SuperFast as a breakover indicator

[LarkinGreene]

Since SuperFast shoes wear quicker than steel, they can help the farrier and owner understand where and how the horse is breaking over by the wear in the urethane shoe. Of course this can also be done with steel shoes but it takes longer and urethane doesn't bend and change shape like steel; it just wears. This information can help the farrier better trim and shoe to the horse's conformation down the road.

[Gary Hill]

Problem is, is it true wear from movement or from pawing the concrete? Whole differant ball of wax. : :)

[LarkinGreene]

Good point. This came from a case done on an active horse. We applied the shoes in a 1/4" layer, then ran him down the road a few times to see where the most wear would occur.

[Phil Armitage]

Does he work on a hard road most of the time or soft dirt? Maybe it was a dirt road? :)

[Ronald Aalders]

And obviously an whole other question is, is the breakover found, the ideal breakover?

How a horse wears its feet should not be used as a guideline for trimming and shoeing. Save perhaps for the ideal horse, the kind I never met. All kinds of pathologies may influence how the horse wears. Not necessarily pathologies you'd want to encourage :rolleyes:



Ronald Aalders

[LarkinGreene]

Sorry, guess I should have been more specific. This horse was barefoot most of the year, and a parade horse used for three events, so he was on asphalt and concrete at those times, and shod. The rest of the time he was on good ground though barely an acre. The owner was not happy with the trimming she was getting and complained of lameness whenever he was shod. I should also mention that the horse had one crooked leg...valgus knee, varus fetlock, rotated capsule, or what appeared to be a rotated capsule. Her new farrier and I applied SuperFast shoes and rasped grooves in the surface for traction. The SF shoe on the crooked leg wore an odd pattern from centerline to lateral side only, so he was growing long on the medial wall and the lateral was thinning. On a leg like this breakover wear is interesting if not important, and just one of the added pieces of information that can be do***ented for future trims.