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Pads

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:06:49 GMT

Pads are just a piece of material; leather, plastic, etc., that you place between a horses hoof and shoe. There are also wedge pads that change the hoof degree angle and snow pads. There are many reasons for applying pads to a horse. Pads can help a horse or pads can make a horse worse. All depends on what you are applying the pads for.

In the gaited horse industry pads are used a lot to make horses gait. They increase toe length with pads. In other words they change a typical 3 inch toe into a 6 inch toe hoof. Shoeing a foot to obtain optimum leg action is the name of the game. Generally only the front hooves are padded in gaited horses. These gaits are completely unnatural for the horse. This is why there are so many unnatural and artificial techniques in shoeing them.

I use pads a lot for limb length disparity. Limb length disparity is where one limb is shorter than the other(s). I’ve seen limb length disparity a lot down south, not sure why. I don’t see too many cases up here in the north east. Not to say there are none I just haven’t seen that many and I don’t see every horse out there by any means. The pad would be added to the shorter limb to make the limbs of equal length.

Wedge pads are used to increase an angle. I use wedge pads when I mess up with taking too much toe off of a low angle hoof, which would be decreasing the angle to make the limb stable. Most farriers use wedge pads to increase hoof angles but this is; one unnatural and two if you look at how the weight is distributed on the hoof. The wedge pads crush the heels faster with the increase pressure on the heel.

Snow pads are made to keep snow from packing up in the hoof. Snowballs can pack on the bottom of horse’s hooves with shoes on. These snowballs cause the limbs to be completely unstable. This can lead to strains and sprains as well as other joint issues. There are two types of snow pads one is a rim pad, these are the kind I use, and the other is a full pad. The rim pad is a pad shaped like the shoe with a tube on the inside of the shoe. This tube is what “shoots” the snow, as well as mud and muck, out of the hoof.

I do not like full pads because you have no access to the bottom of the hoof. This is keep moisture on the bottom of the hoof and breed bacteria. Think of wearing your muck boots 24/7 and unable to take them off your feet. Imagine how your feet would feel! This is what horse’s feet are like with full pads on. I never put full pads on a hoof. Even when I pad for limb length disparity I cut the center of the pad out to match the shape of the shoe, leave access to the bottom of the hoof.

The Wild Horse

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:00:00 GMT

The wild horse comes up a lot when you work with horses. Everyone always try to compare their horse to wild horses. People have an image that wild horses are invincible and really hardy. Wild horses can go anywhere on any terrain. Wild horses never have bad hooves. Wild horses never get diseases, worms or anything else but perfect health. I’m sorry to say this is not true.

Wild horses go through all the problems domesticated horses do for the most part. You can rule out all problems that people directly cause. The big difference is that wild horses subjected to nature and humans aren’t right there every second so, it gives off the perception of wild horses are super horses. You never see a wild horse on TV with bad feet. Nor do you hear much about all the other problems of wild horses.

Wild horse herds are stronger then domesticated horse. This is because of how nature works, the natural selection of things. In Nature predators go after the weak of the herd. If you have a horse that doesn’t take care of itself, the predators will have dinner. This nature selection keeps herds strong. So if people naturally took out the weak horses, domesticated horses would seem just as strong.

Wild horses do get worms all the time, probably more than most domesticated horses. Down south out of the herd of 100+ horses only about 10 or so had worms and the rest were clean. Wild horses have the freedom of acres upon acres of land to roam to find the right herbs to kill the worms. This knowledge is pasted down generation after generation of horses just as any society lives and learns.

I’ve seen wild horse down in the Carolinas with “elf shoe” looking feet. Now of course if there were a lot of predators around these wild horses would be dinner. There aren’t really predators for horses in the Carolinas. These feet are also bad because of the human interaction with the horse not just because the horse allowed itself to let itself go. See humans began feeding the wild horse. You don’t have to touch something to cause pain and discomfort.

By feeding the wild horse the wild horse stopped foraging for food. This lack of foraging is what causes the hooves to grow. When the horse forages, the horse paws and wears down the horses hooves. Since the hooves are no longer worn down it grows. A horse will also hang out wear food is. In the wild the horse constantly moves searching for food. If food is being fed, the horse doesn’t have to move to find the food and will just stand there not using its legs. This lack of moving will cause hooves to grow base of the weight distribution not movement.

The myth that wild horses are terrain hardy is not true either. People see wild horse running everywhere on TV. The truth is wild horses have paths like dear do here in the northeast. These paths or trails are well worn and have every rock kicked out of the way of the path. A wild horse is just like a domesticated horse if the wild horse hits a big sharp rock, the wild horse will be just as lame as a domesticated horse. When a predator goes after a horse they run down one of these “dear paths”. This is the truth about wild horses vs domesticated horses.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. Please fill free to comment, tweet, facebook, etc. This information is for all. I only ask that you make sure that the author me Gene Fletcher is put on all the copies. Thank you and if you have suggestions on topics please fill free to contact me. You can sign up to receive automatic up dates by entering your E mail in the subscribe box to the right.

