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© Walt Koepisch, Jr. First published in The Farrier & Hoofcare Resource Center, then published in ANVIL Magazine, February 1998. You can comment on this article in the "Farriers Helping Farriers" Bulletin Boards, in the board named "Shoes, shoes, shoes... and Nails too!" Walt Koepisch monitors this board regularly. Surf by. Shoeing a horse is very much like using a crank to start a tractor. Before you start cranking, you need to make sure the transmission is in neutral. Before making changes in shoeing and shoe selection, trim horses' feet to be in a neutral condition - that is, balanced and trimmed to the conformation of the horse. If a conformation fault can't be corrected, you can at least support that defect. If you hurt your right leg, for example, and putting weight on it would make it uncomfortable, you could use a cane or crutch to support and take some weight off that leg. A shoe can likewise be used to support poor conformation. It is not wise to try to cure all conformation defects. Only after the horse's feet are in a neutral condition - balanced and trimmed to the horse's conformation and without strain - can you intelligently make any corrections to improve the horse's gait. Most likely, no further corrections will be necessary. Both heel wedges and side wedges can help bring a foot to this condition as well as such shoes as side weight or side support shoes. My interest in shoe design is in shoes used on show and performance horses. It is my feeling that in order for a horse to put forth its greatest effort, it must be shod in such a way that the horse can move clean, without strain, and stay sound. This can cause a balancing act for the farrier because there are also two ways of shoeing a horse: clinical shoeing and real-world shoeing. In clinical shoeing, you shoe the horse in whatever way is best for the horse without worrying about what a judge may think. When dealing with a lame horse, that is the way to go - before you can worry about how the horse travels, he must first be sound. Real-world shoeing, on the other hand, is what farriers do on a day-to-day basis. If a show horse isn't competitive, it won't be a show horse for very long. If a trainer doesn't produce winners, he wouldn't be a trainer for very long - and if a show-horse farrier doesn't shoe winners, he will shortly be shoeing a different kind of horse. Wedge shoes can be very helpful; their five uses are:
Raising a low heel is something that needs to be done quite often due to a foot that doesn't grow much heel. However, after the normal angle is established using a wedge shoe, some horses can be returned to a flat shoe in time. Other horses will need to remain on a wedge indefinitely. I have heard it said that a wedge shoe will cause the heels to break down. If a wedge is used to restore a foot to a natural angle, that shouldn't happen. Weak heels crush - wedge or no wedge. A low-heeled foot has to be fixed if you are going to prevent injury to the horse. Many horses simply don't grow heel and it is not caused by using a wedge shoe or wedge pad. Increasing an angle above natural needs to be done on some horses for various reasons and using a wedge shoe is often better and more convenient than using a wedge pad. It doesn't degrade the horse's way of going as much as a wedge pad, which is important to a show horse. It is a mistake to raise an angle by letting the heels grow. That moves the base of support forward, losing support and paving the way for the foot to develop an undershot heel condition.
Lowering a horse's heel and then using a wedge to re-establish a natural angle is a method not used by many farriers, but is a very useful option. By lowering the heel you move the base of support to the rear, giving that heel more support. Often this method can be used in place of an egg bar shoe to add support to the foot. The horse will usually move better in a wedge shoe than in an egg bar shoe. Determining when a foot needs the heels raised is a decision that, at times, needs a lot of experience. I have looked at standing horses and the angle looked okay. After using a wedge, the foot looked a lot better. If you are going to make a mistake in angles, I feel an angle set slightly high is safer than an angle set a little low. When trimming a foot that you know does not grow heel, you also know that the heel will be very low after 4, 5, or 6 weeks. You might want to start with a little higher angle to start with. Watching a horse move is helpful. The way a horse travels will indicate when the angle needs to be increased; also, ask the rider or trainer of the horse - they should be able to feel if the heels are too high or too low. A low heel will produce strain and a slow breakover. That can be felt by the rider, and also seen as a labored movement. If the angle is too high it can also be felt, and if you were to watch the horse trot, you would most likely see increased concussion in the form of a shock wave going up the leg into the shoulder. Another use of a wedge shoe is to raise a low branch, either inside or outside with a side wedge shoe. A side wedge shoe is wedged from side to side instead of from toe to heel. This shoe is used to level a foot in the M/L direction. Here, if you try to level a foot by leaving the short wall longer it will crush, deform or lead to contraction. Using a side wedge will prevent that. When using a wedge shoe, I recommend that steel inserts (to increase wear at the toe) not be used. If a horse needs a wedge it usually has some kind of a problem, and a steel insert isn't going to help. Also, if a horse needs a wedge shoe, it will usually benefit from having the toe rolled or rockered. A steel insert will make that difficult to do and prevent the toe from wearing with a nice roll. That also applies to a flat shoe. Dealing with a horse whose angle changes drastically through the shoeing period is a challenging proposition. Many horses grow little, if any, heel. At the time of shoeing, the hoof angle may be okay, but given the time span of four or five weeks, the angle will be very low at reshoeing time. The horse will be stressed during the last one, two or three weeks. In such a situation, it would be helpful to lower the heel as far as you safely can and restore the foot to a slightly higher-than-normal angle. You will find at the next shoeing the hoof hasn't lost as much angle and the difference in angles from the beginning of the shoeing period to the end of the shoeing period didn't change as much as the angles did before. That being the case, the horse will move more consistently throughout the shoeing period - very important for a show horse.
