Could Natural Balance shoes cause toe dragging and stumbling?

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Christmas Crumpet

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As per my post below…
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/foru...dragging-and-stumbling-on-near-hind-any-ideas

Horse is dragging hind feet and stumbling on her off hind occasionally.

She passed a 5 stage vetting with flying colours and came to me in good nick as far as I am aware!! Vet said what great shape she was in. Old owners haven't had a day's lameness with her.

She did lose a shoe (near hind) just after I got her and so farrier came and put a new shoe on which seemed quite different to the shoe on her other foot. As far as I can remember she was only toe dragging on that foot and stumbling on that leg once new shoe was on.

Then farrier came out to do a whole new set about 2 weeks ago and put Natural Balance shoes on behind and since then she has been toe dragging constantly when trotting with both feet.

Could it be a coincidence? Any thoughts? I have been assuming its something higher up but it could easily be her shoes I guess if she's not used to shoes like that.
 
He said her toes were too long.

She is having her hinds removed and replaced on Friday - it will be interesting to see whether it does have anything to do with the NB shoes and whether she goes back to moving normally.

However, she's never been shod in them before as far as I am aware. Chiropractor says def. start with the shoes and if its not that then get the vet. The shoes are the only thing that has changed.

Fingers crossed.

Has anyone else had problems with NB shoes?
 
Yea, farrier was world class and horse had perfect feet, good conformation, when ridden he felt as though he was "on tiptoes", that is to say his balance was incorrect, I took them off, I mentioned it to the farrier at a horsey night, but apparently he was deaf in that ear so I never got a response.
Another farrier told me that selling these NB shoes was his pension fund..............
I just had them on the front.
It is very unusual to have long toes behind............ is farrier new?
 
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NB shoes are more bulky and heavier than a normal shoe not sure if it would cause toe dragging, my gelding had NB on the front for a while but he now has a normal shoe with side clips or no toe clips as this enables the farrier to keep his toes short, his also shod every 5 weeks for this reason, thing is the back feet are naturally longer in the toe than the fronts, so strange he used them on the hind feet for this reason, I would go back to the shoes he had on before and get the farrier to keep his toes short and shoe him regular so they cant get too long.
 
NB's on hinds only.

Fronts had long toes too but they've been taken back and she is in quarter clips and all seems ok from that end. Fronts are normal shoes.

She is having the hinds off on friday so fingers crossed it makes a difference. I will take some photos of her feet this evening and post them with photos of the day I tried her out.

Farrier not convinced it will make any difference...
 
Apologies if this sounds offensive towards your farrier, but does he know how to fit NB shoes properly? My horse was in NB and doing very well in them, then due to circumstances I moved yards out of that farrier's area. New yard's farrier (who I knew of previously and had thought was a good farrier) continued with the NB but virtually crippled my horse within two shoeings by not fitting them correctly. I changed farriers and the new farrier, also using NB, transformed my horse within one shoeing back to how he should be (and better!) - just by correctly balancing the feet and fitting the shoes properly.

NB shoes and others of that type are designed to provide the optimum breakover point. If they're not in the right place, then they will unbalance the horse. So to answer your question - yes, if not fitted correctly, NB shoes can cause toe dragging and stumbling.
 
sav123 said:
Apologies if this sounds offensive towards your farrier, but does he know how to fit NB shoes properly? My horse was in NB and doing very well in them, then due to circumstances I moved yards out of that farrier's area. New yard's farrier (who I knew of previously and had thought was a good farrier) continued with the NB but virtually crippled my horse within two shoeings by not fitting them correctly. I changed farriers and the new farrier, also using NB, transformed my horse within one shoeing back to how he should be (and better!) - just by correctly balancing the feet and fitting the shoes properly.

NB shoes and others of that type are designed to provide the optimum breakover point. If they're not in the right place, then they will unbalance the horse. So to answer your question - yes, if not fitted correctly, NB shoes can cause toe dragging and stumbling.
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No offence taken at all!! I have felt like I've been clutching at straws today but I know that the horse I tried out trotted along the road beautifully with no toe dragging at all and that was one of the reasons I fell in love with her - she was keen and enthusiastic and lovely to hack out. She's slowed down since coming here and has started dragging toes and stumbling behind. If she was had done that when I tried her out, I wouldn't have bought her.

I am realistic that it might not be the shoes and that she could have spavin or SI issues or PSD or anything else but it would be far more helpful if it was the shoes!!
 
Strange that his only put them on the hind feet surely the shoes should be a set and be the same all round! I hope once they come of she goes back to normal.
 
So do I Pinkyboots. Knowing my luck it is a total coincidence but I'm hoping if she's stumbling and dragging her toes it is because the breakover point is wrong causing her to drag her toes and perhaps the shoes are pinching or bruising her toes hence the stumbling. Who knows but when trying to find out the reason behind something, it would be silly not to look at the obvious things first.

I have got some photos taken last night and it is clear to see that the near hind (which is the one she stumbles on) is out of balance. The hoof wall is higher on the outside than the inside which is interesting.

I will post some photos if I can figure out how to add them to this post otherwise will do a new post.
 
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