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Helpful Hints for Hassle Free Horseshoeing
by David Farmilo
Accredited Master Farrier, Oakbank SA
PH 0418 835 186
www.horsefarrier.com.au
Provide a dedicated shoeing bay area which is horse
friendly and safe for the farrier and is protected from all adverse
weather conditions.
The sole aim of the hoof care exercise is
to enhance the horse’s natural athletic ability and not
to inhibit it, whether shod or unshod.
It is your duty of care to be honest with
the farrier and provide him with all the recent working history
and behavioural history.
Teach your horse to be cross tied so you
don’t have to stand there and hold it, then you will be
able move around each leg and see what the farrier is doing. You
are paying for it and you need to see what the farrier is seeing.
It is only polite to have the horse ready
and waiting for the farrier – you are paying him to shoe
it, not to catch it.
If it is winter and wet and muddy, be thoughtful
enough to wash the legs down before the farrier begins, it will
win you major brownie points.
If the horse is shedding its coat, be thoughtful
enough to brush the horse before the farrier begins, it will win
you more major brownie points. Please don’t groom while
the horse is being shod.
Please don’t feed the horse while it
is being shod – reward him for good behaviour when finished.
Be certain that you and your farrier are
working towards the same goal for your horse of care and performance,
before the job begins.
About 90% of the art of shoeing the horse
correctly is in trimming and balancing the hoof before the appropriate
shoes are selected. The finished hoof should be a mirror image
of the coronary band.
Not all horses are comfortable with their
leg held in the normal workable position. If your horse is of
the mature variety and becomes agitated during the trimming or
shoeing procedure, understand that he is finding it hard to flex
his legs up that high any more, so lower the leg down to where
he is happy and he will relax and then you may continue. I regularly
shoe some older horses with their hoof no higher than 300 mm (1
foot) off the ground, because they are stiff in the shoulders
and hips, yet they lead an active working life.
Learn to stand in a balanced posture when working
under the horse. If you push, he has to push. But if you are both
balanced, you will both be able to relax and enjoy the company.
Pay particular attention when nailing a
shoe on to use the correct size nails. As a guide, if the nail
head sits with just a slight protrusion above the shoe surface
then the nail shank is the correct thickness to go through the
hoof wall without causing pain to the horse.
It is an historical fact that at least 90% of all
lameness in the horse is directly hoof related, and I consider
bad attitude to be hoof related as well.
If your horse is shod regularly for the purposes
of work or competition, be mindful of the need to allow time off
without shoes each year; the hooves need to be able to get back
to nature and re-learn how to toughen up without shoes.
We have all had the horse who seems to just invent
a fly to swish with his tail, just as you are bending to pick
up the leg. To stop this, place a stiff clothes peg or plastic
butterfly clip into a bunch of tail hair (not skin) about six
inches down from the dock. It really works.
To the horse owner who may feel intimidated at asking
questions of the farrier - dont be shy, just remember that YOU
are the expert when it comes to recogising a difference in the
way the horse is working, or travelling, or the way it feels.
The farrier only visits once every 6 weeks or so, making it difficult
for them to assess these minor changes that you observe daily.
It is your right to query these changes in the horse's behaviour
or in its working.
Founder is life-changing for the horse forever
after; the damaged laminae will never return to normal once it
has been stretched. Owners need to be extremely vigilant and to
monitor the horse’s condition to avoid the onset of this
problem at all costs.
A heavy hand clinching a heavy nail is likely to
cause pain to the horse – if the horse is tucking his toes
back after shoeing, he is already feeling the pinch and that means
being in pain.
Keep a large magnet in the tool box, flick the discarded
clinches into the box and they are out of harms way. Anyone who
discards nails onto the ground should not be around horses.
There is absolutely no reason for a horse to become
nervous or jittery when the shoes are being nailed if it is being
nailed with the correct selection of nails into the correct shoe
for that size hoof after the hoof has been correctly balanced
When you pick up a horse’s front leg, he has
what I call a ‘Happy Spot’. This is an area of about
one foot square that when you hold the foot up off the ground
at the fetlock joint, there is no tension on that leg at all,
and the horse is standing on his other 3 legs perfectly balanced
and comfortable. That is the spot to work on the hoof.
Every horse owner should be able to check the digital
pulse - to do this place thumb and forefinger either side of and
above the fetlock joint just behind the tendon. Note the pulse
then compare it with the opposite leg. If the pulse appears to
be accelerated or stronger you can be fairly sure there is an
abscess forming somewhere in that hoof.
