Ridecamp: [RC] Shock Absorbing Shoes and pregnancy tests

Hi all! I'm fairly new to Ridecamp, and have a
question that hopefully some of y'all can help me
with. I have a 7 y/o mix breed mare who I had planned
to do endurance on, but due to soundness problems
she's just a pleasure horse. Even riding every other
day in regular metal shoes she was having front leg
lameness (swelling in her tendon area and one
fetlock). She's been wearing rubber shoes for about
three weeks now and her lameness problems have just
about gone away, but her shoes are wearing faster than
I expected. I have her in the shoes that KV Vet supply
sells. My farrier sells Ground Control shoes, does
anybody know anything about them? What about the new
Olivieri alloy shoes? Her pasture is extremely rocky
and hard packed red clay... After 10 weeks she had
just about worn her metal shoes through...

BTW, is there any way other than palpation to tell if
a mare is in foal? My mare was bred by a 19 month old
stud colt who accidentally got turned out with her.
She's been really tired the past week or so and not
been in heat since then... Good sign she's pregnant,
but I'd like to know for sure!


Stephanie

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