Double clipped front shoes

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Hi there,

I have recently changed farriers and was wondering if someone could tell me the pros/cons of shoeing the front feet with double clipped shoes? My mare has only previously had single toe clips but the new farrier wants to change this. Any info appreciated
 
Hmm just seem strange he wants to alter her feet when they are the best they have ever been - its taken us ages to get them to how they are as previously they were unbalanced but are now quite a good pair. Am i being a bit over cautious?
 
Have you asked him why?

My mare is now shod like this as her feet got out of balance and x rays showed the foot pastern axis was broken back.

Double toe clips allows the farrier to set the shoe futher back, so eases the breakover and gives the heels more support.

Apparently they are also now the 'in thing' for Dressage horses
smile.gif
 
Ah you may have just answered the problem then. He asked me what i do with her and that is dressage with a bit of jumping. He did say she was a big mare so he would do double clips (she isnt that big to be really honest she is the lighter modern hanoverian) - big boned maybe. He will be coming on Friday so i will ask further before he actually shoes her.

Thanks everyone for your help
 
I changed farrier not long ago and I thought my previous farrier was good, but not compared to this new chap. My mare's hooves condition, shape etc have improved dramatically and she now has double clips on the front.
 
I have just had front shoes put on my big ID mare for the first time last week - they were starting to get chipped after hacking out. She was also shod with 2 clips, farrier stated it was because she was so big and heavy that these would be a better choice. Where her hooves were chipped, he rounded off the square edges with a disc cutter so that she was less likely to stand on it and pull it off.
 
my wee lad has got slightly flat feet and is shod with quarter clips so that the shoe can be set to support the heel and as the toe grows, it will break over, not pull the shoe forward away from his heel.

Fi x
 
I found that my horse tripped for the first few days of having double toe clips, but now I'm a big fan of them. The shoes seem to stay on longer (he was always pulling them off in the field), and the feet seem to be better too.
 
We have double clips on the front of one of ours, nothing to do with weight or activity (he is roughed off)

However he has massive sand cracks and these help hold the hoof together (hence why he cannot go barefoot as would be lame within 2 weeks)
 
My 2 horses have both been shod with double toe clips all round for several years now. They have poor feet - typical TB.
 
As has been mentioned - the farrier can set them further back on the foot to increase the breakover point and they will also help if a horse has e.g a heel imbalance as they can be shod long and wide. A lot of these type of shoes are also lighter as well. One of my horses has been shod like this after 8 years of wearing rolled toes and he is so much better with a double clipped front shoe whereas my other horse has really good feet naturally, but because he is a large chap I have him in wide webbed rolled toes which suit him better.


Also with 2 toeclips a horse can be shod in a slightly more 4 point shoeing type of way which really suits some horses and I think in some horses it takes the pressure of of the feet and places it further up the leg but thats just my opinion from experience!

Sometimes a horse will be better with normal shoes and sometimes not its just trial and error really, I always think with shoeing though " if it aint broke don't fix it"!!!.

Good luck though with what you decide!
 
Thanks K27 must admit I have been thinking along those lines which is why i am very reluctant to change.

I am going to say i want to stick to single toe clips as this is what she has had for ages with no problems.
 
I must say I havnt heard of this before. We have toe clip shoes on our 3/4 shire's hinds tho, this is mainly because 1) he is very unlikly to over reach and 2) he is a typical "3 toed shire." if you look at alot of shires they can have quite large cracks running where a quarterclip would be that goes through the corronet, its just the way they are and generally doesnt give them any trouble
 
My 16:2hh thoroughbred hunter wears double toe clipped fronts. He had dreadful feet when I first got him and the single toe clips seemed to break his feet even more so the farrier started using double toe clips on the front--and we have just carried on with it. His (horse--not farrier) feet are pretty good now and his shoes stay on really well. I'm loathe to change what seems to be doing a grand job.
 
My farrier has used double toe clips in front on my horses for the last 18yrs!!! He is a remedial farrier that has in the past been flown around UK sorting out top talented horses and has shod the likes of Mary Kings horses- I never question him for simple reason that he is superb! His reasoning behind double toe clips is, he uses the clips as an additional nail so he curls the tip of the clips into the horn slightly which gives it a gripping effect so he only ever puts in 2 nails either side of the hoof (4 nails per foot in total) With less nails it means less chance of loosing wall from the excess nail holes, I have lost 5 shoes in 18yrs, absolute truth! the other theory behind it is that a centre toe clip can cause ligament strain when a shoe is pulled off. The centre toe clip usually causes the shoe to be pulled off at an angle rather than coming clean off. If you finally find the shoe in the field you can sometimes see the shoe is buckled when you hold it and look from behind, this is because it was anchored on with a centre clip.
 
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