Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Lori, I'm sorry you feel this way...

There's lots of ways to keep our horses healthy and
keep their feet healthy. Barefoot is ONE way, and only
one way.

I think what people object to is prosteletyzing that
one way is the best and everything else is wrong.

It seems to me that your horse was short shod for a
long time. Sometimes farriers do that as a shortcut.
Short shoes stay on better. Many clients think if
their horse loses a shoe, the farrier has done a bad
job. REALLY, the farrier's job is to balance the hoof,
not to keep a shoe on. Some  farriers after hearing
complaints about shoes coming off, will put on shoes
that are too small because they stay on better. 

The client is happy because the shoes stay on. The
horse is miserable.

Your horse likely developed corns from being short
shod. It's something you didn't recognize as
happening. Probably most of us wouldn't until we had
experienced it. It's a good thing that horses are so
forgiving because we learn a lot at their expense.

Corns become abcesses over time and take a long time
to heal. The vet did the right thing IMHO to dig out
that corn. Otherwise the infection would have traveled
up and spread throughout the hoof and then you would
have had a real mess on your hands.

I've seen a horse with an abcess blown out the front
or top of the hoof. It's ugly and painful and takes a
horse a year to completely regrow a new hoof,
providing nothign else bad happens.

I always watch and ask questions when a farrier is
working.

Some farriers simply don't know as much as they
should. My Star wears size 2 shoes. He's got very big
feet. He lost a shoe at a ride last spring at the
halfway point. There was a farrier at the ride. She
and I argued and argued. She said there was no way my
horse wears 2s and she didn't have shoes that big with
her. She proceeded to nail a 0 on his foot! I had no
choice. It was    12 miles back to camp either way..
on foot on on his back.. he needed some protection.
The trail was extremely rocky.

We finished the ride and when I got home, I called my
guy immediately to come and redo the shoe. He couldn't
believe what he saw.. "how the he!! did she even get
this shoe on him." was his comment.

He showed me the bruise on STar's foot from the short
shoe and explained how corns form and how the damage
gets done. We were lucky that i called my guy
immediately to get the situation fixed. If you didn't
know your horse was getting a bad shoe job, he was
walking around for a long time with problems
developing.

It's not the fault of shoes per se, but of bad farrier
work and an owner who didn't know any better.

I'm not blaming you. I have learned the hard way. I
had a horse with chronic laminitis. I had a farrier
who trimmed this horse exactly the wrong way for what
he needed.. long toe, low heel.. ugh.. so many  of
them trim that way. I finally found a farrier who knew
what to do for the horse, but by then the damage was
permanent and we ended up putting the horse down. Bad
farrier work and owner ignorance.

Since then, I've educated myself a lot and I've got a
healthy respect for the influence a farrier has on a
horse's health and well being. they have a huge
responsibility for my horse and I'm much more likely
now to speak up and be an advocate for my horse.

I feel lucky as heck to find a farrier who keeps
learning and studying and thinking about things. He
thinks about my horses from one visit to the next and
has even on his spare time made special shoes to fix
problems. He loves solving problems.

I had a horrible experience with bad farrier work, but
I'm not throwing out all farriers and shoeing because
of it. My farrier is my partner in keeping my horses
going down the trail.

chris

=====
"A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot

Chris and Star

BayRab Acres
http://pages.prodigy.net/paus

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