This is a picture from my album that I think Illustrates what Jack is referring to. Someone questioned my fit and why I did not follow the coronet shape a little better. I felt with the under run heel on this horse and the need to ease breakover this was my best chance of getting it done.

I cant find the solar shot of that foot but it is a little like Jay's Freisans and they do similar work as a heavy coaching team.
As a separate side note, and a sad note at that. This team which I have posted my progress on their feet in the past, had a mishap during unhitching and ran away and tried to cross a lake with a large marathon vehicle in tow. the outcome was bad. The owner is one of my closest friends and we enjoyed many nice post shoeing drives together.

Jay,
Do you think the feet have gone back a bit since last shoeing
or was it just the nailing and wide fit you did not like

i found with those type horses (F) you always had to take
them down to the good horn and then fit the best you could

it would have been nice to see other views of the shod foot

Jim,

Sorry to hear of that terrible accident. Is your friend OK?

Rick

Rick Burten wrote:
Yes Rick Thanks for asking. He had just dismounted the carriage when one rubbed the bridle off the other and off they went. He managed to stay with them on the ground as they went the length of the barn aisle, but lost them as they exited the barn. Many of us have had close calls with horses, that never turned into anything but a close call. The string of events that led them to that lake over 1/2 mile from the barn was mind boggling. This did not even fall into the **** happens category. Just one of those one in a million tragic events.

Jay and Jim;

I had the pleasure of seeing these horses hitched and pulling a fancy cart hauling the owners around Shelburne Farm when they were up here.
They stopped at a customers of mine who owns Shires.

Now I have had two farms with Fresians and I have a friend who has a Fresian stallion.
One farm went through a testing called the "kuring" with her "young mare" and would have come away with top mare except she didn't have a foal by her side.
Other wise she did it all and passed.

I shod her with shoe's that fit the foot but were wider so I could bevel the edges and give the mare a wider supported foot. I also worked the shoe's so she would float when in full stride.

(Rick remember the draft I did with beveled shoe's, when you were our clinician a few years back.
You said you really liked the shoes on the draft.
I picked that up from two english shoer's who came over and dids a demonstration at Tufts one year at a big foot conference.)

I do have to say Jay, when I came out of the barn I said to your customers that they had a nice pair of Morgans.
I have never seen anything but black Fresians and these were brown and chunkier than any fresian I had ever worked on.
Their necks also didn't come out of their shoulders like any Fresian I had ever seen.
Your customers looked at me with a disgusted look and then went back to talking with my customer.

For anyone who doesn't know, a Fresian has always been considered a light draft.
They pulled carriages for royalty in Europe for years, if my history is correct.

They were a beautiful looking team, but I still say they were morgans....but what do I know

Jay, this time next year I will be sitting in South Carolina permanently.
I am taking two weeks this coming summer and coming down on my Harley to check out area's. Could I stop in and say hello, if you have the time ?

smitty88 wrote:
Had to go back today and tack on a pulled shoe so I took some more pics of the shod hoof. This is the first shoeing that I could actually see the entire hoof as the feathers had been removed to treat a skin condition.

Thanks for taking the time Jay

Smitty,
What do you think of the fit on this guy?

Bruce,
You are always welcome. There is a spare bedroom with your name on it.

Jay,
its looks good from here

He looks abit wormy to me, you can see his ribs! Neat statue!

Jay, I just found out today I have a client coming to Southern Pines this winter. She would like me to come down and shoe the horses somewhere between 14 and 16 she said. I would love to meet you and if possible ride along with you for part of a day if time allows. I will be pretty busy but I would make the time. When I last drove down, usually just visited and played around the first day to recover from the 17 hour cruise. They will leave here all set up after the holidays so it will be while before I have to do it.

Jim Sweeney wrote:
Would be great to have you ride along. If you play golf I would have a real treat for you.

Jay Mickle wrote:
I have played since 3 years old but never got very far because of the great lapses in time between playing. Usually I head over to Annie Oakley and blow through 300 rounds on the sporting clays course. Would love to be able to brag that I played on a great Pinehurst course.

Thanks Baron!


Ronald Aalders