Posted by Jim Carter on April 27, 2004 at 19:33:30:
I bought a 17-year-old Peruvian Paso gelding a few months ago. He has VERY hard black hooves all around (called "Blue Stone"?). He has never worn shoes and was raised in the mountains a very rocky area. We mostly ride at a state park that is an old mining site. There are areas of crushed rock you have to cross, but most of the trails we ride are well-maintained, hard-packed dirt. The last two rides, he has picked up a piece of crushed rock that wedged into the deep frog of a hoof (different hoof each time). I don't see how shoeing him could help this problem and don't have any other ideas of what to do. Any suggestions?