Re-Fitting A Lost Shoe

[kellybrown11]

Hello,

I hope someone can give me some advice. My horse lost a shoe and so i called out my farrier to put the old one back on as i found it in his field. When my farrier did this he removed some of his hoof, probably about 1/2 an inch and then fitted the shoe.

You can now see visibly that one hoof is smaller than the other.

Is this normal practice? I am worried that it will make him off balance?

Any advice would be great. Thanks

 

[TheFarrier]

no its not

your horse is now likely to be unbalanced yes.

If the horse had damaged his hoof and it needed correcting then the farrier should have done a pair. That sounds like he removed a lof of hoof, is the horse due to be shod soon? If so i would have him bck out to reshoe the horse.

If i am putting a shoe back on i make sure the feet are balanced and level. Taking back growth is for the reshoeing process not for putting a shoe back on.

I suggest you ring your farrier and voice your concerns. Explain that the horse is now unlevel and see if there was any reason for him taking hoof off before re-applying the shoe. There may have been a reason for doing so.

Also sometimes when a shoe comes off there is loss of hoof either from when the shoe is pulled or if the owner did any work with the horse and wore it down. This also makes for an uneven pair but ive actually never heard of it causing any problems.

 

[kellybrown11]

Thanks for the reply. If i am honest i just dont want to upset my farrier.

It had been 4 weeks since he was shod and the shoe came off cleanly.

I just dont understand why he didnt re-shoe him completley.

My other concern that he is only 4 and is not balanced very well, so we need to give him all the help we can. Plus i am only just started to ride him so i dont want him to be uncomfortable.

I will call my farrier but i expect he will not be very happy, i think it may be time to find a new farrier.

Thanks again for your response.