what do you think of this shoeing?

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riding_high

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a friend of mine was asking me tonight what i thought of the shoeing done on her horse, she isn't happy with it but doesn't know enough about horses to make an informed decision, i told her i couldn't really say for a few reasons but that if she didn't mind i'd take a pic and post on here for your opinions, she is happy for me to do it so here goes.

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thanks in advance for your opinions, sorry the pics aren't the best but hopefully will be good enough for you to give an idea.
 
OK - I quickly did this (lines aren't exact) to explain what I noticed.

hamphhoof_zpseb721096.jpg


The first thing is that the hoof has a convex profile (pale blue line, it should be straight like the red line). This indicates that his diet is wrong. my mare had convex hooves like this and CPTrayes noticed. I cut the sugar (molasses) from her diet and the new hoof grew straight.

The heel is very under-run (royal blue line) with no support (back of shoe and hoof should be more towards the pink line). I assume that this has been done to stop the shoe from being pulled off, but it will cause the heel to become more under-run (very bad).

The best way to get the heels to grow at a better angle is to take the shoes off.
 
Faracat said:
OK - I quickly did this (lines aren't exact) to explain what I noticed.

hamphhoof_zpseb721096.jpg


The first thing is that the hoof has a convex profile (pale blue line, it should be straight like the red line). This indicates that his diet is wrong. my mare had convex hooves like this and CPTrayes noticed. I cut the sugar (molasses) from her diet and the new hoof grew straight.

The heel is very under-run (royal blue line) with no support (back of shoe and hoof should be more towards the pink line). I assume that this has been done to stop the shoe from being pulled off, but it will cause the heel to become more under-run (very bad).


The best way to get the heels to grow at a better angle is to take the shoes off.
Click to expand...
only if the horse is suited to being unshod could cause more problems. i agree it doesnt look 'right' shoe look too short at the heel. ( im not a qualified farrier just a fellow horse owner)
 
only if the horse is suited to being unshod could cause more problems
Click to expand...

My mare was one of those 'will never cope without shoes' types... unfortunately I ended up having no choice (honestly the 'before' photos of her hooves would make you cry), the shoes had to come off and she has never needed them back on.

The horse pictured above is sadly heading down the same road, if it was mine, the shoes would be off pronto.
 
First pics of the fronts?

The horse has almost no frog. It's having so little use its recessed and shrivelled to nothing. It doesn't have any thrush though.

The heels are contract from lack of use but not as bad as they could be.

The heels are long and under run. They will only get worse.

The front has a bullnosed appearance because the farrier has severely dumped the toe: you can see the white where he's taken all the wall off. It means they look less long and flat than they actually are.

The backs don't look too bad. Decent sized frog that looks like it does touch the ground. Heels look short but hard to tell.

Farrier doesn't look like he pars the sole, which is good.

The shoeing's not bad. The shoes a bit too tight at the heel but the farrier looks to be making an effort to bring the foot back: shortened the toe and a decent length at the back (it looks like it's a good cm or so extra behind the end of the heel in the first pic. The shoe just looks too far forward because the foot is so underrun.)It won't work but at least he's trying.
 
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thanks for the replies, what i noticed from looking up close and in person (pics are harder) is that the shoe seems too short for the hoof, it's pushing into the frog and heel almost squashing them, this horse was shod 2 weeks ago. just above where the heel of the shoe sits there are 2 indents (mainly on the one hoof which is the front pictured) and it's almost like the shoe has been digging in with his weight (soft heel due to bad weather).

the owner is going to ask another farrier to take a look as she doesn't feel it's right for her horse.
we even had a look at 6 other horses feet and all of them had a 'gap' between the shoe and the frog and also the shoe was out at the back (longer than the hoof).
 
I agree with Kallibear - there's more going on here than shoeing can fix.

That frog on the first hoof is desperately weak. The hooves are very flared (if you imagine a straight line where Faracat's pale blue one is: following the top third of the hoof capsule straight to the ground you can see how much of the hoof capsule the farrier has had to rasp away to bring the breakover back to where it should be). The heels need more support from the shoe, imo, but I don't think the farrier can fix this with shoeing.

What is the horse eating? I would improve the diet, and remove the shoes until the hoof is healthy again. That frog is screaming out for stimulation.
 
not sure whereabouts you are but I can recommend Lisa Collins who is based in Loxton (BS26) she does mine and I have never had any issues and she is very calm, always on time, reasonable and doesnt rush the job to get to the next.

TBH I would want another farrier to take a look the angles dont look great but hard to tell from pics esp. as can see much of leg.
 
riding_high said:
thanks for the replies, what i noticed from looking up close and in person (pics are harder) is that the shoe seems too short for the hoof, it's pushing into the frog and heel almost squashing them, this horse was shod 2 weeks ago. just above where the heel of the shoe sits there are 2 indents (mainly on the one hoof which is the front pictured) and it's almost like the shoe has been digging in with his weight (soft heel due to bad weather).

the owner is going to ask another farrier to take a look as she doesn't feel it's right for her horse.
we even had a look at 6 other horses feet and all of them had a 'gap' between the shoe and the frog and also the shoe was out at the back (longer than the hoof).
Click to expand...

The shoe is pushing into the frog because it's too tight, not because it's too short. It looks like there's a decent length extra but it goes round, not backwards.

If that is the owner only worry about the foot then she really really needs to go and do some research into what healthy feet look like. I wouldn't be surprised if the horse developed 'navicular disease' over time.
 
Kallibear said:
If that is the owner only worry about the foot then she really really needs to go and do some research into what healthy feet look like.
Click to expand...

Agree.

The finger of responsibility cannot be solely pointed at the farrier. There is more going on here than the shoeing, and that is a very sick hoof :(.

No foot, no horse :(.

This is what the hoof looks like to me.

ballerina1.jpg


No one would expect this ballerina to walk and run like that 24/7....but we think nothing of horses doing so.
 
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This is a fellow HHO's horse from last year - very similar to OP's in structure.

Before (lame and remedially shod), July 2012

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October 2012 (barefoot and sound on almost all surfaces at that point).

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The owner took advice from here re diet and got another farrier.
 
she hasn't owned him for very long and as for food i'm not 100% sure on what he gets but i do know it is little as he is a good doer (cob).
the owner is going to ring another farrier tomorrow who is very good at his job, does remedial, barefoot, talks through everything with the owner and vet if need be so hopefully things will start to change for the best.
 
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