Cold shoeing vs hot shoeing

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:00:00 GMT

What is the difference between cold shoeing and hot shoeing or why do some farriers cold shoe and some hot shoe? These are questions I get asked a lot. It all comes down to what the farrier was taught or just farrier preference, I only cold shoe. I have a lot of reasons why too. First, let’s start with what is cold shoeing and what is hot shoeing for those who don’t know.

Hot shoeing is when a horse shoe is applied to a horses hoof hot from a forge. The farrier must have perfect temperature in the shoe to apply it. The shoe can be to hot and cause interior damage. Hot shoeing is a skill not for people that don’t know what they are doing. From what I know hot shoeing was the traditional way of applying iron horse shoes till technology was good enough to make a good rasp.

When applying a shoe to the bottom of a horses hoof both the shoe and hoof surfaces must be completely identical. This keeps the shoe from rocking there by loosening the nails and coming off. In hot shoeing this is easy because you take the shoe surface and burn the hoof to match the shoe surface with the heat of the shoe. The heat melts the hoof wall. If the shoe isn’t level, when applied hot to the hoof, the hoof surface will match the unlevelness of the shoe.

That is also one bad thing about hot shoeing. You don’t have to have anything level. This is improperly balancing the hoof. I’ve seen shoes so bad that when the horse is on a concrete pad a little kid can pick it out. Granit not all farriers when hot shoeing will do work like that but on long, hot, days it is easy to make a mistake.

Cold shoeing is when a horse shoe is applied to the hoof with no heat (cold). In cold shoeing leveling a horse shoe is imperative to keeping the shoes on. First one must have a level surface to check for levelness, usually requiring a wide face anvil. The farrier shapes the shoe to the hoof then levels the shoe. Next the shoe is taken to the horse and the hoof is checked for levelness by rocking the diagonals of the shoe on the hoof. The rasp is used to take down the high points of the hoof till levelness is achieved.

You can still heat the shoe to shape the shoe and as long as the shoe is not applied hot to the hoof it is still considered cold shoeing. Most farriers do heat the shoe to shape it but this is not necessary. Cold shoeing also takes great skill to get right. In hot shoeing you just have to know how hot you can have the shoe but in cold shoeing you have to have an eye for leveling.

A lot of farriers chose to hot shoe because of the easiness to pair the shoe and the hoof. They also have done studies to determine that the heat will kill bacteria but in cases like white line the heat may kill bacteria when applied but if the horse is put back in the environment that caused the bacteria to begin with, it will come back faster than before. Bottom line, it doesn’t fix anything.

I prefer cold shoeing. In my opinion it takes more skill to perform cold shoeing. I take a lot of pride in cold shoeing. It is also cheaper to operate a cold shoeing operation. A lot of horses don’t like the smoke of hot shoeing and you can’t get the smell out of your clothes easily. I think cold shoeing is faster as well unless you are doing a lot of horses in one barn. Not taking the time to properly level a hot shoer will speed ahead. You don’t have to wait for the forge to warm up or the shoes to cool down enough to apply.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. Please fill free to comment, tweet, facebook, etc. This information is for all. I only ask that you make sure that the author me Gene Fletcher is put on all the copies. Thank you and if you have suggestions on topics please fill free to contact me. You can subscribe to my blog too. Just enter your email in the subscribe box to the right.

Horse’s habits and hoof problems

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Everyone has this impression that you can just leave a horse to roam and all is well. They will take care of themselves. Though this is the case in some horses, not all of them can be just let go to do whatever they want. Some horses need to be taken care of and watched like a child.

In nature, predators make herds stronger by taking out the weak of the herd. If a horse doesn’t take care of itself the horse becomes “wolf food”, just the opposite of human hunters. Humans go for the biggest and strongest of animals thereby weakening the herd. You could say humans continue weakening herds through their breeding selection as well.

Domesticated horses are not the same way as wild ones. Humans breed for looks or abilities to work. They really don’t look at natural strengths or weaknesses. Plus the domesticated horse doesn’t worry much about predators. The most a domesticated horse worries about is how humans treat them. So the domesticated horse can slowly learn after generations not to take care of themselves.

Even wild horses, once you start to feed them, you pretty much have to take care of them. You don’t even have to touch the horse to start to ruin its natural ways. The wild horse forages with its hooves to find food. Once humans start to feed the horse, the horse stops foraging and the hooves start to look like “elf shoes” before long with splits and all.

It’s not just longs hooves either; horses get into habits that can cause all kinds of problems, like over eating, eating poisonous plants, other hoof problems sometimes referred to as chronic problems. Chronic problems are related to horses doing something to themselves, over and over again. Doesn’t make sense that the reason why it is a chronic problem is because the horse has a habit?

The most common problem I see when it comes to habits is thrush and other bacteria problems. The horse gets a habit of cooling its feet off in mud and/or muck. Even if you only have one mud puddle in your whole 50 acres, that horse will find it and stand in it with one foot or maybe two either fronts or hinds or maybe all four feet. This habit happens daily. It could be all day long. You can bleach and water your horse’s hooves ever day and the bacteria will never go away. Why because you kill the bacteria and then the horse goes stand back in it. That is a never ending circle.

