What does it mean when a horse forges alot?

[Azrael2005]

I am trying to educate myself about my horses feet and how they may be affecting his performance. I have been having some issues lately (of which I started another thread regarding his club foot in another forum) and another observation I am having since I switched to my trainers farrier, is that my horse is forging ALL the time now. All I know is that he never used to do this, well maybe every now and again but no where near as much as he is now. This started right after he was shod and has continued. Since he is sore to hoof testers on the sole of the Rfront, I am wondering if this forging is going to make things worse. There are pictures of the feet in the other forum. It makes this loud cracking noise at least every other stride at the walk, trot.

What causes forging? Meaning back feet meeting front feet with a loud crack :confused:

Lately my brain is asking too many questions! Thanks for your help!

[Donald Ruff]

mismanagement of the toe and no loading of the back portion of the horses foot will cause forgeing

don

[Peggy Dolan]

I would talk this over with your trainer. Horses that are not collected, strung out or off balance under saddle can forge too. What discipline of riding are you doing? Forging at high speeds is often harder to correct, but in my opinion slow speed (walk, trot) forging should be a much simpler fix for a farrier. Perhaps if the current farrier is not able to adjust the set up you should go back to what was working before. As to your question regarding soreness, if the toe of the hind shoe is striking the sole of the front foot :eek:

[Jeanette James, CESMT]

Besides trim and shoeing which you need to continue to look into as you seem to have a definite possible there.. what causes forging? ..... Here's a few to think about: the rider's seat and or hands/ability, bad footing, and muscle i.e. the shoulder and back muscles and fascia eventually get so tight from work the front leg doesn't have full range of motion, back muscles can shorten. This doesn't allow the front legs to move out of the way fast enough for the hind to not interfere. That's one of the reasons I do massage. It improves performance and stride. Also, conformation of the horse is another one. Some horses just aren't built very well and are prone to it. Some horses are lazy. They just don't pick up their feet. Or tired, overworked.. No pizazz left. They forge. :)

Since the horse is club footed, I would strongly suspect compensation of movement. Most will. Were this my horse, I would continue on with working with the farrier but I'd be adding in body work. as in massage, chiropractic, etc. A good vet check also might be a good idea as in hocks, joints, etc. Some sort of pain causes pain causes pain causes compensation on top of compensation until you see something similar to what you are dealing with.

Poor saddle fit is another issue. It can cause all sorts of problems and restrict movement as in sore back, etc. Also poor saddle placement. Too far forward restricts forward motion of the front leg/shoulder.

Hope that helps,

Jeanette

[Phil Armitage]

Besides trim and shoeing which you need to continue to look into as you seem to have a definite possible there.. what causes forging? ..... Here's a few to think about: the rider's seat and or hands/ability, bad footing, and muscle i.e. the shoulder and back muscles and fascia eventually get so tight from work the front leg doesn't have full range of motion, back muscles can shorten. This doesn't allow the front legs to move out of the way fast enough for the hind to not interfere. That's one of the reasons I do massage. It improves performance and stride. Also, conformation of the horse is another one. Some horses just aren't built very well and are prone to it. Some horses are lazy. They just don't pick up their feet. Or tired, overworked.. No pizazz left. They forge. :)

Since the horse is club footed, I would strongly suspect compensation of movement. Most will. Were this my horse, I would continue on with working with the farrier but I'd be adding in body work. as in massage, chiropractic, etc. A good vet check also might be a good idea as in hocks, joints, etc. Some sort of pain causes pain causes pain causes compensation on top of compensation until you see something similar to what you are dealing with.

Poor saddle fit is another issue. It can cause all sorts of problems and restrict movement as in sore back, etc. Also poor saddle placement. Too far forward restricts forward motion of the front leg/shoulder.

Hope that helps,

Jeanette

I agree with Jeanette, one of the horses I do is forgeing pretty bad right now. He has been out of work for a few months due to an injury. He is now ready for work, but is extremely lazy and out of shape. He never use to forge, he is not balanced and has lost alot of muscle. Fortunately for him the barn has a talented rider that is very balanced and very good with her hands and legs and should be able to get him back into rideing shape.

I also think if your horse is positive with hoof testers that you should be very carefull about how much work you do. If he is sore with the hoof testers then he is sore when he works and this is a huge problem mentally and physicaly. He will have to compensate for the pain and this will alter his gait.

[smitty88]

if everything is right horse is fit rider is good and stil forgeing
you might need to look at the lenth of his hind feet
if its possible to shorten the toe set the toe of the hind shoe
back more shoe him a little longer than norm
and you could shoe him lighter in front
than behind

[calshoer]

If the horse did not forge before and forges now, with same rider, same saddle, same conditioning, it is due to something changed in the feet.
Pretty much guaranteed.
I have exactly ZERO horses in my practice who forge now ,since switching to the prinbciples I use.
Used to have ten or so out of two hundred fiffy, and always blamed something else. Nope...it was foot balance. Not the saddles ,not fat riders, not the horses conformation, not their teeth. It was my shoeing on those particular feet.
Breakover point (the place the foot begins it's pivot over the toe) needs to be near the tip of the coffin bone , not out at the perimeter of the toe. Heels must be properly trimmed back, (not left long or tall), in order to egage the frog AND to help the deep flexor tendon get the feet off the ground at the correct time. Tall heels delay lift off. Run under heels cause heel pain and a shortened stride.
Horse should be landing *slightly* heel first at a free walk with all 4 feet. If he lands heel first, he will also be reaching the full length of his stride and getting his feet OFF the ground in proper time.
If he is landing toe first, I can also fairly confidently predict that if you pick up his feet you will find this:
That there is more distance from the widest part of the foot (at about where the bars blend into the sole) to the point of breakover (where the toe of the shoe is wearing) than there is rearward to the ends of the heels of the foot. If so, that needs to be corrected.
Got any close up pictures of the soles of this horses front feet so I can draw lines? ;)

Patty