how to stop shoe pulling?

[Equine101]

:confused: I have a 7 yr old gelding who love to pull his shoes off. He had his flexer tendon cut when he was 8 mon old and about 2 yrs. ago we found out that his coffin bone had drop putting his hoof at a 55 and the coffin bone at about a 48, as far as the vet could measure off the x-rays. So now he is at a 55 degree angle bare foot and is shode with a riser heel shoe with a rocker toe putting him at a total degree of 58. Basicly we are shoing him as a nevicular case.

Yes, he wares bell boot unless he has eat them off during the day.

He is on a 6 wk shoing schedual

Has pulled his shoes any where from 2wk just been done up until time to be done

Can I get some help please?

[Gary Hill]

You really don't say how your horse is pulling it's shoes? Is it overreaching or is it pawing them off on the fence? When he walks do you hear him click from hitting himself? Lots of differant things can be done but its hard to say without seeing movement so you will have to explain alittle better? Good Luck! Gary

[Equine101]

sorry about that, He is pullling them when he playes with his pastuer pals, rareing, bucking, running, sliding, rolebacks you get the idea. I will try to get some pic of him standing and moving will post them ASAP. :)

[Meg Oliver]

If I were you, I would film the horse through all gates under saddle and analyze the tapes. That may shed some light on what he or she is doing. But if the horse is kept in a pasture with a wire fence of any kind, do not waste the time....that is how the shoe and foot are parting company.

[Gary_Miller]

But if the horse is kept in a pasture with a wire fence of any kind, do not waste the time....that is how the shoe and foot are parting company.

Meg you are generlizing here. Just because there maybe a wire fence does not mean the shoe is being pulled on the fence.

Gary

[Greg Thomas]

I assume it is the front shoes he is pulling.

I often have(gaited) horses that will not pull shoes under saddle but will on turnout and vice-versa. I have better luck shoeing them to not pull under saddle than during turnout because I can study them on tapes like Meg suggested. Sometimes you can look at the pulled shoe and hoof to figure out how they are pulling them. I have usually found that the back instead of the front is what needs shod differently to cure the problem. When experimenting to cure the problem I use SB or RN nails-4 per shoe- so they won't tear up hooves as much. You probably won't find too many farriers willing to do that without you supplying room, board, nice weekly salary and a few other fringe benefits.

I guess that ain't much help in curing your problem. One way to guarantee that her won't pull shoes is to hang them in the feedroom.

Greg

[Phil Armitage]

I quess you need to decide what is more important, him staying shod or out playing with his buddies. It sounds like your farrier is doing a decent job if he does not pull them under saddle and your doing a decent job rideing.

[Maryann Kleynendorst]

I can't remember where I heard this but I've always liked it:

"you can shoe for walk, trot and canter but you can't shoe for silly"

another favourite, from a barn owner and good friend who knows how much I like the phrase "her shoe fell off"

"her shoe fell off and she was nice enough to hang it on the fence for you"

We have just gone through one of the wettest May's on record and just last week I was cockily driving home in my truck thinking that it had been a very long time since I had been called about a pulled shoe. This was the Friday of our May holiday weekend up here in Canada. So of course I had two calls that weekend and have had 3 calls since. Thank god our mud season is short.

stay safe

Maryann

[Gary Hill]

I like this quote. "He just stepped out of his shoe!" Gary

[Red Amor]

what breed o horse is he
is he a shoet backed bloke
with long legs
is his back legs longer than his fronts

whats been done to help breakover
have you any pictures

[Equine101]

Thanks for all the replys, He is a Quarter Horse and yes it is his front shoes his pulling. Like I said before he is being shod with a raised heel, rocker toe shoe. Not shod at the moment because he pulled a shoe and my ferrier was out of town so I called another who quicked him, I called my ferrier as soon as he got back, he pulled the one shoe (quicked one ) off, I soaked his foot in Epson salt and batedine soak for three days then we got the other shoe off. Ferrier wants to let the quicked foot grow out before reshoing. This horse has not been ridden for about 3 yrs, He went lame on his left front, and I mean three legged lame, he was lame for about 4 weeks before we tooke him for x-rays, the scare tissue from the flexor tendon being cut was inflamed and the coffin bone had drop. Their had been no reason to beleave there was any problem in result of the surgery up until this point so there had been no post surgery x-rays from the time of the surgery untill this happened.

I don't know if you still would like to see pics of him barefoot sence the problem is shoe pulling, but I will glady post them just so you can see his comformation then I will post ones of him shod as soon as we get shoes put back on, so please keep cheking back! :(

I will continue to try to answer any questions and give all information needed, Thanks for your pations.

[Phil Armitage]

Post pictures of him anyways so we can see his conformation. Front, side and rear. Sqaure him up as much as you can. Sounds like he is a real challenge to shoe and your very fortunate to have a good Farrier that is kind enough to help you out.