To fix the problem you have to start at the root of the problem. Somehow you have to stop the horse from going to the mud and muck then, treat the bacteria. You have to baby sit that horse. Sometimes people just don’t have the time, money or environment for a horse. In a case such as that the best thing to do is get rid of the horse. If you can’t take care of it find one you can. Not all horses are the same. Some horse work good in a place full of mud but some don’t. Try to find the horse that naturally works well for you or be prepared to put extra time and effort into taking care of a horse.

How do you know if you may have to “babysit” your horse? If you have a chronic problem of some of sort you have to babysit. If there is a chronic problem there is a habit that horse is doing to harm itself. No, you can’t make the stop a habit by allowing it to really harm itself. You will just end up with a big farrier bill and/or vet bill and the horse will continue its habit.

When it comes to chronic bacteria you have to keep the horse away from all mud and muck. The horse must have nothing but a clean dry surface to stand on. Stalls with lots of sawdust or some other kind of absorbing material and no wetness what so ever in the pasture or limit the time in pasture to an hour or two then back to the stall will help. I know a lot of work but some horses’ demand that much work to keep them sound and again if you can’t keep up, just look for another horse that works better for you.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. Please fill free to comment, tweet, facebook, etc. This information is for all. I only ask that you make sure that the author me Gene Fletcher is put on all the copies. Thank you and if you have suggestions on topics please fill free to contact me. You can subscribe to my blog too. Just enter your email in the subscribe box to the right.

How long to shoe or trim

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 01:39:04 GMT

How long do you shoe or trim a horse? This question is commonly asked. Yet, you really have to look to find the answer or ask your farrier. Why is this not on every hoof care page out there I don’t know. In general most farriers will trim a horse every 8 weeks and shoe a horse every 6 weeks.

Shoes are a must when it comes to keeping on schedule. The shoe restricts the hoof but the hoof likes to move. If you have a tight shoe on, meaning a shoe with little too no support, the hoof over grows the shoes. Usually occurring in the heels of the hoof, you will see the hoof wall but the shoe will be almost indented into the hoof. If you have a shoe with support you will not have this over growing but few horses will keep a full supported shoe in pasture. The farrier should try to give the horse as much support as possible but most just tight shoe for fear of losing customers.

As for trimming as said before most farriers do an 8 week trim. If your horse has the right amount of nutrition the hoof should be growing in 8 weeks no problem. There is an herb or a “weed” out there that will grow hoof like mad. I have an area once in a while, not a horse or a barn but a area of horses, that I’ve seen grow 4 inches of hoof in a month. I wish I had the time to really research what it may be. I do have a guess based off of what I know about certain herbs but, I’m not positive.

Some horse can go longer than 8 weeks when it comes to trimming. These horses are either not getting the right nutrition or they are good at maintaining their selves. Mustangs are good at maintaining themselves some times. That comes from what they have learned from in the wild from years of predators taking out the weak horses and making a strong herd of horses that know how to survive. Domesticated horses are not as strong. Although people do try to breed certain qualities out it usually have to do with looks not natural strengths.

Routine maintenance will solve a lot of hoof deformities. Every 8 weeks will cover most problems. I have one customer with a Belgium horse and since we have been trimming him every 8 weeks he hasn’t been flaring nearly as bad as he use to. The customer is quite happy. Not only flares but other problems to like underrun heels, toe in, toe out, etc. will hold up better with routine maintenance.

I have done a 4 week schedule on miniature horses that foundered. They tend to grow real fast when foundering. I’m not sure why. Some other cases I have shortened the schedule to 4 weeks as well. These cases are usually horses with hooves that can go good or bad in a short time, due to the horse working harder on the opposite of what I’m trying to accomplish. Some horses are just no good on themselves. Hard keepers is what they are referred too.

It’s not how much hoof you take off either. It is what you take off. So if you are one of those people who think you need a lot of hoof on the horse before you need a trim, you are wrong. The important thing is to maintain proper balance. Just taking off a ¼ inch of toe can make a world of difference or two swipes of the rasp. I had one client who just bought a horse that tight roped when walking (one hoof right in front of the other). Sometimes there is nothing you can do about it, and I gave them that speech, but this horse only needed two swipes of the rasp on each foot and then walked normal. We were just lucky on that one I think.

Why do I keep losing the same shoe

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:00:00 GMT

You have a horse and the horse keeps pulling off the same shoe over and over again. Usually the first thing people do is blame their farrier. Ok, you change your farrier and the next farrier has the same problem. Although farriers do sometimes make mistakes most of the time it is your horse not the farrier or your farrier is trying to give the horse maximum support which takes time to figure out. Every horse is different.

The first thing to look at is the hoof it’s self. Horses are creatures of habit and some habits are bad. If your horse takes its one hoof and puts that one hoof in the mud and muck then, that one hoof could be drying out. A dry hoof wouldn’t hold a shoe. The hoof loses strength as it dries and will decay. The shoe will just fall off. If you do have dry hooves, hoof oil is your best bet to help fix the hooves. Supplements won’t work. Dry hooves are an environmental issue. Nothing you put in your horse’s mouth will fix the environment the horse is in. Change the horse’s environment will also work. Nice clean, dry, pasture and/or stalls.

