How many hours a week do you spend hacking on roads?

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Patches

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I didn't think I did that much road work. Patches is shod every four weeks. However, her shoes are really wearing in four weeks and I might have to consider reducing the time to three weekly intervals for being shod.

So, it got me thinking, how many hours a week do you hack for? I mainly hack. All routes are on the road or stony bridleways. I never hack for under 2 hours and some times I hack for around four hours (like today). I do a bit of trotting (just when my bum is getting numb!) and have the odd canter on grass verges.

All in all, I average about 14 hours a week on roads. That's not alot is it?
 
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I dont do a lot tbh, tend to stick to the bridleways if poss because I dont trust the drivers round us.

Rather than decrease the shoeing interval I'd ask for thicker shoes- shoeing too often is quite concussive and damaging to the foot imho and 4 weeks is already a very short period
 
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I dont do a lot tbh, tend to stick to the bridleways if poss because I dont trust the drivers round us.

Rather than decrease the shoeing interval I'd ask for thicker shoes- shoeing too often is quite concussive and damaging to the foot imho and 4 weeks is already a very short period

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He has put thicker shoes on this time. It's her hinds at the toe which she wears, even though he rolls them for her between the quarter clips. They are like a knife edge between the clips and very difficult to remove because they just fall apart as he takes them off.

As she has to have extremely rolled toes to keep her from tripping, I don't think she can go any closer than 4 weeks as I don't think she'd grow enough foot to have the toe rolled so extremely. (He almost rolls the foot as well)

That said, she grows an amazing amount of foot and it always stuns the farrier just how long her feet get in such a short space of time.

We do have some lovely bridleways here, but they aren't grass tracked, they're heavily stoned.
 
Umm probably about 3 hours. Maybe more if I do a long hack at the weekend. I much prefer to go in the fields as I don't get them for very long, the farmers will be out ploughing soon.
During the summer I will do more as I have longer to go further.
 
14 hours a week on roads is a fair bit really! It is no wonder you are getting through shoes. I am all road work too unless I box somewhere. In the spring and summer when I am getting and keeping my boy fit for pleasure rides I will do between 20 and 30 miles of hacking on the roads and then a pleasure ride at the weekend (hopefully off road!). I easily get through shoes every 4 weeks and when the farrier comes they are like tin and just fall apart! I have worked out I can get no more than 75 miles on roads out of my shoes, so try to get in as many off road pleasure rides as possible!
 
P.S you can get better wearing and slightly thicker shoes...my farrier fits them for me and also some road nails as this gives me a few more miles!
 
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P.S you can get better wearing and slightly thicker shoes...my farrier fits them for me and also some road nails as this gives me a few more miles!

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We have thick shoes and road nails. Farrier says she's the only horse who can wear the titanium tips off the road nails! She has her road nails riveted on so that they as far back on the shoe now as possible. He doesn't like to use them to nail into the foot and also doesn't like only using one on the outside as her weight will pivot from the one nail as the shoe wears down. (does that make sense?)

Today's hack was nice and leisurely, but only about 15 miles. The problem I have is that she taps her back foot down during the stride, wearing her hinds at the toe excessively. When he pulls the shoes off, hers also fall apart.
 
None at the moment but at my last yard I would do around 4 hours a week which made my horses shoes wafer thin by shoeing time at 6 weeks, and he is a lightweight warmblood.
 
Maybe 2? However our forest tracks & bridleways are stonedust. Farrier uses heavy hunting plates to keep the shoeing interval 6 weeks
 
interesting about the titanium tips, i asked my farrier if he would consider putting these on my horse to help the wearing of her shoes but he said they put un-necessary strain on their legs.
 
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interesting about the titanium tips, i asked my farrier if he would consider putting these on my horse to help the wearing of her shoes but he said they put un-necessary strain on their legs.

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I don't believe they are that bad for them, if they are used on both the inside and the outside of the shoe. Alot of farriers just put one to the outside edge. As the shoe wears, the tip stands more proud, so the horses weight can rest more on just the road nail.

My farrier always rivets them onto the shoe in a hole he punches at the back of it whilst making it to fit Patches. He never used a road nail as a clench. Patches slips on the road because of the way she puts her feet down without them. The risk of her injuring herself from slipping and tripping far exceeds the risk of using the nails.
 
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