Posted by Danvers on March 08, 2003 at 02:04:59:
In Reply to: Re: Borium for endurance horses posted by Phil Armitage on March 07, 2003 at 20:20:54:
: : I have taken over a stable of arabians that do endurance. 2 of the horses who are related have been decribed by the owner to have conformation faults that result in excessive shoe wear. Steel shoes were not making it thru a 6 week shoeing period. During the season each horse is worked on roads and trails several hours a day 3-4 times a week. She does about 50% on ashphalt 50% trails. To deal with the wear borium was applied to the wear points by the last farrier in a hardsurfacing fashion (not built up but puddled across the shoe.)
: : My inital thought is that for traction and wear borium will probably be required but I was pondering doing the first set without. The previous farrier is a good one and stopped servicing a number of accounts for health reasons. I find that whoever I follow I often have a slightly different idea on balance that works well for me and the horse. In these situations I never tell the client the first guy was wrong just that he did what worked well for him and that particular horse I do what works well for me and the horse.
: : The client will most likely have a negative reaction to going without borium. I see the advantage of skipping it for the first set being I can see how the shoes wear when I have the horse balanced to my liking. On the other hand she does a lot of miles on roads and perhaps the additional traction the borium provides is too important to skip on these horses.
: : Any thoughts on this would be welcomed. Shoes go back on March 21st.
: : George
: George in this case what is important is this client does not have any down time. If the horses wear there shoes too fast and she needs to have you back out at an inoportune time you will most likely look bad and be replaced. You got this client not because they were unhappy with the last farrier, but because he cannot do it anymore due to poor health. Give him a call and bounce your ideas off of him, may make him feel good that he is respected and still needed. The old farrier has probably cared for these horses for a long time and has kept them going sound with his methods, I would not be to quick to change things. Bring your ideas in little by little and never point out anything that may be taken the wrong way about the other guy.
: Just my thinking.
: Phil
Okay, Phil makes a good point, and it's probably the smart way to go. But I'm good at banging my head into walls, and I'd probably want to do the same thing you're talking about.
My feeling is that when you've got excessive wear you've most likely got
A) a problem with balance and/or shoe placement, or
B) a gait problem, which could be the result of conformation, injury, rider error, etc., etc.
Your post indicates the owner has identified it as B, but whether it's A or B, I have a problem with hard surfacing the shoe. Basically, the horse is telling you that he needs to wear the shoe there to be comfortable. So why would we put something there to impede the wear rather than to facilitate it?? Unless it's in a weird spot, I'm going to be looking for a way to enhance it--to build the wear in from the start.
That said, if these horses are really getting that much work on asphalt, you're probably going to have to provide some sort of traction (until they break down from the road work).
~~Danvers