Once there was a guy with a horse who would not keep front shoes at all. The guy went through a lot of farriers looking for the one who could keep shoes on. My old farrier, when I was a kid, figured it out. Why the horse was losing shoes that is. He shod the horse then the horse was turned out in a round pen. After a hour or so the horse began to stretch and itch the bulbs of its feet. Itch, itch, itch, ping! There goes one shoe then itch, itch ping. There goes the other shoe. The horse was taking its shoes off itching its bulbs.

If the horse wants the shoe off it is coming off. There is not a farrier alive that can keep a shoe on a horse that wants it off. If you try you will either have a horse that’s lame or worse you will have a horse that ripped off its hoof. From my experience it is better just to lose a shoe. Some people disagree. I think if you care more about a shoe staying on then the health of your horse, you’re going to be held up more with lameness then lost shoes.

Other reasons for pulling of a shoe can be pawing, limb deviations and rider. I will get into more details on both of these subjects later on in blogs. Pawing, if a horse is pawing with one foot over and over again the horse will pull the shoe off. In this situation to fix the problem stop the pawing and I will tell you that pawing is a mental thing not a physical thing so you are not going to physically stop it. You have to get into the horses head.

Limb deviation and/or lameness, limb deviations are differences in the limbs of the horse. If you have one leg doing something different then other legs, you are ruining the rhythm of the horse. So if you think about it, the horse is tripping around and off balance, the horse is going to clip a shoe eventually. It can be a stiff knee; it can be one leg has a long cannon bone. Most of the time you will have a hind limb coming up and clipping a front shoe. Some farriers try to take the hind leg and redirect. That may be the only option but sometimes you can fix the direct problem. Just keep your mind open when it comes to losing that one shoe.

Proper shoeing and lost shoes

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:00:00 GMT

“It is ironical that the better a horse is shod, the greater the chances are of his losing a shoe. A Farrier’s number one priority can either be to keep a shoe on at all costs or to shoe the horse for balance, support, and long-term soundness.

These two goals never coincide; it is one or the other. A good shoeing job does not consist of a close fit around the entire edge of the hoof with very little shoe visible and eight heavy nails with long clinches holding the shoe on very securely.

A shoe that is fit full with proper support will have more steel exposed at the quarters and heels, which may make it more likely to be stepped on.” Author unknown

Those of you that know me and my shoeing may say I wrote the above statement but, in fact I did not. My instructor, in college, introduced this statement to me. He lived by this in his shoeing and so do I. When you start looking at the mechanics of the horse’s limb and how to properly support the body of the horse, the shoe is not as tight as can be.

A shoeing that offers proper support has room for heel expansion. Some time the horse need inside or outside support. All of this support is one more thing for the horse to catch the shoe and pull it off. It is a shame that a lot of horse owners don’t give a farrier a chance to shoe a horse properly. Most farriers in time can get a shoe as perfect as possible for the horse, but if you don’t try to shoe as perfect as you think you can at first the horse is the one suffering.

I shoe for maximum support when I think I can. It doesn’t always work but each time the shoe comes off I can learn what I can do and cannot do with the shoeing. I compromise with the horse. Say a horse needs outside support on the horses hind legs, which is common. I leave maximum support, the horse pulls it. I would then lesson the support till me and the horse can agree on a compromise. This takes time. Especially for a horse the farrier doesn’t know.

Most people only care about the here and now. They don’t see or care about the long term. They want the shoe to stay on and that’s it. There is no consideration for the horse; it’s all about the person and their needs. I think this is just a product of our society. The here and now syndrome!! When working with a machine it is easier because a machine only moves a certain way. Animals are free and have a mind of their own. If they want the shoe off, they will take it off. I will talk about this more in another blog.

Not to mention not too many of these people have never seen a hoof ripped off a horse with a shoe still on. It can happen, you may keep a shoe on the hoof but the hoof can be ripped off the horse with the shoe still on it. If you don’t rip off the hoof you can still bend a shoe branch and cause Lameness. I personally would rather a shoe come off and I can still ride the horse then a shoe stay on and a lame horse for a week or more. This is just my feelings. To each their own. This blog isn’t to say to keep a shoe on is bad thing but this is about proper shoeing isn’t easy and sometimes a farrier needs time to figure your horse out.

Soft soles can cause hard to shoe

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:00:00 GMT

When most people think of soft soles what is the first thing they think of next? If you’re like most, you would say shoes. I need shoes on my horse because the horse is tender footed with soft soles. In some cases this will cover up the problem. Yes I said cover up. Putting shoes on a soft sole horse is not a fix. Shoes are a cover up and some cases this works. Others are not so lucky.

But let’s say you have a horse and it just doesn’t like getting shoes put on. Every time the hammer hints the head of a nail the horse just flinches, jerks or worst goes through the roof. As a farrier we don’t always have the privilege of getting to know a horse inside and out. Some people don’t tell farrier issues or problems. Some don’t care. Some think it’s another problem other then what the farrier is doing. Some don’t stick with a farrier long enough for the farrier to do anything about anything.

This horse could have training issues but more than likely if the horse has been being shod for a while now all training issues are resolved. More than likely, unless the horse just needs a little disciplined. You can try to discipline after trying to finesse. Being gentle and asking the horse to cooperate is the best first thing to do. Usually the horse will show you there is pain when the horse is finessed.

