Posted by Patty Stiller on May 10, 2000 at 22:31:33:
In Reply to: How many nails in NB #1 soe? posted by Les Spark on May 10, 2000 at 17:25:29:
: One of our horse on which we have been using NB steel shoes since they became available in the UK, and modified keg shoes before that, has developed a problem with which we would like some guidance. However our main problem is that we cannot find a farrier in our area who has the slightest idea on NB shoeing or who seems interested in educating him/herself.
: The farrier we are currently using has insisted in putting 4 nails on each side of the shoes and when shoeing today the following events happened:
: 1) Old left front shoe removed - foot trimmed etc new shoe nailed on with rear nails coming quite close to the heels - when finished the horse would not put its foot down at all! Nail bind?
: 2) Removed nails near heels some improvement - removed shoe - all nail holes were on the outer side of the white line - not nail bind.
: 3) Replace shoe same problem
: 4) Removed shoe and replaced with only one nail each side just forward of the quarters - horse sound!
: 5) Put remaining nails in and did not clench but checked for soundness - horse sound.
: 6) Clenched up - horse unsound.
: To us it seems as if it was like having our feet forced into tight fitting shoes - we would be very tender footed before we put our foot down!
: Can a horse feel like this with the steel shoes if there are too many nails and the clenches are too tight?
: If the foot is to expand at the back under normal action surely it must not be nailed to the shoe, if so where should the nails stop, at the quarters? With the #1 shoe there does not appear to be much room to squeeze nails in between the breakover and the quarters - three seems to be a maximum with two being next to each other ie. there are only four available holes. (why have nails holes so far back if they should not be used?)
: This shoeing has been quite a downer for my partener as she should have been competeing at the UK's premier endurance event next week - we do not want to go back to conventional shoeing as the horse was getting longer and longer toes and under run heels and showing signs of tendon strain.
: Comments please. The horse will now be left without shoes for a month when we will try again but then we want our farrier to get it right!
: Les
Here is what I think may be happening. 1) the foot may have been trimmed a bit too close, that is that sole other than the loose flakey layer was trimmed out. That could possiblt cause sole pressure somewhere beneath the shoe. /The other more likely scenario, based on your description of the events, was that the hoof wall behind the quarters is a but curved under,creating a "bulge" in the wall where the nails must go.. if that is the case, even if a nail is driven in the whiteline as it should be, as it passes upward through the "bulging" wall ans underlying laminae it presses on the laminae in that area. Try these things. First, hot seat the shoe before nailing it. This will insure no sole pressure . Then, do NOT nail anywhere the wall bulges outward from the coronet down.
As for the expansion question, it normally does no harm to nail in the very rear of the hoof. This is because very recent research is indicating that a healthy functioning foot does NOT expand at the bottom of the heels first, but rather from the frog, *upward and outward* through the bars and digital cushion, through the BULBS of the foot. This is the way a foot that has the frog and bars intact, and has a dirt impaction around the frog functions. If the BULBS can expand upward and outward, the foot will become wider at the heels.
If the wall at the bottom of the heels is forced to expand, through removal of the bars , thinning of the sole, or "slippering the shoe etc, the foot actually becomes more contracted as the bulbs are "pulled" together.
There are farriers in the UK that are using and teaching Natural Balance. In fact Gene Ovnicek is over there right now too. E mail me or Cody Ovnicek at EDSS if you want the phone number of the farriers there. Patty