Posted by michelle on July 03, 2004 at 15:32:52:
In Reply to: Re: How to keep my horses shoes on?! posted by Jason Maki CJF on November 03, 2003 at 21:33:30:
: : : : : : I have a houdini horse who I am sure sits behind his field shelter with a crowbar trying to ease his shoes off everytime he is shod! He is a six year old Irish Draught/Throughbred and has started wearing front shoes for the past 7 months, being shod every 6-7 weeks. Every front set he has results in the front left shoe coming off after 1-2 weeks. My regular farrier is excellent and we've even tried another farrier who was also unsuccessful. What can I do to keep his shoes on? He is currently cold shod. Would hot-shoeing be better? I've heard they use glue on some shoes too? HELP, he's driving me crazy!!!!
: : : : : Kinda need to figure out exactly how he's getting them off. Check his fence line for a low wire? Does he paw alot? Does he overreach when he walks? Are the shoes applied properly with the correct breakover? Hot shoeing is always best,but either way have your shoer rasp the foot surface of the heels of the shoes so if he is catching them on something or grabbing them from behind it will help prevent from pulling and still leave some heel for expansion. He may be interfering with his fronts,stepping on them and himself when he turns in a tight turn. Lots of reasons plus his feet just might not be balanced? Good Luck! Gary
: : : : I was involved in a similar situation where different farriers including myself tried shoeing a horse that kept loosing one front shoe within a few weeks. I remember this horse was very full of life and very strong and fast. No matter what we did he alway lost a shoe on the same foot. I don't think any of us figured out how to keep it on. Some horses will put so much stress on the shoes by twisting, running and stomping that it applies so much stress to the nails you cannot keep them on. I think if you try to hard to keep a shoe on you will run into problems. If that shoe gets snagged on something and it won't come off it is possible that your horse will injure his foot or leg. It is better that a shoe can come off rather than being on there so good that it tears up the hoof or injures the horse. He is still a young horse, 6 year old warm bloods is still considered young and they are not done growing and developing yet, I think they reach full maturety around 7 and 8. The other thing to consider is he has not been shod that long, from the sounds of it this is his first year in shoes maybe over time he will keep them on. Good luck, I am sure your farrier know what to do and is doing the right thing for you and your horse keeping safety in mind.
: : : : Phil
: : : Often when we see this problem, there is a collection of shoes somewhere in the pasture, Look around and do some detective work of your own, I'm very suspicious of s fence or other management problem when the customer never comes up with the old shoe, or always has it in hand when I arrive, the last horse that did this to me had a hole he could get the heel of the shoe caught in, during feeding time he would stand there, the customer refused to block the horses access until I started charging for the trip to put the shoe back on. check out your surroundings and make sure there is nothing you can do to help your farrier out.
: : : Ron West Westcliffe colorado
: : I've had the same problem with a gaited paint. I had to shoe him with "no" shoe behind his heel. If the shoe extended only 1/8 of a inch he would get it off. I rode him, the lady who owned him rode him while we all watched, we all heard or saw no interference. There was no wire fence around but that was my first thought. This is what work for this horse.
: : JFR
: My teacher had a saying :"All horses are fox hunters!" Which really means all horses are shoe pullers, thus unless some extenuating circumstance exists, all horses who are turned out receive a hunter fit. The shoe does not extend beyond the buttress, the medial branch is sweatened( narrowed) from the wide point to the heal , is boxed(beveled) from the foot side and safed from the ground side. This branch is fit flush or with literaly half a dimes expansion. The lateral branch gets no more than a dimes expansion and extension. The heals are beveled at the angle of the the heel of the foot which leaves NOTHING for the horse to catch. On a small to medium foot I punch four nails to the outside and three to the inside. A larger foot will get eight. A solid toe clip burned flush into the wall will help relaeive a lot of the shearing force on the nails. Side clips work well, but if they are not set inside the wall, they give a shoe plucker something to gouge himself with. All of this is contingent upon the foot being trimmed to appropriate balance medio/lateral, the hoof pasturn axis being acheived and all capsular distortions(flare) being removed. The hosre must be kept on a schedule, but he will keep his shoes on and will not suffer any adverse affects if the foot is trimmed correctly.
: Jason Maki CJF
I have the same problem with my irish draught x throughbred shes 8 years old ive had her since january, in all the times shes been shod (every 6 weeks) shes never managed to keep her shoes on, im at my wits end, ive bought a Boa boot to put on to ride her in which i find really good while i'm waiting for the farrier to come out, she looses front or back shoes sometimes 2 at a time, my farrier is going to glue the shoe back on next week as hes now unable to nail on as shes broken a lot of hoof off, Ive been told about a boot that fits over the horses hoof but doesnt go under the hoof, I need a boot that i can put on to show jump with, does anyone know where i can get this from please help!!