8 month shire colt

[Redd Mcintyre]

I have a client that i trim his quarter horses. He just purchased from an auction a shire draft colt. I have not done any drafts before this.
Im asking a couple of questions to find out if his feet are normal for a draft. Compared to the qtr horses there are differences..
1. the front feet are in the shape of a compact 3 leaf clover (qtr flares or normal?)
2. the front feet are wider than longer?
3. flat soles/ thick bars/ thick walls

I trimmed him to a level sole plane,including the bars, took off some long toeh. Worked on the flares,
One question is the the width and length. Will they grow to be similar to quarter horses or is this the patteren of a draft.

Redd McIntyre

[Ronald Aalders]

If you trim a lot of QH's you must have seen this clover leaf type of foot more then once on youngsters too.

In my opinion the reason the feet show this is because body weight and strength are not yet matched too hoofsize and/or strength.

Just keep feet level and rocker the toe a lot. 4 point trim helps too getting rid of that cloverleaf shape.


Ronald Aalders

[Redd Mcintyre]

Thanks Ronald
I havnt done to many youngsters. It just seemed to be over exaggerated in the draft.
redd mcintyre

[matryoshka]

Not a shoer, here, but I trim a few drafts. They often arrive with odd shaped feet, as you describe. At each trim, I make sure the hoof wall is the same thickness all the way around. I have to get aggressive with the flares, since flares on drafts rapidly become cracks. Eventually, the feet will look like any other horse, only on a larger scale. I'm trimming adult horses in their teens, not yearlings though. These feet take about a year to grow in, and then they are like any other hoof. All the drafts I trim are flat footed. It doesn't seem to bother them one bit.

I've only been trimming for a year, but I thought I'd pipe up with my observations.

[tbloomer]

You might want to trim that colt every 4 weeks for the next year or so until you get the flares and the cloverleaf grown out. A lot of drafts have front feet what resemble hinds. Keeping the toe rolled back to the pillars will help with this. Generally I find that yearlings grow hoof at about twice the rate of adult horses. Thus, when there are flares and such what need dressing, the solution is to keep the hoof a short as possible without invading live sole. In extreme cases I've gone with a two week trim cycle, but it's hard to get a horse owner sold on that idea.

[Bill Adams]

Tom's point about frequency is spot on. The P3 can remodel and then create a visious cycle of LTLH and flares espeicaly in the drafts because of the weight.

[Redd Mcintyre]

Thanks for the replies. The owner I think will be okay with a shorteer trimming cycle. I thought as much but had it rescheduled for a 6 week. If I explain the reason he will be okay with it I think.
Redd McIntye

[matryoshka]

Yep, had some Freisian yearlings on a 3 week trim cycle. Worked well for them and was able to keep any imbalances from becoming severe. One had a hoof that wanted to go wry, very subtle, but that problem has resolved itself in the last 6 months. Never realized that the frequent trim schedule was part of the reason I could get a handle on it.