horse forging. can you stop it?

charlie76

charlie76

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A horse I am schooling has three balanced lovley paces And feels very active. However when You let him stretch in the trot he forges quite badly. Is there any way to stop this?
 
charlie76 said:
A horse I am schooling has three balanced lovley paces And feels very active. However when You let him stretch in the trot he forges quite badly. Is there any way to stop this?
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He is probably not as balanced as he feels,When stretching he is able to go onto his forehand and hence the forging.
I would encourage him to spend short periods during his work going long and low in a slower rhythm until he is balancing himself more on his hindlegs,he should then stop the forging.

You may find his true rhythm is slightly slower and he will then become more active as he engages more.
 
Can be due to a few things, imbalance being one, but can also include conformation i.e. short coupled horses can forge quite badly. Could he be too long in the hind toes perhaps? I've been told it can be a stifle issue but I don't know much about that.
 
You can also look at shoeing, quarter clips on the front and keeping an eye on the length of the toes at the back, let the farrier know he's doing it.
 
It could be a shoeing issue. My horse who is very short coupled used to forge... changed farrier and to cut a long story short, the forging is now virtually non-existent.
 
My short-coupled 5yo is pretty balanced/active for his age.
He goes through phases of forging. My horses forging reduced considerably from a change in shoeing but also a change in riding (he was prone to going on his forhand).
I would suggest that if your horse is showing forging only when being ridden L&L then he is falling to much onto his forehand. I'd suggest slowing the trot, activating the hind leg and ask him to stretch more forward than down.
 
Sometimes tweaking the shoeing can help, and also slowing them down if they are v active behind. As someone has suggested front shoes with quarter clips (or rolled toe shoes) shod really long and wide at heels can help with the breakover, allowing the front feet to get out of the way quicker, also farriers can set the hind shoe further back under the toe which may help, or they can square it off- but doesn't suit all horses!- and over reach boots too!

Also if the toes are too long that can cause it.
 
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My horse forges, not while being ridden funnily enough but when leading to the field/walking round the field.
He is short coupled, changing farrier helped!! He doesn't do it much now he's got a new farrier :)
 
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