The horse’s hoof is the horse’s barometer,
a bit like his eyes – lightly holding the hoof you can feel
his mood, his temperament and what he thinks about you as a farrier
Corns occur back in the heel area at the junction
where the bars meet the hoof wall – this is called the buttress
of the heel. That V-shaped pocket is called the seat of the corn
area and if the horse has corns there will be a reddening of the
sole tissue that looks like bruising. Corns are the direct result
of an unbalanced hoof and poorly executed trimming methods.
In a white hoof you will often see a bruise, and
people assume the horse has been kicking the wall. In actual fact,
there is a flare in the hoof capsule, and the laminae is trying
to tear away from the coffin bone, and is actually sub surface
bleeding. If you push hard down on your finger nail, and it starts
to stretch you will get a red line under the nail. If you keep
on, it hurts. Then with a horse, you add a saddle and a rider
and expect it to work. That horse is in pain, and you need to
understand what that red mark is telling you.
Little horses and miniature horses have all the same
working parts as their big cousins, including their hooves. Their
tiny hooves are just as important to them as a working horse’s
hoof, and it is equally important to shape and balance them correctly
when trimming to avoid stress problems.
Most bent leg problems in foals can be corrected
by careful attention of the farrier from as early as three weeks
after birth; at this age the foals are very easy to hold (close
to mum of course) and should then be trimmed regularly to establish
a pattern. Because these foals are handled regularly from an early
age, shoeing is generally not a problem.
Treatment of Seedy Toe requires the hoof wall to
be pared away to expose the affected areas to the air, thus causing
the infection to die. Care should be taken to remove all the unhealthy
material back to good, clean hoof wall laminae.
Shoeing is not about banging on a pair of shoes.
Shoeing is about enhancing the horse’s athletic ability,
and, through that gentle touch, learning what the horse is telling
you about what you are doing to him so you had better be mindful
that he is monitoring your own performance also
Stringhalt is a nervous reaction of the hind legs
– the horse involuntarily snaps them up, almost to the belly,
when the leg is lifted. Stringhalt is triggered by a neurological
disorder in the brain which acts on the nervous system, seeming
to act only on the back legs.
It is much easier to learn to change hands with the
rasp or the hammer than to move to the inside position of both
front and hind legs, when there is no logical reason to do so.
Most horses gallop so that the front legs pass between
the inside of the hind legs. An occasional horse gallops inside
out, in other words the front legs pass the back legs on the outside.
Founder or Laminitis is one of the most damaging
ailments for the horse’s hoof. The causes are varied but
the effects are always the same with varying degrees of severity.
The two main causes are either an over-enriched
diet coupled with a lack of exercise, or trauma to the horse through
injury or sickness or stress.
Always use a hoof knife or loop knife by cutting
from the frog down to the toe or from the frog out to the sides;
that way you will not cut the frog and most importantly you will
not risk cutting the veins and arteries in your arm if the horse
moves.
The leg bone structure of the donkey is very
light and they tend to have a very upright hoof pastern angle,
this means that they always grow more heel than toe, which means
that regular hoof trimming is a must to avoid the contracted frog
or contracted heel syndrome.
The golden rule for shoe selection is that
a shoe should be as light as possible to allow the horse to perform
his task. Not as heavy as possible.
I have found that that a horse cannot ‘decode’
whistling, and cannot detect any unease in the handler. Whistling
has probably preserved my life when shoeing many difficult or
dangerous horses.
A triple clipped shoe is made from a standard factory
shoe heated in a forge or using an oxy torch; the clip is then
drawn out of the hot metal using the edge of the hammer over the
square edge of the anvil or similar. These clips can be put anywhere
on the shoe to suit any hoof problem.
In my opinion the single most common cause of lameness
in our equine industry is the presence of flares anywhere in the
hoof. The truly qualified tradesman farrier applying the simple
basic principles of hoof balance does not encourage flares in
the hoof wall so he will always end up fitting a symmetrical shoe
that mirrors the shape of the coronary band.
In most horses I get to see, all they ever needed
was to be trimmed correctly or shod with normal shoes. Ask the
horse too - if it doesn’t look right the chances are it
certainly doesn’t feel right either.
