Fronts left on or off?

S

silverbreeze

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My mare damaged an old ddft injury again in february and I am putting her in foal for a complete break. She isn't lame, no heat just a bit of swelling and slight tenderness on palpation...

She will be going to stud in a couple of weeks and I am having her hinds taken off.. My dilema now is do I take her fronts off now or when she comes back from stud. Worried that I wont have enough time to monitor the response of the change of angle for long enough before she goes and as much as the stud will check her it prbably wont be checked quite as 'fine tooth comb' as it would if I was checking it.

She kept her fronts on the whole time through the initial injury but it was a lot worse then...

Any thoughts?
 
Does she have wedges? If so I can see your point, but if not there won't be a change of angle. If the horse is being covered naturally in the field then it's best not to have shoes, as the horses have to be undisturbed as much as possible, stallions can get very stressed if their girlfriends leave the field for farriers etc.

If she is being covered in hand then I would think you have a better chance of keeping the shoes if you feel the need to do so. Why not talk to the stud about it?
 
No wedges and I understand that the angle wont change initially but the hoof growth\angles will be affected without a shoe wont it? i.e. more likely to spread? She will still have the farrier regularly for trims etc

She is being covered in hand so stud have said she can have fronts left on... I do want to get the shoes off eventually but when I can monitor foot growth very carefully.. Probably answered my own question there haven't I!!

Thanks
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Because I was obviously having a simple moment! I thought that the shoe controlled the shape of the hoof growth a little more than bare foot... dumb question it seems now, wish I had just asked my farrier and then I would have only look like a numpty in front of one person rather than an entire public forum!
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The thought process comes from when my TB mare had no shoes her feet had a tendency to spread more than with shoes and she was trimmed as regularly as she was shod; must have been a one off special case.

If she didn't have the injury I wouldn't be concerned and would deal with splits from nail holes growing down etc as they came along.
 
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