Hot or Cold Shoeing??????????

Which yard would you choose?

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my old farrier would cold shoe for one of my horses because he could not stand the smoke around him and would freak. Cold shoeing is fine - but really hard work for a good farrier as the effort to bend the shoe is huge. Lots of bad farriers will cold shoe as they simply fit the foot to the shoe so don't spend the time and effort to get it to fit correctly.
 
Depends on the horse. With the wide range of shoes available these days, a farrier can achieve a very good fit with a cold-altered shoe on the average horse. However, with some horses the only way to get an excellent fit is with hot shoeing.

My OH is a farrier and shoes a lot of horses cold, including our own horses. However, there are some that he chooses to shoe hot, because that is what is best for those particular horses.
 
My farrier actually moulded the shoe to fit the foot and I did ask him about it at the time. After he'd gone a friend who uses him said that her vet told her that only good farriers cold shoe as many of them just can't do it. We didn't know what the vet meant and I wish my friend had asked her for more info when the vet said it!!
 
A fully trained farrier should be able to do either but some horses don't like the smoke etc than comes with hot shoeing. Hot shoeig will invariably get the shoe to seat better in the foot as obviously it burns it's way to a perfect fit.
 
Ours are always cold shod, but I'd always seen hot shoeing before coming to Newmarket.
Personally I do prefer hot shoeing though
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I would always before have said definitely cold shoeing - but I currently have a mare that can't stand the smoke and just completely freaks out - and my old mare we cold shod, as we found that was the best way to stop her perpetually dry feet drying out even more.

Horses for courses as with many things I think.
(oh and the availability of a good farrier as well.....)
 
The lame loan horse we had used to freak out at the smoke so she was generally cold shod (or sedated
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) Otherwise we've had a mix of hot and cold shoeing over the years and provided you have a decent farrier who knows what he's doing then either should be fine.
 
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Apart from cutting the foot to fit the shoe, what else could go wrong with cold shoeing?

I've seen cutting the foot to fit the shoe even with hot shoeing.

It seems that no one has really elaborated on their problems with cold shoeing - please would you... I've got 4 weeks left to decide if I want my mare hot or cold shod next time!

For those of you sticking with hot shoeing only, is this because you haven't experienced cold shoeing and you're sticking with what you know?

Thanks, the more opinions the better please.
 
when the shoe is still at a black heat and the shaping and leveling of the shoe is complete, then it is placed against the ground surface of the hoof so as to cause a slight discoloration of the hoof material. this tells the farrier if the foot is flat or if there are high spots that need to be filed a bit more. these high spots show up as brown areas, from the heat of the shoe scorching the hoof wall at the ground surface. when these high spots are removed, the shoe should have an excellent fit to the hoof. the farrier who does not do hot shoeing is just as capable of doing a good job. as long as the shoe fits and the foot is flat, there is no difference between a basic hot or cold shoeing.
imo
 
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