I had an interesting shoeing job yesterday. A horse that i ve shod for approx . 4 years was presented , and described by the owner as being very ouchy when ridden over stones and rough surfaces.......... with boots on! Last few years this horse has been shod with 5/16 x 7/8 steel shoes, previous ,when the horse was 1st purchased it wore steel kegs and plastic pads, and appeared to have had a laminitic episode or maybe more than one episode. Shoes had been pulled for the winter and the owner had purchased boots , so this spring rather than shoeing I continued to trim the hooves and she used the boots. The owner wanted to know if I thought steel and pads would be better, I explained that I really couldn t see how a 5/32" pad and a steel shoe could give more cushion/protection than the approx. 1/2 to 3/4 '' thick boot bottom...she wanted to try so after trimming him up, I set him up with a simple plain stamped steel 5/16 x 7/8 steel shoe with a leather plastic 5/32'' pad using VTL with aspirin and hoof phelt as packing and he walked off sound, ,hand walked over gravel and stones without head bobbing, and overall seemed quite comfortable. If there is a moral to the story, to me it would be that I don t always guess correctly, that boots ,just like shoes and pads don t always solve the problem and that sometimes I/ we should listen to the customer. Ray
Next time you see the horse try the hoof testers on him. My guess is that the shoes relieved the sole pressure that was present with the boots. Regards
Rick and Draftshoer, i did test and the horse was sole sore along with, frog sore ,toe sore ,side to side sore etc. . Ray
