Shoeing - please explain something to me?

I think its pretty much to with with the accuracy of the fitting. Hot metal is obviously more pliable therefore you can get a more accurate fit although my farrier will happily do either and has cold shod my gelding many times with no problems..
 
With hot shoeing the shoe is pressed onto the hoof of the horse & burns away the horn to form a real good seat & fit. With cold shoeing it is more difficult to get the that real good fit.
Many years ago most were cold shod as there were no portable forges to take to yards as there are now. The only way you would actually get hot shod was by actually going to the farriers forge.
 
Honeypots is right - it is to do with the accuracy of fitting. When cold shoeing first started the range of ready made shoes available was quite restricted, so it was difficult to get a really good fit with cold shoeing unless your horse happened to fit the available sizes, as only small adjustments can be made with the shoe cold. Now farriers have a huge array of readymades available and it is much easier to get an excellent fit for most horses. My OH shoes both hot and cold - but the majority are done cold and just the more awkward to fit horses are done hot.

I think much of the antipathy towards cold shoeing stems from the early days of the practice. Incidentally, some people actually think that burning the shoe onto the foot can actually be detrimental to the hoof horn.
 
Also some people think that burning the shoe onto the foot can actually be detrimental to the farrier as well. All that smoke can't be healthy.
 
Hot shoeing is detrimental to my horses feathers!! Mine is cold shod for re-fits, hot shod when he needs new shoes
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Also some people think that burning the shoe onto the foot can actually be detrimental to the farrier as well.

[/ QUOTE ] It can be detrimental to his love life as well, when he comes home stinking to high heaven
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A top farrier who used to shoe one of mine (fronts only) said that as she didn't grow much foot and we needed to try to preserve what she had, he wouldn't hot shoe her as he was burning away what hoof there was.

However, such was his skill that he could shape the shoe hot, then cool it and nearly every time he offered it up to her foot the fit was spot on, if not he heated it again and worked it before cooling it and fitting it.

They never ever came off.
 
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Also some people think that burning the shoe onto the foot can actually be detrimental to the farrier as well. All that smoke can't be healthy.

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Yeah but love that smell!
 
pmsl am with you on that one TGM! My OH only shoes hot, and he makes all his own shoes as well (no readymades in HIS van!!)
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He maintains that his shoes will fit with no adjustment (he's usually right) and my horses' feet always look fantastic. I will have to keep the marriage alive despite the pong, cos I don't know another farrier as good as him!!
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I really don't like cold shoeing as my farrier says with cold shoeing you're fitting the foot to the shoe, not the shoe to the foot! And this is so true with my cob. I have to have her cold shod, as this is what her owner wants, and the farrier (have to have this farrier aswell
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) fits her foot to the shoe!!!
 
my farrier does both.but my lad is cold shod as farrier been here for 30 yrs and does a great job all shoes are made by him at home then taken and fitted properly at your yard
 
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Hot shoeing= shoe fits the foot
Cold shoeing= foot fits the shoe

[/ QUOTE ] That's a vast over-simplification! With a lot of horses it is quite possible to cold shoe and have the shoe fit the foot and not vice versa (see my post above). However, I agree there are certain horses where cold shoeing is not appropriate and a better fit can be obtained with hot shoeing.

For that reason I would not choose a farrier that doesn't hot shoe at all. However, I'm quite happy to have my own horses cold shod because it happens to suit them.
 
tbh, ours that are hot shod, their feet have improved and they have thrown less shoes, all of them are now hot shod as thats how the new farrier does it!
 
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