After years of shoeing horses I’ve had one or two horses that were just a pain to do. I could never figure out why nothing seemed to work when it came to adjusting behavior. I did come to the conclusion that these horse where in pain and the nailing of the shoe was hurting them. No feedback from owners of course and no one was going to pay for glue on shoes.

One day I got a call from a guy who had a horse he knew was tender footed. And he wanted shoes on the tender feet. I told him how to properly treat the tender feet of soft soles but he still wanted shoes. This horse was a handful to get shoes on. I guess the horse wasn’t always like this but they had the horse on claiming medication for their vet. This medication was used when the horse was shod. I’m not sure what the medication did to the horse but the horse seemed to be seeing “purple elephants” if you ask me.

After getting the horse to calm down I started to shoe the horse and noticed that I know this reaction. I hit the head of the nail and the horse flinches and jerks. I’ve come a crossed this before I thought to myself. I have no clue why I have never thought of this and there are defiantly no books on the subject that I have ever found. The whole thing does make sense.

If your horse is soft soled shoeing the horse with nails is painful. The soft soles need to be fixed before the horse will behave for shoeing. You will still have to work on finessing the horse throughout the shoeing period to assure not to create bad impressions. Hardening up the soles will stop the horse from being so difficult to shoe. Again shoeing the horse will not fix the problem. You can go to my website under soft soles and learn how to properly treat soft soles.

Hoof Cracks

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 12:04:00 GMT

Hoof cracks are caused by a lot of things. There are a lot of different cracks too. There are little vertical cracks that can be followed by chipping and flaring. There are big vertical cracks that can just be on the surface of the hoof wall or all the way through. There are parallel hoof cracks. There are cracks with dents or stars in them. Cracks can occur all over the hoof wall too.

Will Shoes fix my crack in my hoof wall? Unless you have hoof wall crack in two, shoes aren’t going to make that big of a difference. The shoe will only keep the hoof wall together as it heals and grows down too. Just because you have a shoe on doesn’t mean you can’t get hoof cracks, not even if you have clips on the shoe. If your hoof wall is crack in two the whole hoof capsule will expand and the crack will widen with weight and it will contract and the crack will thin when weight is off the hoof. The crack should be held together as much as possible to allow the hoof crack to heal.

If attended to properly a crack will not last more than year. Now I have seen people who have had a crack in their horses hoof for years, up to 5-6 years I think. Those cracks were there that long because of lack of proper treatment or the horse has a pawing habit that needs to be addressed. Little vertical cracks can be caused by dried hooves or white line disease. The links will direct you to a page on how to fix.

Parallel cracks can be from a abscess popping out or the horse kick under a gate or a rock. Now big cracks, you have toe cracks and quarter cracks. They can be caused by pawing, improper hoof balance, too much flare or a rock. If they don’t have stars or dents on the hoof crack then they probably start at the bottom of the hoof. The stars and dents indicate an impact from a rock etc. The only way to prevent the impacts is to remove that stuff out of where the horse is located.

Toe cracks can be caused by pawing, toe flare, improper balance in the toe or a rock. If there are no stars or bents in the hoof wall the hoof crack started at the bottom of the hoof. Some guys will cut or brand a notch parallel to the ground at the top of the hoof crack. This does not do much. If the problem started at the bottom it has to be addressed at the bottom. I “V” out the bottom of the crack relieving the pressure. This will keep the crack form continuing to grow up the hoof wall. It looks bad at first but it will grow out like nothing ever happened. Next I make sure there is nothing for bacteria to grow in by running my knife or a Dremel tool and widen the crack to allow stuff to flow out of it.

I find this technique the best way to get rid of hoof cracks. It goes the same for quarter cracks. Generally quarter cracks are caused by excessive flares or rocks. If you dress the flare then “v” out the bottom of the crack and finally open it up a little, they usually just grow down and out. If the horse has a pawing issue you have to stop the pawing!!! Warning pawing is a mental thing that has to do with excitement or anxiety. You can’t just hobble the horse or do something that will cause a horse pain if the horse paws. Cracks do take time to grow out. No one can just make them disappear.

Flat feet

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Flat feet are when the sole of the hoof is flat on the ground. Generally the sole is concaved. This concaved sole helps keep the horse sound because it lifts the sole off the ground preventing bruising, abscesses, etc. A horse with flat soles is more likely to come up lame, though possible to keep sound with the right care and environment. Flat footed horses are definitely harder to go back to bare feet with flat feet. This is because of the sole constantly hitting the ground.

Why do horses get flat feet? Horses get flat feet from short/low heels, founder, and underrun heels. Low heels can be caused by improper balance of the hoof or it can be the conformation of the horse. The improper balance can be easy to fix. The hoof has to grow heel. All you do is not cut the heel of the hoof. By all means balance them and make sure they are level but do not cut the heel if the heels are balanced and leveled.

Some people believe that if a hoof gets too long, as in straight down, that will lead to all kinds of problems. Not so if the horse has proper balance and a healthy hoof. You can have a 6 inch toe and heel and the horses hoof will be fine. It is of this fear that horses get hooves cut short to begin with. The shorter the hoof the better you keep a shoe and the less flares and what not is not true. Those problems are caused by other things. You can have long heels and the horse will be ok if not better if properly balanced and right environment.

