Question:

.........The one mare is stumbling over her toes badly and is extremely lumbering in motion but she does fox trot and fox trot well.

When I look at her feet she has very big feet. They are a good 41/2 inches from hairline to ground and when you look from the sole side of the hoof she has a frog that is 2/3 the length of her foot ok, but none of it is touching the ground! Also, it looks like the farrier filed off the shoes round. The only part of the shoe touching the ground is the grooved part where the nails go. It is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. This big mare in essence appears to be walking just on the rim with no other support for the foot at all. All four feet are like this.

My question is ....is there ever a reason for shoeing like this? If so what reason is there. The mare appears to have no problems with lameness, she is just flat clumbsy and stilted in movement. When she steps at a walk she is coming down on her toe and then rocking back onto the heel.

Secondly, since the sole and everything is so cupped up into this foot how should the hoof be corrected? I'm sure part of this mares reason for not wanting to go forward with any energy is partially because her doggone feet hurt.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have.

Answer:

These shoes sound like rim shoes. Rim shoes tend to stop the foot from sliding (they are designed for traction) this would explain clumsy and stilted. Several riders use rim shoes for traction in mts. They tend to shorten up the gaits.

The mare sounds to be in need of a good balanced trim to her natural angles. This would remove much of the cup effect and get the frog closer to the ground. If you reshoe her I would recommend using flat plates.

Bob

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