what s wrong with the nail holes and shoe shapes

Get some pics of toe nail driven or other wise
and get a better idea.

I have never seen any evidence if shoe wear on the hoof side at the toe, like you see at the heels. I have never seen any slow motion video of the hoof flexing in the front half of the foot, like I have of the back half. The front half of the hoof is nearly filled by the coffin bone, which of course does not flex. The rear of the hoof is filled with softer tissue, so therefore it can flex. The only "flex" I have ever seen in the front of the hoof occurs when there is a crack, and the hoof is weighted, in which case, if toe nails do indeed keep the front of the hoof from flexing, then the more the merrier. I think your improved results have to do with the other changes you made to your shoeing, not the absence of the toe nails. ???

Regards

Rick, I only disagree with one part of your post, "filled by the coffin bone, which of course does not flex". I've had the opportunity to handle still warm coffin bones from recently deceased animals (due to trauma from a trailer wreck and others from euthanasia). I felt the only non flexing parts of a coffin bone are the condyle and wings. You can twist and compress the majority of the bone to varying degrees.

True scientific research requires a testable hypothesis with repeatable results. Until such a time that the underlying aetiology that causes said distortion when nails are placed forward of the bridge is discovered and defined and able to be replicated with suitable control group for comparison, this is simply a hypothesis in the very early stages of testing.

As such, I choose not to let this theory affect my daily practices until a reasonable explanation can be made.

Again I say if you trim and fit well you can put nails most anywhere.
I can show you feet on 15/20 year old horses that toe nails have been driven
and the feet do very well

I hear this thought of trimming and fitting "well" a lot .. Just what is trimming and fitting "well" is it quantifiable? If you can explain what trimming and fitting well is .. I honestly want to hear it ! Smitty I respect you a lot .. You do a tremendous job making pretty shoes and there is no one
On this Board who would not agree the you trim "well" also
How do you decide what to take off and what to leave ?


Layne

Lane it would be wrong of me to try tell you what to take off on this forum.
this learning starts when you get trained as an apprentice.
You now have done your 4 years you can move on learning by been round
good men and you soon get confident in all areas of the job.
To me there are levels of farriery, just depends what level you want to settle for.

Did you read the article? A control of 80 horses is a good start.

Hence the phrase 'Art of Farriery'. There are some who get it early, some who get part of it, and some who never get it. Then there's the type like me who think they know it all.

Well said sir.

Hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothesis

So if i had 80 cars with defective radeators and i threw away the radiators in half of them .would i have fixed the problom .heck they dont leak any more. mabey the study should be preformed by some one who can leval a foot :0

To be allegorical to Kenny's study, You would start with 80 radiators, radiating perfectly. Then put different caps on all eighty, notice they aren't cooling properly, replace the original caps, and they all work fine again.
Has anyone read the article?

I like your example better . The problem dident exist before the caps were replaced by a obviously un qualified tecnition so it must be the caps. Gees this is starting to sound like polotics

I think discussing Martian's study without reading it is a little like trying to describe a rainbow to a man who has been blind all his life. It doesn't take much to read.

This is my last post on this subject as i have better things to do with my limited number of brain cells and obviosly all were gaining is hurt feelers.I read the $%#@#$% thing bill but as my brain tends to wander when it detects BS so i dont remember mutch after the part where his clinches were standing up befor he got them off the hoof stand . That dosent happen IME unless the job is done improperly and beleave me im an expert in doing thing improprly.There for no matter how mutch marret his therie may or may not have the study is worthless. You could have several farriers who wernt having this problom preform the same test but what would be the point? Bill i tried to call you to discuse this yesterday but like most of us werthless farriers you dont answer your phone give me a call you have my # it would be good to here from you evan if we dont aggre on this .Nuf said

Dose your new bride know you're trying to pick up guys on line?

Yes, I read it prior to commenting, for good measure I re-read the article just now. I've come to the conclusion you don't understand the definition of the term "control group". I don't say that to be rude or crass, but because there was no control group.

80 horses, 320 feet, all shod by the same person, nail patterns the same. Only change is the nail pattern. What's out of control?

That's called a "test group".