Conformation is hard to deal with. If the horse has long dropping fetlocks more than likely the horse’s heels are low too and they are flat footed, unless the fetlocks dropped later in life because of over use or not properly wrapping for protection but that is not conformation. That is miss or over use. If your horse has some kind of conformation disorder your horse is just going to have what it has. There are some things one can do like egg bar shoes work well on dropping fetlocks and like I said wraps. These things will help support what you have so not to make this worse but not a fix.

Founder is a big thing to talk about. It would take more than a blog to do that. Just know that with founder your sole will hit the ground and the hoof will be flat footed. Founder is completely fixable too. If caught soon enough and you have someone working on it that knows what they are doing. The flat foot and all can be gone in a year or two and you’ll never know anything happened. As long as you find out the why and how’s of the founder and change those.

Underrun heels can be fixed. The horse has flat feet because of the lack of heel height on the hoof not the length. People are always getting the height and the length confused when it comes to hoof balance. Some think height and length are the same. The height is how height the heel/toe is off the ground and the length is how long it is. Like you can have a long toe of 7 inches but the hoof is flat footed because there is only 2 inches from the ground to the hairline at the toe. I have a blog on underrun heels which explains more on how to correct underrun heels and that will fix the flat feet too.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. Please fill free to comment, tweet, facebook, etc. This information is for all. I only ask that you make sure that the author me Gene Fletcher is put on all the copies. Thank you and if you have suggestions on topics please fill free to contact me. You can sign up to be notified of new blogs by entering your e mail to the right. This is so you don't have to keep looking to see if I posted a new blog. Again thank you for reading.

Environment

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Believe it or not most of the problems your horse has are due to the environment the horse is in. Most people don’t believe it but it is true. The common problems on my website farrierfletcher.com they are all common because they are all environmental issues that are common when it comes to horses. There are other problems that I don’t get into because it falls more to the other health issues other than movement and feet.

One good common problem is the heaves. Heaves is when a horse coughs like the horse is going to die or have an asthma attack. Heaves are mainly caused by dust in the lungs. If you have horses out on dirt roads and there is lots of dust in the air constantly, guest what? Your horse is going to get the heaves. Same with the hay, if you get hey from a back road with dust all over, your horse is going to get heaves. Feeding round bales will do the same but it doesn’t matter if you bale the hay in central park in New York City, there is dust because the large amount of hay drying in the bale. Yep Drying hay makes dust. The smaller the bale the less dust you have in the bale.

Dried hooves are one of the biggest problems I see. It seems like every horse has them sooner or later. On the web page I talk about hoof oil to help keep the hooves from drying out but, I’ve seen horses go from completely dry, cracked, brittle hooves to the most well conditioned hooves I’ve seen in days when you take a horse fetlock high in mud to nice lush green grass pasture. I think it is the oils in the grass constantly in contact with the hooves that make them so conditioned.

The big thing is getting the horse out of the mud and muck. That’s the biggest thing you can do. If you have small acres stalls are what you need with hand walk to turn pasture. But horses can’t live in the pasture with small acres. They will just tear it up too fast. Feed and water the horses in the stalls and move the water around a lot in the pasture. The horses will gather where ever food and/or water are. You leave it in one place guess what, mud and muck? It sounds like a lot of work. Well owning animals are. If you just like to look at horses out your window get a picture. Don’t let the animals suffer.

If you have large acres, you want to split the land up and rotate the land. You still need to move the food and water around to prevent the horses from hanging around in one spot too much. Shelter still needs to be clean daily. I find wood floors make things easy to clean in lean-tos. Horses can live out in large acres with out mucking it up but you still need to take care of them. One of the drawbacks to large acres is that you have to go get your horse. Plus, in wide open space anything can happen. Wood chuck holes, predators, many things you can control because of the distance.

A lot more injuries and accidents happen to pasture horse vs. stalled horses. I’m not saying one is better than the other, I’m just stating a fact. It all depends on your life style which is better for you and your horses. Remember it’s all about the horse. I am a big fan of stalls. I feel it makes me give more attention to the horse because if I don’t do anything then the horse is stuck in a stall all day which makes me feel bad. Other people just won’t care. For them pasture is the better option.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. Please fill free to comment, tweet, facebook, etc. This information is for all. I only ask that you make sure that the author me Gene Fletcher is put on all the copies. Thank you and if you have suggestions on topics please fill free to contact me. You can sign up to be notified of new blogs by entering your e mail to the right. This is so you don't have to keep looking to see if I posted a new blog. Again thank you for reading.

Underrun heels

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Underrun heels are heels of the hoof that grow under the hoof instead of growing down. The Picture to the right is a very good example of underrun heels. There is not a lot of information on the internet about them that I could find so I decided to write about them and how I fix them. If you look at the picture to the right and you look at the hairline you’ll notice that the hairline curves in the heel area. The hair line is a direct representation of the levelness of the hoof. In other words, what you see in the hair line is what the hoof looks like on the ground surface too.

Underrun heels usually occur only in the front hooves. It is possible to have underrun heels in the hind end but unlikely. If underrun heels do occur in the hind end it is easier to fix then the fronts and I’ll explain why.

