Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Around here "hot shoeing" means putting hot shoes on the horse. Most of the farriers do use a forge to heat and shape the shoe, but don't put the hot shoe on the horse. They cool it down.

 

When I hear the term "hot shoeing" I dont think of how the shoe is shaped. I think of how it's put on the horse.

 

chris

Ag47xAu49@xxxxxxx wrote:

 

I agree whole heartedly. My new boy has hind hooves that are arrow head shaped. I would do anything, almost, for my farrier. Beccy in Ut.

Some of you have pointed out most of the reasons why a farrier would hot shoe a horse - however the most important reason is simply because you can bang away as much as you want at a cold piece of steel but it will never shape exactly the way you want it to! Apart from opening or closing the shoe there is not much else you can do to it when it's cold... so if you want a really precise fit..

Precisely.

 

No doubt that there are talented farriers out in the world able to bend cold steel to fit the hoof, but (for me), someone with a forge, a grinder, a drill press and the ability to properly shape a shoe to fit the properly trimmed hoof, who ALSO has the ability to watch horse movement and determine how better to shoe that horse...worth their weight in Dove Bars!

 

All the talk about steel versus bare-foot...well, some of that anti-shoeing is merited.  Rather than have a horse poorly shod, I'd let the horse go barefoot.  (And, I prefer steel on my horses.)  A poorly shod horse should be a misdemeanor (at least).

 

Frank

 

 

 

 

 

"Slowee, slowee catchee monkey," Rudyard Kipling, from The Jungle Book

 

Chris Paus

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

Lake Region SWA  http://lakeregionswa.fws1.com