Posted by william Krafcheck on January 19, 2004 at 11:00:09:
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
First you need to be aware that all drafts feet are not shaped the same in the front.The Belgium has a pointed front and needs to be shod as such. Do not rasp or cut that toeclip into the wall more than half thickness of hoofwall.
All my drafts are working and they need the toeclip to keep shoe in place.I have to reshape all manufactured clips to a rounder shape like the hoof is and this allows the clip to set in wall no mre than 1/8 inch.Use the horn to get this shape. I would personally not set the shoe back from the toe and would shape to the foot. I have seen draft that sank from haveing hoofwall resections and no support given. IN the years i have been doing drafts one thing stands out the clearest, they need full support around entire hoofwall and if it is not there the wall will break down.