Underrun heels are said to be caused by long heels but there is more to it than that. You can have a 6 inch heel on a horse and it won’t grow under unless the angles are wrong. It’s the horses own body weight that crushes the heels causing the underrun heels to grow under. How do we get this to occur? We simply take the hoof capsule and move it forward. As a horse stands there its an axis from which all the weight of the horse goes down. This Axis is not in the middle of the limb like you and I. It goes down the middle of the shoulders to the middle of the hair line if the horse can stand straight.

If you look again at the picture up top and look at the hair line, find the center of the hair line, and then you will see it is right on top of the heel. You can achieve this underrun heel through long toes. Ideally you want to take this center axis of weight and have 50% heel to 50% toe. If you let the toe grow you will find that the toe percentage will rise and the heel percent will lower till you have what is in the picture a 100% toe to 0% heel. This allows all the weight that limb bares to come right down on the heel.

As I said earlier it is easy to fix in the hind end. This is because a horse bares most of it’s weight on the front hooves. Since there is not much weight on the hind end you can easily work on the 50% to 50% heel to toe through a trim. Again the objective in the trim is to bring the whole hoof backwards. This includes the brake over of the toe. If the break over is not brought back you will get nowhere. The whole hoof has to come back.

The Front end is more complicated. Since most of the horses body weight is in the front and all of that weight is bearing down on the heels. Hmmmm!!! I wonder why my hoof looks like that? LOL The only way to fix the underrun heels is to take the weight off the underrun heels. How do we take the weight off the underrun heels? We would put on a bar shoe. Hopefully you read my blog on bar shoes. You can apply a heart bar shoe. The weight that the underrun heels bare can be transferred to the frog with a heart bar. Now that the weight is relieved from the underrun heels the heels can grow down without being crushed. You would re-shoe And trim to achieve that 50-50 heel-toe. After that the shoes can come off and the horse can go bare footed if you care to.

Bar Shoes

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:06:00 GMT

I’ve been to barns where you say bar shoe then they kick you out of the place, never to return. Then I read an article on bar shoes and discovered why. A horse with bar shoes is considered devalued. This myth and it is a myth is that a horse with bar shoes is a worthless horse goes a long with the myth that once a horse is shod they always have to be shod. Uneducated farriers and horse owners are how these came about. These horses are suspected of being worthless because if you have bar shoes then the horse has problems. So what do people do? They let their horses suffer for fear of bar shoes.

This is what this world is coming down to. Oh let’s make our horse suffer because we don’t want to ruin the value of the horse. Not like it didn’t lose value because of problems anyway. This is just another scam people do to get rid of horses they don’t want to deal with. I would much rather buy a sound horse with bar shoes on then an unsound horse or a horse with problems that no one has done anything with. At least if I see bar shoes I know someone cared about the horse and the horse is probably well cared for unlike not putting shoes on a horse that needs them.

The strategy of covering up a problem instead of fixing one that some farriers do doesn’t help the now bad name bar shoes have either. Like a horse with soft soles. Let’s just cover it up with shoes and pads. Do you know I’ve seen horses go for years like that? Covering the sole up with pads usually leads to other problems as well such as white line disease. To fix soft soles it only takes about a month if done and cared for properly. That’s without shoes and pads. Isn’t that crazy? I think so.

What would you rather have a horse with bar shoes that is in the process of having problems fixed or a horse with problems that aren’t being fixed and sometimes becoming worse because of not helping it at all? Either way hopefully I can change some minds on this and get people back in this century as well as the most important thing is to, of course, help some horses. Bar shoes aren’t as bad as people want you to believe.

Yes, bar shoes are for horses with problems but that doesn’t mean they stay on forever. Underrun heels for example; I use bar shoes the most on underrun hooves. These shoes stay on for a year or two, depending on the horse and the hoof growth, then the horse is fixed and the shoes come off. Bar shoes are the only way I know to fix underrun heels. Regular shoes won’t do because you have to relieve the weight off the heels to get them growing down instead of under.

Contracted heels are only fixed with straight bar shoes. The narrow heels rest on the straight bar in the back of the shoe and allowed to move outward across the bar to expand the heels in time. You cannot do such a thing with just a plain shoe. Depending on the horse, the nutrition, how fast you can increase angles, and the environment the heels can be fixed in a shoeing or two. Plain shoes the horse may never be fixed. There will be a lack of blood flow do to the lack of natural movement that will lead to lameness eventually. There goes the value of the horse!

Heart bar shoes when placed properly with help increase blood flow and make your horse healthier. I wouldn’t just put some on just because I can because well barefoot is the healthiest if you can do it. Not to mention the expense, worries of shoes coming off etc. I hope I changed some minds about bar shoes. They are made to fix problems yes but doesn’t mean lame horse for rest of its life.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. Please fill free to comment, tweet, facebook, etc. This information is for all. I only ask that you make sure that the author me Gene Fletcher is put on all the copies. Thank you and if you have suggestions on topics please fill free to contact me.

Do I need to shoe my horse?

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 30 May 2011 12:30:00 GMT

This is a question I get ask a lot. The truth of the matter most horses don’t need shoes at all. People get con into them by a farrier or they have some problems here and there, after that they think shoes are mandatory to keep the horse sound. This is rare! Though there are horses out there that has something physically wrong and require a shoe full time.

