aint broke, dont fix it.

If Jack is fine with his current shoeing situation, and his foot conformation hasnt changed, then I dont see why you should change what has worked so well for so long.
 
I think he means natural balance shoeing- both my horses are shod natural balance as they both have the long toes and no heel syndrome.


I disagree completly with the 'if it aint broke dont fix it' long toes/no heel are very dangerous if left to linger too long and they should, ALWAYS be corrected by natural balance shoes. I have one flat footed horse that was shod with normal shoes and although it was shod regularly every 5 weeks it progressively got lamer and lamer, nerve blocks showed that it was both front feet that were hurting and the x rays showed that the pedal pone was parralel to the ground causing heel pain. As soon as it was shod with natural balance shoes ( 4 point shoes) it was instantly so much more comftable-therefore now I realise that it hasnt has not been moving comfortably for months now !! So it was a real eye opener for me, never again will I leave a horse who has feet like that in normal shoes.

I cant explain the science of it but all the performance horses here that are long toed/have no heel are shod natural balance. Its really dangerous to leave 'normal' shoes on such horses as the pedal bone becomes too flat and that is when navicular changes start to occur.
 
Can i ask a couple of questions?

And yes, btw, i agree, if its going to help him, it IS something i want to go with.. at the end of the day the farrier is the one in the know.

But did your horses take a while to adjust went they went from normal shoeing to NB shoes?

Also.. that article i read said the shod foot looks quite "shocking" in appearance.. Does it really? :P

I love my boy to bits and anything that can help him im all for.. id just also like to know what im getting into
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Equally though, it also means i can now look up NB shoeing also
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Thanks a lot
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Must say I disagree a bit with DofftheDerby above. Our big mare is low in the heel/long toes, and our temporary (disaster) farrier asked me if our previous and now returned farrier had put NB shoes on her for a reason....I said maybe (not realising he had tbh) and could we just carry on with what he had done as I trust his judgement implicitly. Anyway, long story short, original farrier back now (thank god!).....he never had put NB shoes on, just worked on a normal pair of shoes, to adapt them to suit her feet and her needs, which is really what a good farrier should be able to do. Both our mares are low heel/long toe types, and both are shod in conventional shoes, but with rolled toes/quarter clips, and carefull trimming and preparation.
My girl was diagnosed with Navicular 8 years ago before I had this farrier, she has never needed NB shoes to keep her sound since, just clever farriery with normal shoes which can recreate the same principles.
TBH the fact that a qualified farrier couldn't tell the difference between a NB shoes and a normal one that my farrier had worked on a bit (onsite, just using his travelling furnace-thing and anvil) is a bit worrying for that farrier, but also suggests it doesn't HAVE to be NB to achieve the same effect.
Although I an see that sometimes it might be easier/more appropriate to use the NB shoes I don't think we can say they should always be used.
 
Oh im sure its a case by case thing.. but the farrier i have now seems good and he has been making a good job of jack's feet thus far.

He's kept his heel as "up" as my last farrier in the uk which was my main concern (when jack appeared back on the yard before we bought him, the farrier who had been shoeing him had made a disasterous mess of his feet).

Never the less, even though hes shod every 6 weeks, by the 4th and 5th his front feet start to look very long in the toe.

I certainly think the farrier was in the right to mention it.. and he asked my fiance to speak to me about it and then call him back for a proper chat (i dont speak danish.. hence its kinda going through him atm).

I just want to do everything possible to keep my boy comfortable and give him the best chance to keep an active life as long as possible
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I would be a bit wary of him fiddling about trying to change his feet, especially at his age. I would want to speak to him in depth first.
My YO's horse has terrible feet, they are the same size as my 15.2's on a 17.1's body! If you change the way hes shod he instantly goes lame and has problems.

Im not saying dont do it but I would want to know all the details before I commited.
 
Both my boys are of the low heeled long toed conformation, and do fine with normal shoes, like Emma said a good farrier should be able to tailor them.

Personally, unless Jack was having a negative effect from his current shoeing regime, which it seems he isnt, then I would be wary of changing the methods for the reasons Nat outlined.

Def find out as much as poss before making any changes.
 
I changed farrier because our last one was always letting us down,about a year ago. He has been shoeing this year with shoes that stick out a bit at the sides because he says his hooves are upright at the sides and he needs support.Our horse now keeps catching them and pulling them off. Last time he was shod he pulled them off 3 days later and trod on a nail and got an abscess it was touch and go if we would get him sound for the grass routes champ but we did and the farrier put on shoes that fitted the sides and said it will do him no favours in the long term.
Neither will getting abscesses, next time I'm going to make sure he puts on shoes that fit not shoes to improve.
 
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