Having hinds shoes removed - any tips?

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ghostie

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My boy is being shod today and I am thinking of asking the farrier to leave off his hinds as I would like to see how he copes as a first step to taking off fronts too in time.

Is there anything in particular I should ask the farrier to do (or not do!)

thank you :)
 
Get him to remove each nail separately to preserve as much wall as possible and as said above no trimming of the frog or sole , personally I would not have them trim at all and certainly would not what him to try to roll the toe of a horse who may have very thin walls due to the shoeing .
Just get a tidy up and then as you get the horse moving he will begin where his foot himself then over time you will be see how much trimming he needs.
 
Thank you. I won't be there as I have to be at work so will leave him a note and ask him to call me if necessary. So do I just ask him to remove the hinds and roll the toes, leaving the frog and soles untouched?
 
Sorry Goldenstar, cross posted, so you think ask him to remove shoes preserving as much wall as possible and just tidy up without trimming?
 
Well it's my understanding that a roll develops as the wall thickens and grows as the horse gets moving and the foot develops .
How much you can intervene when the horse is first unshod depends on that horse.
It's important to remove the shoe carefull as the horse will lose some wall when as the nail holes grow out.
I would just say please remove hind shoes and please don't trim frog or sole .
I don't know your farrier of course but some can be very tetchy about being told what to do so tread lightly.
 
Goldenstar said:
Well it's my understanding that a roll develops as the wall thickens and grows as the horse gets moving and the foot develops .
How much you can intervene when the horse is first unshod depends on that horse.
It's important to remove the shoe carefull as the horse will lose some wall when as the nail holes grow out.
I would just say please remove hind shoes and please don't trim frog or sole .
I don't know your farrier of course but some can be very tetchy about being told what to do so tread lightly.
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Thank you, I just left a note saying please remove them and as he can be quite footy I wondered if it woukd be better just to tidy up and leave his frogs and soles, but that I trust his professional judgement to know wha s best. Thought that was reasonably tactful...
 
I'm thinking of doing the same soon; if you don't mind me asking, what is your reason for doing it? Has the horse always had a full set of shoes on up until now?

Would also be interested in knowing how he gets on! Is he in work?
 
Footlights said:
I'm thinking of doing the same soon; if you don't mind me asking, what is your reason for doing it? Has the horse always had a full set of shoes on up until now?

Would also be interested in knowing how he gets on! Is he in work?
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It might sound counter intuitive, but Spider has quite bad hooves. Ever since I have had him he has had natural balance shoes all round and his hooves have a tendency to crumble around the nail holes. Even if he's just been shod he looks like his feet are too long. He often goes lame behind after he has his feed shod, although no one can work out any vetinary reason for it.

So really that has led me to think I should try and transition him to having his shoes off entirely. I think the shoes are just masking an underlying problem with his hoof quality so I want to get that sorted.

In terms of timing, I've changed his diet in the last few months due to his ulcers so he has a high fibre and low sugar diet, which should hopefully be starting to help his hooves.

I want them off now because he's due to be shod and in three weeks he will be going to live out 24/7 for the rest of the summer. I wanted to do it whilst he still has a stable with rubber matting so that if he's in a lot of pain he has somewhere more comfortable to stand. The vet has given me some danilon to help him for the first few days.

He is currently in full work, although I'm accepting he might have to have a bit of time off. We will eventually take his fronts off too, but I wanted to do it gradually and get him sound behind without shoes before throwing his fronts into the mix.

This will sound odd, but to me getting him to a place where he is comfortable without shoes is the equivalent to how I feed my cats (bear with me here). They struggled with every food I tried them with and we were constantly battling to find something they would eat and that agreed with them. Eventually I gave up and put them onto a raw diet which is as close to what they would eat in the wild as possible - raw meat, organs and bones - and they are sooo healthy and happy now. They are being kept as possible to how nature intended and they are thriving. So to me, getting Spider's diet right and letting his hooves be as natural as possible feels like a logical extension of this. Obviously I will treat him as an individual and do what works for him in the long run, but I feel I owe it to him to try and find him an alternative to his current arrangement, which obviously isn't working for him right now.
 
When Harry was shod last time I asked the farrier to leave his backs off, he just lightly trimmed so he wasnt uneven with shoes on the front, all seems to be going okay, we are about three weeks into it and so far so good, Harry does a mile of road work a day and they dont seem to be wearing down too much, he isnt on any extra suppliments for his hooves just grass / hay and dengie hi fi lite once a day, the farrier did say I could call him back anytime if he looked sore at all
good luck
 
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