Some farrier trim hoof to short. This is not necessarily the farriers fault this is just what the farrier was taught to do. This trimming short will cause sensitive feet and a shoe is a quick cover up. If the horse is continued to be trimmed short with shoes on no one is the wiser. The horse is sold the new owner tries to remove the shoes and the horse is lame. Now the owner believes the horse needs shoes for the rest of its life.

The different associations out there don’t help owners decide. They are either one way or the other. The AFA (American Farriers Association) supports every horse needs shoes. Then you have the barefoot movement were shoes are bad and no horse needs shoes. The truth is they are both can be right depending on the situation. Each horse is a special case. Again what works for one does not work on all.

To support the barefoot movement; the horse does have better traction because the hoof can move and bend with the ground. The hoof is free to move. See my writing on form and function and function on my website. It is natural and it cost less to trim. Things to look out for are improper balance of the hoof such as low heels will restrict the natural movement and make horse flat footed thereby promoting lameness. Not all lameness can be fixed through a trim.

To support shoes. You need a shoe to fix some things. That’s all there is to it. No matter what they say not everything is fixable through a trim. Good examples are; low underrun heels in the front end, horses that have lost half their hoof, a hoof completely split in half, etc. You need a shoe no other way around it. Things to look out for in shoeing is; that shoes can restrict the natural movement of the hoof, Shoes can be hard to keep on, shoes are used to cover up problems, shoeing take more understanding and patients from the horse.

How I come up with shoe or no shoe. My teacher Bryan taught me there are only three reasons to shoe a horse; 1 limb disparities or deviations, 2 weak hoof walls, 3 performance. Most of the time horses only get trimmed. That is all they need. Weak hoof walls can sometimes be caused by shoes. Remember the natural form and function of the hoof? Well the shoe restricts that. Eventually nature will win and the hoof will fall apart to move like it wants too. Of course to stop this you can cut the heels off then the foot won’t want to move at all.

If one trims and balances the hoof properly then the hoof will tell you when it needs a break from shoes. I see this as a good thing. It is like an old tool like a knife or shovel. They did their jobs well but if it wasn’t meant to do the job it would tell you or not do it. Like an old knife was meant for cutting and that’s it. You didn’t use it as a screwdriver or anything else like that and it was easy to sharpen and maintain. Now a day’s people try to use tools for things they are not meant for and want happens they break. Well buy a new knife but, do you really want to buy a new horse?

Heels

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 23 May 2011 23:19:49 GMT

Current theory states a farrier is to cut the heel down till the frog touches the ground. This theory came about from an expert and a video camera. At least this is what I’ve been told by other farriers. What happened was someone recorded a horse walking, and then slowed the footage down to 60 frames per second. The person noticed that there was a crushing motion in the back of the limb when the hooves hit the ground. Mind you, everything looks weird at 60 frames per second. Said person then noticed the closer the frog was on the ground the less crushing there was in the back of the limb. This is why current theory is to cut the heels down till the frog is on the ground.

This study was only done on horse to my knowledge. I believe this to be so because if you were to attempt to do such a thing to any other equine, A.K.A. a donkey, mule, zebra, the equine would be lame. In donkey and mules the frog is located behind the heels of the hoof wall unlike horse were the frog is in line with the heels of the hoof wall. If you were to video a donkey or mule and slowed the footage down to 60 frames per second, you would see this same crushing motion as was see with the horse.

With everything in life, everything has a point and purpose. Just because I just said this theory is wrong based on the fact of horses vs. other equines doesn’t mean it is not tool one should throw out of the tool box. I find this technique works well with founder (or laminitis) horses and if done right you can slowly fix underrun heels too. The thing about horses is they are live creatures that are constantly growing so; you cannot treat them like a machine. In the mechanics world you fix one make and model one way you can fix most the same way. In the world of the horse each case is an individual must be treated as such.

My theory in heels of the hoof is to let heels grow to achieve proper hoof angle. Proper hoof angle is where the pasture angle and the hoof angle are the same. By doing this the sole of the horse is lifted off the ground and become concave, thereby reducing lameness from flat feet. The horse also has good brake over and there is no strain on tendons or ligaments. You also reduce the chase of Navicular by not applying so much pressure on the heel.

My theory works great on the majority of horses and other equines. Once in a while I get a horse that does not “cooperate”. The horse insists on low heels. Well, if this is where the horse is comfortable then this is where the horse is met to be. Again every horse is its own case. What works for one does not work for all but one must try to do what he or she thinks is right first and at least try to put up a fight. If X rays are done maybe the coffin bone is positioned right with the horse having low heels. You can still ease break over by bringing the toe of the horse back.

Welcome

Gene Fletcher — Mon, 16 May 2011 22:05:36 GMT

Welcome to farrierfletcher.com blog. I'm starting this blog to discuss horses and hoofcare. I hope you enjoy this blog. Feel free to comment on any blogs. If you haven't visited farrierfletcher.com please feel free, there is alot of information on hoofcare and training that may not be discussed in the blogs. Please feel free to subcribe and enjoy!!!

Thank you Gene Fletcher of FarrierFletcher.com