If a wedge shoe is going to do a horse any good, the web at the heels needs to be as wide as the web at the toe. A shoe, flat or wedged, will unbalance a foot if the web is wider at the toe than at the heels, because the narrower heels will sink into the ground further than the wider toe. This not only decreases the foot angle, but the angle is in constant change, depending upon ground conditions. This causes a horse to travel differently as ground conditions change. Web width is width at the ground surface, not at the hoof surface. It is the ground surface that determines the flotation properties of a shoe. One word of caution, however, when using aluminum: Fit the shoe full. I have heard farriers complain that aluminum causes hoof wall to break down, but when I look at how the horse is shod, I see shoes fitted tight. When a shoe is fitted close, the wall expands over the shoe in a very short time. That is what causes a lot of walls to crumble and a foot does seem to expand more with aluminum than with steel. I think that is proof that aluminum is softer on the foot than steel. I believe a horseshoe should be designed to help a horse move clean, travel to the best of the horse's ability, to move more consistently (no matter what the ground conditions are), and keep the horse sound. A horse with the conformation for better, more fluid movement also tends to be a horse whose foot dimensions change a lot throughout the shoeing period. As the toe grows longer, the angle tends to decrease. Both actions slow down the breakover, making the horse work harder. The fluid movement of the horse is lost. Proper show horseshoeing will reduce this tendency as much as possible, allowing a horse to move more consistently throughout the entire shoeing period. A foot that grows a lot of toe can also be compensated for by letting the shoe wear at the toe. Everyone is obsessed with shoe wear - they want an aluminum shoe to wear as well as a steel shoe. One of the biggest advantages of aluminum is that it is supposed to wear at the toe as the foot grows. Wear plus the added thickness of aluminum allows the shoe to develop a nice, graceful roll as the foot is growing. The wear compensates for the hoof growth, allowing the horse to move more consistently throughout the shoeing period. Shoeing show horses today is a dilemma for the farrier. On one hand, you have the very good principles that are laid down by the educators and on the other hand, you have to consider the kind of movement judges are looking for. Bottom line is that the judges and the stopwatch determine how show horses are trained and shod. The farrier's responsibility is to shoe for the judge, keeping as close to the principles of good shoeing as possible. Fortunately, balancing a foot serves both sides very well. What does cause trouble is the amount of foot some farriers take off in order to achieve a balanced foot. I have never had great success with overly short feet. Horses with feet trimmed to excess don't take a full, fluid stride. Tender feet and pretty movement don't seem to go together well. It is astounding how much better a horse will move, leaving that last 1/8" or 3/16" on the foot. It is necessary to keep in mind, however, that an aluminum shoe must be fitted full, and allow the toe of the shoe to wear. There seems to be a lot of interest in "low heel, long toe" syndrome now, and some confusion has evolved. I don't disagree with what I have read, but one point is usually left out or just mentioned quickly. We are talking of three separate conditions:
Long toe, low heel syndrome will have at least two of these conditions. On a long toe, shorten the toe to normal length. Choosing to do it in one shoeing or over a period of time depends on conditions. On an underrun heel, the heel is carried forward, moving the point of support forward. Some of these feet may look low in the heel, but only because of the long toe. Many of these feet need their heels to be shortened. Low or short heel is just that: a foot whose heel is short for whatever reason. If you were to take a piece of wood a foot long and cut off one inch, the stick would then be 11" long. Nothing you could do would make the stick 12" long again, short of gluing back one inch. There is a huge difference between a low heel and an underrun heel. On an underrun heel the base of support has moved forward - towards the toe - decreasing support. Let's use an example of a foot with a short or low heel: The foot is trimmed to a normal length. Excess toe is removed and the heels are trimmed enough to make a bearing for the shoe, leaving as much heel as possible. Now say this horse normally carried a 50-degree angle, but is now only 47 degrees. If you were to try to bring the foot back to 50 degrees by trimming the toe, you would have to remove 3/8" of toe. Maybe you could do that without standing in a pool of blood, and maybe not. Use a wedge to help this foot. If you need to keep a wedge on the horse forever that is okay, because the base of support has been increased - and that is a good thing.
There are many useful horseshoes on the market today to help a farrier balance a foot. It is in the farrier's interest to use them. There are steel side weight or aluminum side support shoes and side wedge shoes (to correct M/L imbalance or add support), wedge shoes (to correct low hoof angles and to add support by increasing ground surface), and shoes with a wide web at the ground surface (to give support to heels), side wedge (to help level a foot), and high-flotation shoes (to keep a foot on top of the ground.) All these are designed to help horses move better and more consistently. Some trainers and farriers keep up with the new methods and products and are always on the cutting edge, while the rest are always playing catch up. Don't be one of those playing catch up - be a leader, instead.
Return to the Farriery Articles listing page. Return to the ANVIL Online Table of Contents for February, 1998. (Comments and questions related to this article may be posted in the "Farriers Helping Farriers" bulletin boards, the board named "Shoes, shoes, shoes... and Nails Too!" Walt Koepisch monitors this board.)
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