Firsly, I am new to the forum and look forward to learning from your experience. I have not long started shoeing reiners, and have observed that a lot of horses spread quite badly. My own horse was one of these until recently. I was taking advice from other farriers, and even letting them do the job all to no avail. After ignoring all the things I was told not to do, I did some anyway.....he is now sliding straight for around 15 feet. He is turned out a fair bit on the back feet, so I turned the sliders as far as possible to compensate, which left him going pretty straight on one and still spreading on the other. I then trimmed 1/4" off the outside trailer on the bad foot, and 1/16" off the better foot....Like magic he is now sliding. Is there anything wrong with what I have done??? Any input will be greatly appreciated. I will also point out I'm in Australia where reining is still in it's infancy, and there aren't a large variety of factory made sliders to choose from, and I'm not inclined to try making them. I'm currently using Kerchart....and hardening them.
Thank you
Andrew

Andrew
First off welcome the is a lot of great advice on these boards. There are several different ways to help horses with there slides and if the way you got your horse to slide straight worked then its OK the only wrong way is if it does not work or makes them sore.

For a time I was opposed to setting the shoe in line with the horses body rather than straight with the foot and tried various things to turn the foot, but have since changed my mind. What you did is correct in my opinion. Don't try to turn the foot, just set the shoe for a straight slide. I'd guess that you didn't get quite enough and shortening the outer branch did turn he foot the little bit that it needed. The fine tuning should be OK.

Thank you very much.....that sets my mind at ease...as i get into it more I'm sure I'll be asking lots of advice.
Thanks heaps
Andrew

Another thing I do is on the medial branch, will thin the width down. This let it dig in more and helps turn the horse in. Works great. I will also spoon the lateral branch a bit using the medial tail like the rudder on a ship. I think there are many small things one can do to help.

Agree, that whatever works without stressing joints is OK. I remember the first time a trainer asked me to turn the shoe. It was a handmade so I just repunched and worked the heels as you did. Works and looks awhole lot better that a twisted shoe nailed on a foot. Nail placement is where it should be and the extended heels do direct the slide.

thank you very much

Hi everyone
Just wanted to let people know......the stallion in my avatar pic (the one I started this post about) won the Novice Horse class at the Pacific Coast Reining Spectacular. There were 28 in the class and he scored 70. I couldn't be happier at the moment.

Congrats, it is always rewarding to see a horse you have shod do well.
Even though I do not consider myself a reining authority, I do have quite a number of reiners in my book. Turning the shoe was a good thing, years ago it was called a 1/4 turn shoe even though it was not actually placed on the foot a 1/4 turn from the center of the toe. Shortening the lateral branch was also a good thing. You may consider using a side weight slider (gaudet) sold by anvil brand, placing the widest branch medially may further improve the straightness and duration of the slide.

Hope this helps
Mark

Thank You
I will gladly accept any advice I can get