Now I know it's not fashionable to have shoes on your horse, better for the hoof, blah blah. I've always kept front shoes on the big Mags, she toes in and works all through the winter. We briefly (it was a couple days before I could get them back on), had shoes off of her last winter. We aren't really going to try that again.

Maggie has great feet. Good solid wall, round, nice concavity, big ol healthy frogs. She's also 17hh of hard working dressage horse. My trainer suggested we try the hinds going into show season. It gives her more support, and those hinds do dish ever so slightly coming up on her 6 week schedule. She's also got a boggy hock. So, today she got her shoes. They are a good supportive shoe, bit longer in the back.

Well holy hell, she went great today. Not wide behind for balance, and I swear that bog is a bit smaller than usual. I'm not saying shoes are the great panacea by any stretch, but a hard working horse can sure benefit from some extra support from a properly done shoe. So, Mags is going to keep her hinds. Maybe even through the winter with snow pads.

All hail the mighty shoe....

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Comment by Jan Jollymour on April 30, 2011 at 3:41pm

I second these statements, Mags!  I have horses who definitely need shoes all year long.  Christa's GP horse has beautiful feet, with solid walls and great re-growth, but he goes sore without his hind shoes.  I have occasionally been able to keep him barefoot behind in deep snow in the winter, but as soon as things start to thaw the shoes have to go back on. 

 

There is very interesting information coming out of Australia and a study of brumbies in the wild which points up why mankind invented horseshoes in the first place....the incidence of lameness in those wild horses is higher than 50%...

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