Clydesdale/ Clyde cross owners and feet

blitznbobs

blitznbobs

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I’ve been meaning to ask, there was a Clydesdale cross I was looking at trying after seeing the videos of and was going to call about it but I spoke to my farrier (just cos he was doing my horses feet the day I saw it) and he had a mild coronary. Now he’s usually a laid back chap so I was a bit taken aback but he said he’s never seen a clydesdale with good feet and they never keep shoes on and almost begged me not to buy it... it was all very out of character . Is there any truth in this or has he just had a bad experience?
 
I have a 5 yr old Clydesdale cross Shire/cob and she has fab hooves. The farrier agrees. She is shoeless though....no idea about shoes
 
I have an 8 year old pure clydesdale and his feet are fab my farrier has actually passed comment on them and in almost 5 years he's lost 2 shoes due to scratching near stock wire and ripping them off.
Your farrier may just not want to deal with a heavy horse some farriers don't, and don't forget the extra cost of a set of shoes for the big guys.
 
For what it’s worth my Clydesdale had fantastic feet but sadly it was one foot that killed him as he had a double keratoma that never healed despite surgeries.

At the end of the day, quality of foot comes from quality of nutrition and external conditions and not necessarily breeding.

A lot of farriers won’t take on the big horses purely because they’re harder work. There’s a massive difference between a 14.2hh pony having a bit of a ‘lean’ while you’re shoeing and an 18.2hh giant having a lazy day 😃
 
I had a Clydesdale mare who was shod all the time we had her, I don't remember her ever losing a shoe, certainly no more than any of the other horses did. She had good feet. My 2nd Clyde mare was unshod and had strong feet, although she did once have an abscess in each back foot at the same time. My farrier did not like doing their feet because they do tend to lean on the farrier, as do most heavy horses.
 
It was not particularly a heavy horse, it was competing successfully at be100s and was half tb ... more heavyweight hunter shaped than heavy horse iyswim
 
Crazy then if it was a fairly normal size half bred!

My Clyde has stupidly hard feet and never needed shoes, although he had ongoing abcess trouble for almost 9 months. The farrier always comes with an apprentice for him, and they switch legs to save their backs!

Friend has three clydes and two comtois, all fairly good feet except one Clyde is gangly and has a habit of overreaching and pulling her front shoes off. Her farriers bill is expensive mind!

Another local fellow breeds shires and he's got one line which have horrible feet and are more trouble than they're worth to shoe. His other mare family are fine, and they're kept together on the same feed so there's a genetic link I guess.

Lots of farriers don't like pure heavies because they can be harder to shoe, and some owners get paranoid about feathers being rasped! And don't get me started on the showing shoe regime and putting shoes on foals - that's probably why some of the poor sods grow up with rubbish feet.

This lad should be fine.
 
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