Is it possible to tell whether a horse has been cold or hot shod?

poiuytrewq said:
Racehorses are cold shod, In 20 years in racing yards I’ve never seen one hot shod, not just aluminium but those in road work wearing steels.
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when you say cold shod, are the shoes adjusted using heat to shape to fit horse, and then cooled fully before being fitted to the horse?

Or is the farrier just taking mass bought shoes, getting best size for the racehorse in front of him, and trimming foot to fit that shoe?

Or can he adjust shoes on anvil cold to fit?
 
Tiddlypom said:
Farriers over here have gas powered forges built into their vans. Very quick and easy to use.

It’s noticeable with many newly imported horses from Ireland that they aren’t used to hot shoeing and they can get upset with the smoke at first.

Hot shoeing - shape the shoe to fit the foot
Cold shoeing - shape the foot to fit the shoe
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Can not really agree, until about 2010, everything I had shod was done cold. I had a pony mare that had four unmatched feet, two were almost oval, I have her old shoes and they are deffinately shaped to the hoof, cold shod.
When I started with horses they were nearly all cold shod, sometimes with secondhand shoes, at £5 a set.
 
Fieldlife said:
when you say cold shod, are the shoes adjusted using heat to shape to fit horse, and then cooled fully before being fitted to the horse?

Or is the farrier just taking mass bought shoes, getting best size for the racehorse in front of him, and trimming foot to fit that shoe?

Or can he adjust shoes on anvil cold to fit?
Click to expand...
When we had Arab race horses we used aluminium shoes and the farrier shapes them on the anvil to fit the horses feet, they were shod cold.
 
I'm also in Ireland and pretty much all of our event horses are cold shod.
Farrier shapes to foot with a hammer heating parts of it if necessary but its cold when it goes on
I had one who came with bad bad feet and my farrier did hot shoe her but thats the exception rather than the rule here.
 
sportsmansB said:
I'm also in Ireland and pretty much all of our event horses are cold shod.
Farrier shapes to foot with a hammer heating parts of it if necessary but its cold when it goes on
I had one who came with bad bad feet and my farrier did hot shoe her but thats the exception rather than the rule here.
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So they do have a forge in their van, but only heat the shoe to be able to shape it on the anvil? If not, how do they heat the shoe? It’s been interesting to read all this.

Having looked yesterday, following tips given here, we do think it’s most likely that the horse was cold shod. It may even be a refit with road nails added, but we’re not completely sure about that.

Clearly cold shoeing is in itself not a bad thing, but why would he cold shoe when the owner is not there? I assume in this case time and money - but good cold shoeing will take longer, from what I can tell.
 
teacups said:
So they do have a forge in their van, but only heat the shoe to be able to shape it on the anvil? If not, how do they heat the shoe? It’s been interesting to read all this.

Having looked yesterday, following tips given here, we do think it’s most likely that the horse was cold shod. It may even be a refit with road nails added, but we’re not completely sure about that.

Clearly cold shoeing is in itself not a bad thing, but why would he cold shoe when the owner is not there? I assume in this case time and money - but good cold shoeing will take longer, from what I can tell.
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Yes our most usual farrier has a small forge in his van and heats the shoe to shape it.
Many Irish horses would be shocked to have a hot shoe applied to their hoof and the noise smoke and smell that goes along with it!
 
I think that there’s a big difference between fitting a shoe which is shaped hot in situ to the right shape but is not held hot on the foot at any point before nailing on, and nailing on a machine made shoe which comes out of the van cold and is not heated at any point.

My former farrier did used to shoe my horses cold before we had the new stables put up, because the old set up only had pedestrian access and he couldn’t get his van + forge up there. As soon as we got a 12’ farm gate put in he drove up and hot shod.
 
Fieldlife said:
when you say cold shod, are the shoes adjusted using heat to shape to fit horse, and then cooled fully before being fitted to the horse?

Or is the farrier just taking mass bought shoes, getting best size for the racehorse in front of him, and trimming foot to fit that shoe?

Or can he adjust shoes on anvil cold to fit?
Click to expand...
Nope, no heat involved what so ever. I believe aluminium is more pliable so probably easier to fit than just cold shoeing steels, however as I say they do that too.
 
I keep my pony barefoot, but my fellow livery has hers shod, and I noticed that the front shoes has two side clips and I always thought that the front shoe normally had a single central clip. Has this thinking changed or perhaps I have just been un-observant? Just curious (and sorry to hijack your original question OP)
 
Tarragon said:
I keep my pony barefoot, but my fellow livery has hers shod, and I noticed that the front shoes has two side clips and I always thought that the front shoe normally had a single central clip. Has this thinking changed or perhaps I have just been un-observant? Just curious (and sorry to hijack your original question OP)
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Depends I have a couple in side clips because their feet spread and some in toe clips because theirs dont.
 
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