Farrier issues

[Graeme Burt farrier]

Graeme Burt farrier I don't suppose you are in the east London/ Essex area lol.

Sorry I am South East. Sevenoaks, Bromley, Maidstone, Dartford, Meopham that kind of area. I dont cross the river although I did once have a client who's horse went to stud for 6 months in Cambrigeshire and she would not have anyone else - she happily paid £50 just for the journey, before the cost of the shoeing, going back a few years.

 

[wingedhorse]

I doubt there will ever be this.
The problem is that the material that the horse produces - horn - is naturally destructible, designed to be so, is necessarily flexible, expands, grows, twists, buckles, bends and and is porous too. Taken with that, the environments, pressures and stresses that are placed on it are extreme. There are multiple methods of attachment, we have glues that have stress capabilities of hundreds of tons, but attach then to horn and the horn itself will bio-degrade so that the layer the glue is attached to simply comes away and whatever protection, no matter what it is made of, along with it. Nails, screws. rivets, staples, glue inserts, straps, every method of attachment has its drawback and is fallible. Even the horn itself can be undermined, softened and abraded. Boots and wraps are penetrable by destructive mud causing damage to underlying structures and uneven pressures.

The best approach is to treat every animal as an individual, taking into account the structure of the feet, the work it is doing, the environment it is living in, and the time of year, and adjust your protective measures (shoes and boots are various types of protection) to suit.

Do you use nail on EPONAs? An exand / contractable rubber plastic shoe?

 

[Graeme Burt farrier]

Do you use nail on EPONAs? An exand / contractable rubber plastic shoe?

I have never had the need to use Epona shoes, although I have used similar. The point I was trying to make was not so much about the shoes, but that all methods of protection, and methods of attachment, are fallible, and also detrimental in some way. Given that Eponas are nailed (in the example you give) they suffer from the kinds of problems associated with passing nails through the horn.

 

[shannonandtay]

New farrier is coming Friday, I've decided to go with the front shoes again until I get a chance to speak to him about barefoot and his thoughts on this. Also want to start on the pro balance before whipping the shoes off. I've just bought two sachets of confidence eq and will give the treats while the nail banging is being done, so will see how it goes.