There is absolutely no need for any ropes, hobbles,
straps or restraints of any kind, no matter how difficult that
horse may be or has been in the past. With kindness and understanding
all of these horses will come good, they will allow themselves
to be shod in a relaxed manner without using violence.
If your horse gets a sole puncture or bleeds from
the hoof for whatever reason, dirt going into the puncture will
immediately result in infection and possible abscessing. Wash
the hoof, spray with purple spray or iodine, then apply an animal
lintex poultice.
It is your responsibility if you own or ride or care
for a horse, to seek the how-to knowledge about hoof care and
maintenance. Far too many horses suffer needlessly after simple
mishaps such as springing a shoe or losing the odd nails while
waiting for the farrier to arrive.
When training foals to be trimmed, I do not condone
the use of twitches or leg ropes, especially ear twitches, instead
just take a little more time, allow him to learn to balance on
three legs, which will give him confidence. They respond so quickly
to kindness.
One cause of hoof-related back strain in horses is
incorrect hoof/pastern angle in the front feet, resulting from
either long toes and low heels, or from high heels and short toes.
Regardless of whether the hoof is to be shod or unshod,
it must be trimmed to be balanced.
Many well meaning horse lovers come prepared with
a bag of carrots, and then each time the horse nips me or pulls
away, he is rewarded with a lovely carrot, which encourages him
to nip again as soon as the carrot is gone.
Every horse must be allowed to go barefoot at regular
intervals, especially young horses, so it is little wonder horses
ended up unsound after having been shod constantly for years.
The low-heeled hoof is usually accompanied by a long
and concaved hoof capsule at the toe due to the tubules bending
under the pressure of their excessive length.
Horse owners should all learn to pick up and hold
the leg of the horse anyhow, so why not practise holding it as
the farrier does, then you will have the freedom to use both hands
and with a set of basic tools you will be able to perform emergency
care when your horse really needs it.
As a farrier I can recall many occasions over the
years when long term hoof problems could have been avoided if
the horse owner had just been able to stabilise the shoe until
I arrived.
Heavy nails on a light hoof displace too much laminae
under the hoof wall, causing much damage and often cracking the
hoof wall.
Teaching the foal good habits for shoeing is important.
Make sure you reward for good behaviour and not for poor behaviour.
Seedy Toe should never get to the extreme
stage. If it does, it has either been ignored or not noticed in
the first place – neither of these is any excuse. If a horse
is shod or trimmed every six weeks, that should be the maximum
amount of time that elapses between inspections.
Communication is vital between owner or rider and
the farrier, as the farrier needs to know what the horse is being
used for; it is also a big help to know what ground surfaces he
will encounter.
By the time many of our young horses are old enough
to do anything with, they have had little or no attention by way
of corrective hoof trimming, so we begin their education already
way behind the eight ball.
Probably the most common error in hoof preparation
is simply not trimming out the sole enough. This leads to what
we know as the low heel/long toe type of hoof.
It is not always easy to remove the sometimes rock
hard overgrowth of six week old sole, but unless you do, the hoof
will end up too long in the toes and his action will change for
the worse.
The horse’s hoof is really the same as it always
was – do you realise that the shape of the hoof capsule
at the coronary band should be the same shape at the ground surface.
Horses in competition need the advantage of light
shoes to enable them to move lightly and increase agility.
Unfortunately, only about 1% of owners can remove
a shoe yet it should be a requirement of being an owner. A twisted
shoe can result in a nasty hoof injury, and nails can puncture
the hoof.
The hoof growth rate of a donkey is the same as a
horse which is about half an inch every six to eight weeks, so
to leave his feet unattended for months causes great discomfort
and reduces his mobility dramatically.
Heavy shoes create greater concussion to joints and
are usually fitted with heavier nails which destroy that delicate
hoof wall capsule.
Let common sense prevail - could you as a ballet
dancer perform your best in heavy working boots? Fitting the correct
weight shoes will lift your horse’s athletic ability dramatically,
and will also reduce downtime from lameness and injury.
The secret to getting the foot flat is to rasp the
toe flat, level the heels, and don’t rasp in the quarters
around the side of the hoof. To level the toe, rasp forwards only.
To level the heel, rasp backwards only. Then check the level,
and very lightly, level the whole hoof.
If you have trouble setting a toeclip
when shoeing, go to the hardware store, and buy a half round wood
rasp, about 3/4" wide, this makes an ideal toe clip hole
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