Posted by George Spear on March 10, 2003 at 13:40:21:
In Reply to: Re: Balancing draft horses - Toe clips pro or con posted by Frank on March 09, 2003 at 18:42:40:
: 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
: Frank
Frank and Ralph,
Been wondering about this myself. On the eventer.... its only avaialbe up to size 4 so it is suitable for warmbloods but not drafts.
The obvious answer is to just forge the shoe from 1/2" bar stock but the cost would be much higher to the customer and there are already depressed prices here for drafts for no apparent reason. In other words I could custom forge shoes but none would be purchased.
I am considering ordering up some Anvil draft shoes and seeing how they do as a basis for an NB style draft front. They come unclipped with the intention that the farrier will just draw clips.
I would suggest that you guys do either draw or use clipped shoes for draft hinds. I have found that warmbloods can be shod with blunt toed shoes up front but they usually move a shoe behind that is not clipped. Currently I use Kerkhart draft shoes with toe clips front and behind so I have no data on drafts with NB style shoes but I would assume shoe loss would follow from an unclipped hind draft shoe.
Just my ramblings :)
George