[Dave Purves]

Clip the front shoes. You didn't state if they are clipped or not, if they aren't then do so. Many times horses go out and play, buck, **** and everything else they will twist and turn and rollback and jump and twist the nails around till they break. I see it often in upper level dressage horses that are doing canter pirouttes, if you don't clip the shoe, the nails will sheer right off do to the twisting of the foot on the ground. Clips help stabalize the shoe, certainly won't hurt, and will help alot since the horse is wedged up.
good luck
Dave

[Blasingim]

Dave, if you use clips, how likely is it that should the horse pull the shoe you will lose even more foot?

My big horse is really a pain about stomping and romping and digging and pawing and at just over 18 hands and solid as a tank, his shoes/nails take quite the beating. My trainer was blaming the farrier until she saw the horse "going at it" and then she realized that the horse is just hard on his shoes.

[EDeSocio]

Diane, don't listen to Dave, he wears funny hats...

The problem with your farrier is not his shoeing, it is his accent. The horse doesn't understand him when he tells the horse not to mess with the shoes because of that Belgium accent he has...

ah ha ha ha ha

Now if you want, call me and I will come over while he is shoeing and interpret for the horse.

[Blasingim]

Actually the horse is "dutch" too :D

[Ronald Aalders]

"And, as a final touch, God created the Dutch!" :D

When every thing else fails, this won't!



Ronald Aalders

[bumfoot SHOER]

"And, as a final touch, God created the Dutch!" :D

When every thing else fails, this won't!



Ronald Aalders mr Aalders was that something you made to stop the horse from pulling the front shoes or a dutchman? that was a very good design is the plate about 2 3/4 "or 2".

[Blasingim]

Very interesting, what exactly did you do? JP had said something about turning the heels slightly up (that is my understanding of what he said, not necessarily his exact words).

[Ronald Aalders]

Yes this was intended to prevent pulling. And it does......

[bumfoot SHOER]

Yes this was intended to prevent pulling. And it does......
when you use this type shoe setup i see that they are nailed in the toe only in this pic?

[Ronald Aalders]

No just kinda looks that way. In fact I think it's not that far forward at all.


Ronald Aalders

p.s. for bonus points, I did a bit more than just add a spoon.......

[vthorseshoe]

This appears to be Ron's version of spoonng the heels.

I do this when I have a horse that constantly pulls shoe's and all else has failed.
You do have to keep the animal on a regular shoeing schedule for obvious reasons.

Nothing new, as most everything folks come up with. It was done before Ron and I were born and many others older than us.

As Ron says "when all else fails" this won't.

my 2 cents worth ! ;)

[Gary Hill]

Ron, what do the hind feet and shoes look like?

[Ronald Aalders]

This is a reiner Gary, a sore backed one, hence the pulling......

There are easier ways to spoon heels, as in turning up branches. Works too, but not a good as this!

And boys and girls as always, don't try this at home! Unless you can work your way around a shoe that is one size too big. The extra of the shoe is needed to allow for caudal support. Turning up branches effectively reduces caudal support. That's why you need a bigger shoe. Either that or cripple a horse...........



Ronald Aalders

[Gary Hill]

Nice work as always Ron!

[Blasingim]

Oh, gee. He is already in a size 5 does that mean he needs a 6 or a 5 full? I guess since JP suggested this shoe, he'll know what to do. It is no interesting to see an actual picture of it.

Of course, I'll need to put extra big bell boots so I don't have to listen to the barefoot people how if I just let him go barefoot ...

[bumfoot SHOER]

This is a reiner Gary, a sore backed one, hence the pulling......

There are easier ways to spoon heels, as in turning up branches. Works too, but not a good as this!

And boys and girls as always, don't try this at home! Unless you can work your way around a shoe that is one size too big. The extra of the shoe is needed to allow for caudal support. Turning up branches effectively reduces caudal support. That's why you need a bigger shoe. Either that or cripple a horse...........



Ronald Aalders so then you take a say size 1 go to a two shape the larger shoe to the foot and then turn the heal up about 1 "and still keep the support ?but i like the first one jmo.

[Ronald Aalders]

First of all only very few reiners use a size 1. But what I'm trying to say is that spooning (turning up the branches) reduces support length. A branch that sticks up does not support anymore, right?

So when shoeing a size 0 foot that you want to spoon the heels on, be sure to pick a size 1 shoe......

Ronald Aalders

[Blasingim]

I know this question shouldn't really of interest to me, but, it is .. so, basically, you want your shoe to fit correctly (i.e. a size 0 - are there really fullsized horses in a size 0?) so you need the next size up to have enough shoe to still properly fit/support, and then the excess to fold up for those nasty little buggers who feel compelled to see their farriers on a regular (like near daily) basis and pull their front shoes off. Is that a correct understanding?