Help - horse who keeps overreaching and ripping front shoes off

LFD

LFD

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My 7yo ISH keeps overreaching and tearing off his shoes in the field. He has always been like this and I thought it was because he had bad feet and as shoes were continually being ripped off and replaced, never really having the chance to grow back nice and strong before they were ripped off again.

He has been on 6 months box rest due to a ligament injury with the only positive being his feet have really improved as he has kept his shoes on and they were looking great. He now has limited turn out in a small pen and has been up to his old tricks. He pulled both fronts off on Saturday. He is always turned out with bell boots on but they don’t seem to help.

Any ideas/ticks to try and keep the front shoes on??

Many thanks in advance!
 
Is he shod behind? If so your farrier should be able set back shoes back and roll his toes. If not shod maybe he could just roll toes a little.
 
Have this discussion with your farrier - they know what your horse's feet can stand.
First year I had mine, he was forging badly in deep ground, we ended up putting shorter shoes than normal on the front (bent under, almost). This is risky, as it leaves less support for the heel, but we monitored carefully and switched back to normal shoes as soon as the ground dried up a bit. Overreach boots didn't help him, they annoyed him and made it worse. Now he's stronger and fitter, he doesn't do it much so we just leave him to it. Still does it when excited - took 2 shoes off at opening meet last season!

I would never decide to do that of my own accord, though - only on farrier's advice.
 
J used to do this .
He's a big horse who took ages to develop and he's very very expressive behind .
The farrier adjusted his hind shoeing to help ( which it did ) and he is shod in front in a type of natural balance shoe .
Now he more mature and learning to sit more and more , gaining balance and the ability to collect and lift his whither the issue has melted away.
 
Every horse that I have personally seen that has had this problem, actually had a hoof balance issue (long toes and under-run heels) which altered the breakover - delayed it - thus causing the horse to be unable to pick his front hooves up quick enough to be out of the way of the hind hooves.

Having never seen your horse (you could post hoof photos of your horse, if you would like), I don't know if this is the case here, but it's certainly worth looking at his hoof balance even if it's just to rule it out as a cause.

IME, shoeing shorter at the front with no heel support just encourages the toes to lengthen, the heels to collapse more and the breakover to become even later, making everything worse.
 
Have a chat to your farrier as mine is the same and he seems to have fixed it by changing breakover points and putting side clips on the fronts :) *touches wood*
 
I agree with faracat that it is a great mistake to compromise the heel support on the front feet to manage this issue .
It can be due to weakness particularity in big moving weak youngsters when J first came it was fairly common for me to see the front shoe fly off even with OR boots when he took a big step behind just as he lost balance in front.
In the end I trained him a year with out his shoes which did improve his feet ( he was shod from 2 the end of his 5 year ) .
He overreached without shoes to , it was a frustrating time .
 
Thanks everyone - looks like I need to have a chat with my farrier. I did mention it to him this morning when he was fixing them again but he didn't seem to have any good suggestions.

soulfull said:
Is he shod behind? If so your farrier should be able set back shoes back and roll his toes. If not shod maybe he could just roll toes a little.
Click to expand...

He is shoed behind so this could be a good option.

Goldenstar said:
J used to do this .
He's a big horse who took ages to develop and he's very very expressive behind .
The farrier adjusted his hind shoeing to help ( which it did ) and he is shod in front in a type of natural balance shoe .
Now he more mature and learning to sit more and more , gaining balance and the ability to collect and lift his whither the issue has melted away.
Click to expand...

I love they way you have described your horse - 'very very expressive behind' - that sounds just like mine!

Time for a chat with my farrier!
 
The best way to look is to get someone to video him and zoom in on his feet
when moving. Play the video back on your PC in slow motion.
 
I had a young gelding who used to pull shoes off, I was lucky to keep his front shoes on for a fortnight. I got a chiropractor out for him for the first time, not for any particular reason, and after one session he didn't pull off another shoe for about five years.

I can only assume it was the chiropractor that made the change since the change was like a switch flipping straight after she treated him, and there were no other changes. The chiro did say she found some issues. I have no idea why it worked though.
 
I once briefly looked after a horse that did this and when you videoed him and played it back in slow motion, his feet were literally all over the place. We tried all sorts with shoeing and schooling but in the end just came to the conclusion that he was poorly cooordinated.
 
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