Those seasoned in NB shoeing principles do you find the NBshoes always your shoes of choice or is there times when you reach for something else you keep in stock that may be similar like the St. Croix eventer or something very different or after look around the truck decide to build shoes from stock. How often? thanks,

Frank

Welcome Frank,
I never have used NB steel only about a dosen pairs of alum.I use mostly St. Croix wide web, eventers and Delta wide web. I forge the toe broad and roll it well. Check heels, kick trailers in the hinds, Freedom heels (formerly french heels). Try to get handmades, in the mix but not enough. I think I do NB principals but only because they do it like me, I don't do it like them.
Bill

I use a NB trim on every horse barefoot or shod the exeption being if a trainer specifies something along the lines of "Dobbin moves best with the heels tall and in a 2 degree open heeled aluminum blah blah blah shoe" in which case I either follow the trainers desires or refer the work.

Although I can take an eventer forge a broad toe forge in toe relief and punch extra nail holes to duplicate the mechanics of a NB shoe or build one from scratch time is money. The economics of the machine made shoe which needs only one heat for minor shaping and hot fitting are compelling. With Denoix's and others important information on collateral ligament strains and tears the shoes in my view should now be run around the expander wheel grinder to provide M/L breakover. With the new 2nd generation NBS with Denoix's M/L roll now avialable (the "Center Fit NBS") the time savings is staggering. As I run thru my boxes of steel NB shoes I will be reordering center fits to restock.

I will add that anyone who prepares the foot to NB guidelines and nails on an eventer or SX-8 without the necessary modification's in the forge is shortchanging the horse. I dont work for EDSS and I could care less how many shoes he sells but if you are going to "roll your own" make sure you incorporate all the important mechanics of the protocol into your shoe.

With the exception of pathological feet where I may use EDSS or Clogs, in everyday work I will use one of the several kinds of NB shoes about 80 % of the time.
Other choices for the rest (depending on horse's job and foot ) would most often be reshaped St Croix eventers, Silver queens or sidewinders (on barrel hores) ,sometimes the Kerkhart SSP series, or occasionally Equiflex plastic . Perhaps with a variety of pad /sole support packages if needed, and all applied with NB principles, including the NB recomended hoof preperation. I never find the need to build from scratch.
Patty

I like the NB alum for navicular horses laminitec horses or tender footed horses and horses that need break over relief. have used them also with wedge pads and or equipack . they aren't for every horse but work well on a lot of horses. I find myself useing them more and more I wish they came in pre clipped and also a wedge.

I also had a client complaining of her horse always tripping , I figured it was her allways riding on the buckle and her XLLL large butt. however I put on a pair of NB alum and the horse quit tripping.

Frank, I use to use nothing but NB shoes but have gone to St Croix extra's for a lot of my work. They are very easy to modify and I haven't had any adverse reactions from the horses they were applied to. Personally I feel the principles of dressing the hoof, superseds the actual shoe itself. I'm not knocking the shoe, but the same shoe applied any other way, would not get the positive results that I'm experiencing. While they might walk up nicely, they walk off even better to my eye, with NB protocal.
I'm going to do acouple of Heavies tomorrow, just to prove I still can, and it will not be using NB shoes. Incidentally, I have found that on the job it's best to just do your work and forget about educating the public. It's how the horse works after you're finished that they are interested in, not using terms that are new, it scares the dickens out of them. John