Phrases like “shoeing is abusive” or “horses are barefoot in the wild” can easily sway inexperienced horse owners to keep their unsound horses trimmed instead of reaping the benefits of shoeing. Anybody that is any good at anything knows there is never “only 1 way” to do something! Trimming and shoeing horses are no exception.

Techniques used on one horse may not work on another horse. Trimming and shoeing guidelines are developed by professionals with decades of experience. Studies on angles, depth of sole, breakover, flight phase and landing phase are crucial in understanding hoof biomechanics.
Lack of finances could be a reason to pursue keeping a horse barefoot, but barefoot trimming may not be conducive to the horse’s performance. Novice riders that do not have the feel to detect lameness should be aware of the type of footing their barefoot horse is required to work in. Horses may respond differently to variances in footing and riders must become sensitive to the wear and tear they are causing the feet.

On the other hand, more experienced riders might be able to accurately evaluate soundness when the horse is being ridden. They may know what to look for in a quality trim and their horses may do quite well under the right circumstances.

The post goes on to list the pros and cons of barefoot trimming. It’s a well balanced blog post and I’d recommend it to any horse owners considering making the switch to barefoot.

The full post is on the farriersnotebook blog

Successful Dressage Hoofcare Illustrates Synergy Between Vet and Farrier 
by Fran Jurga

Background: The Hoof Blog took a long look at the Euro “rock n roll” shoe this fall, with photos of the great Spanish PRE grand prix dressage horse Fuego, who wears them when he competes against the likes of Totilas and Parzival.

Perhaps nothing in the shoeing process causes as much frustration (for those who use them) as stud holes. A vital component of traction for sport horses, they can be very problematic for competitors to deal with… and usually at the worst possible time, when you get to your event and need to screw in your studs.

Like everything, stud holes require proper maintenance to sidestep this infuriating occurrence.

A 5/16″ hole is punched to be tapped with a 3/8″ thread. All studs and stud holes in NZ use this standard.

They should anyway

The stud holes in your horses shoes are subject to interaction between the ground and your 600kg horse with every single step he takes, often on bitumen, gravel, mud, manure, urine etc. That is a pretty hostile environment for a precision fitting situation such as the threads of a stud hole, that are tapped to fit precisely with the thread of your stud.

Any damage to the thread of the stud hole and you will have problems screwing in the stud. Without some sort of protection for your stud holes, they become packed with the above, which is very difficult to remove from a possibly stressed and wriggling horse at a show. Worse still, the leading edge of the stud hole will be burred over and damaged, making it impossible to get the stud in without re-tapping the hole.

This is not stuff you want to fool around with at the show.

We’ve all seen it!

Some people stuff the holes with cotton wool or use rubber stoppers or some such method to keep dirt out. but this does not save from damage from the ground. and often you still have to re-tap to get the studs in.

Inserting the studs is much easier in a stud hole that has been protected with keepers I strongly recommend some sort of screw in stud keepers to protect the hole from damage. It then becomes an easy matter to remove the the keepers and screw in the studs to a preserved stud hole.

Even this is not foolproof and requires some periodic maintenance to avoid frustration at the horse show.

Fine dust particles work into the threads and along with moisture, they can rust tight, making them difficult or impossible to remove.

If using hex-head keepers, the head can wear down to the point where you cannot get your spanner on.

This is easily prevented by checking the keepers once a week to inspect for wear and to move the keeper, i.e. screw it out a few turns and screw it back in to prevent the rusting in problem.

It is not a bad idea to brush the threads of your studs and your keepers to remove dirt and apply some grease or oil to lubricate and prevent rust when screwing them in and out.

Lastly, be very careful not to cross-thread when screwing in studs and keepers.

With these few steps, it should prevent any hassles when you need your studs in – at the horse show.

But Murphy and his Law are ever present. If anything can go wrong, it will; and at the worst possible moment. So be armed with the various paraphernalia to clean out and re-tap stud holes in an emergency. These are available from any decent saddlery.

All good advice  Original post by Anthony is here

Mismatch, Taranaki

A: This may have been a better question to ask before making the purchase!

If the feet are particularly different as you describe then this is more likely to be a conformational issue than something as a result of how the feet have been trimmed.

On a perfectly put together horse, yes the feet should look the same after trimming or shoeing but we don’t ever see perfect horses and feet always require some level of corrective trimming at each farrier visit. After all, the need to trim any part of the hoof is done in an attempt to correct the hoof and angles and something farriers do all day. In this case from what you’ve told me, the extent and nature of the correction may require greater technical expertise.

In horses that have particularly different front feet, the amount of improvement that can be made with routine trimming and shoeing is limited. Unless the problem has been caused solely by poor trimming (and it would be difficult to get the job so wrong that this is likely) you might get some improvement with a strict and regular trimming/shoeing schedule (perhaps every 4-5 weeks) and, if your farrier thinks it would help, some specialist shoeing too.

Achieving Advanced/Grand Prix level may still be possible. After all, there are some horses competing at the highest levels with less than perfect conformation or feet. But having such odd feet is a problem that might cause issues in the future and it will be an on-going battle to keep on top of them so he can perform at the level you want to.

Your farrier may achieve some improvements but this isn’t a problem that can be completely fixed and will possibly deteriorate in the years to come.

David Hankin Dip.WCF

This question and answer first appeared in NZ Horse & Pony magazine July 2011