Posted by Frank on March 09, 2003 at 18:42:40:
In Reply to: Balancing draft horses - Toe clips pro or con posted by Ralph Davis on March 09, 2003 at 15:53:06:
: As an experiment I have been trimming all my clients barefoot drafthorses the same as I do light horses with a natural balance trim. They all tell me the feet have never looked better.
: This leads me to believe that I may want to modify my draft horse shoeing as well. I currently, as we all do in this area, use Kerkhart draft shoes with toe clips. In order to get breakover semi-correct we routinely nipper a huge groove in the front of the foot and then rasp the heck out of the dorsal wall. Would it not make more sense to use an Anvil draft shoe without clips,blunt the toe some and set it back kinda in a natural balance style.
: I am considering trying this but .... I'm worried that drafts might always need toe clips to keep the nails from shearing off.
: What do you all think?
: TIA
: Ralph
Ralph
I have found the extra large eventing shoe works reshaping it and filing the leading edge, doing a correct trim but instead of filing the toe back to the same angle as the toe but blunt it 90 degrees and angle the underside to the nbs I have found no chipping and better over all appearence even after a prolonged while the only time for clips is
1:)cracks extra support in the area with a relief under the crack it self
2:)pulling horses when they get going man they can make a h*** of a mess of a nice NBS shoe
3:)a draft that is going to field work in spring lots of mud forward pressure seems to break the nails
There has been talk over on the NBS site that they are looking at draft shoes but nothing yet
as for the trim I have a 1.5 year Belgian gelding he has the nicest gait I have ever seen and after the NBS trim it made it even better my theroy is that when the Break over is easier then it makes for a higher and better anamated walk trot
Frank