Need some help!

[cowboyshoer22]

Came accross a 13 year old tenn. walker/mix a few days ago that had been shod consistantly until now when the horse was without shoes for 3 months. The problem is the front feet are incredibly straight, the hoof wall is practically vertical. There of course wasn't anything to trim which made the shoe a tad hard to fit. Also due to how worn down the hoof was, there was not much to nail to. I quicked the horse with one nail, I think due to the staightness of the wall. Is that a correct cause? When clinched the hoof wall just crumbled under the clinches. Is there a good epoxy that you can use to build up the hoof and give something to nail to? What is the best way to improve this horses feet? Just need some advice and suggested products.

[Drew Stuart]

Feet like that can be a PIA. When I run into those feet I reach for shoes with fine nail patterns--for a kegs, St.croix seems to have shoes w/ finer nail patterns as opposed to kerkhaert. IMO on feet like the ones you described, Its especially important to get the shoes glowin' hot, get a nice smooth, perfect fit and give the feet a good burn.
I also use softer nails--theyre more likely to come out where you want, when threading them up a thin whiteline, against a thin wall (Ill just tap tap tap the nail up the white line until I want it to snag then Ill give it a good couple of wacks-hardly ever fails on steep thin-walled feet). Soft nails also clinch easier/cleaner in a soft hoof wall--I like deltas and mustads as opposed to capewells for this type of foot. When youre ready to clinch on a soft/unhealthy wall just barely/softly use youre rasp to remove only that tiniest bit of "burr" underneith the nail and nothing more!--this will give you a much more solid/tidier clinch on soft feet. Also take youre time and make sure youre using your clinchers properly (or if you can do it well, hammer clinch)--its extra important w/ soft hoofwalls. If the hoofwall is really thin just fit the shoe a bit full and box the heck out of it. I wouldnt use the epoxy unless you have nothing to nail to ie. lots of missing hoof or that 1 in 1000 ****-footed horse that cant stand to have nails put its feet. In this case you should just go ahead and properly clean the feet and apply glueons.
In my experience, biulding fake hoof w/ epoxy so you have something to nail to rarely works very well. The epoxy allows bacteria to further weaken the hoof underneith and horses seem to love to grab ahold of the "new foot" you made them and yank it right off--the epoxy will usually take a good bit of hoof w/ it as well.
Good Luck, Drew Stuart

[cowboyshoer22]

Thanks Drew I really appreciate the help. I've been using capewell nails on everything so thats going to change. I'd heard that they were much harder. Equithane makes a hoof builder material that you cover the sole with. Will it do what it says?( grow heel, hoofwall, and sole) What part of Va are you shoeing in? Thanks
Ben

[mustang farrier service]

cbs22,another option you might consider would be trimming short,use equicasts,and wait for new ,better quality growth.i do this on a few t-breds now and then and have had good results.-gary

[PerformanceHorseshoeing]

I do a few horses with feet like what has been descirbed. I'd imagine you'd be there all day if you were shaping them cold. I like to toe clip these but, if I was going to use side clips I'd make sure they were more foward than usual. Focus on fit, it'll make driving nails much easier.

[SlowShoe]

I like to glue shoes on horses like this. Debride all of the bad hoofwall, clean it up real well, and apply a sigafoos shoe for 2-3 cycles. You will have a nice foot to nail to. You might get away with nailing to a foot like this, But you could also cause this issue to get worse. You cant always get the nails where you want on horses like this, so sometimes you got to go with what you can get. With this crumbling hoofwall your low nails are going to work themselfs loose and tear out of the hoofwall in a few weeks. Glueons and equicast are both good options. You can use equicast with a shoe as well BUT I would opt for a sigafoos over an equicast in this case, reason being that you can get a very good, clean and solid package with the sigafoos glue on. Dirt may work itself into the equicast and up against the already vulnerable hoofwall. Equicast's also tend to lose the bond and slop around on the foot a little.

hope this helps.