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Veteran
Posts: 276
 
| I have been struggling to get my geldings feet back in good condition for a long while now. He went from being at about 15% angles back to zero after about a year of wearing wedge pads and constant treatment of getting his foot to grow as quickly as possible and having him reset as soon as we could. He has been sound enough to compete on for a while now and a few months ago we changed him over to regular wedges because we thought the pads were breaking his feet and heels down pretty bad. We (me and my shoer) now think that his feet look better than they have in the past several years. Angles look good, they are strong and healthy, no cracks, etc. BUT I have been noticing that he looks "tight" when he moves around. Long trotting, loping and running I can't see anything that looks off and he is still working like a dream as usual, but when he walks around in his pen or leading him off he takes tiny steps and acts short especially when he turns sharp. We talked it over and think maybe he isn't getting the blood flow to the sole/frog with the wedges and not the pad. We poured equi-pack in his feet to try to resolve this a little less than a week ago, but I haven't seen a change quite yet. Should I just go back to the wedge pads and regular shoes like he had when he was sound before or should I try something else? I really, really, would like to get his feet 100% and get him back into regular shoes someday, but I need to do whatever will keep him the most comfortable, so any ideas appreciated. Thanks! |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
  
Location: Phoenix | I'm no help but will be following. Bump. :) |
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Veteran
Posts: 113
| Are the shoes wedge aluminum shoe with no pad? |
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 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| I am not sure all the details.. I use a Natural Balance aluminum Show with a 2 degree wedge. It has worked wonders on my gelding who has underslung heals and upright pasterns. |
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Veteran
Posts: 113
| some horses cant tolerate an aluminum shoe without padding |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Even wedges can crush heels |
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Veteran
Posts: 276
| The ones that are currently on him, yes, are aluminum wedges with no pad. Before we had wedge pads with regular SX7s. |
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 Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | I was amazed that a farrier change could fix 95% of my problems. I had been through countless coffin injections, wedges, pads, wedged aluminum, etc....and the horse would be good for about two weeks.
New farrier set him up and shod him full, pulled his toes back the very first shoeing....No wedges, no pads, and my horse was sound for the full 5-1/2 weeks between shoeings. |
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Veteran
Posts: 113
| I don't like pads, wedges, aluminum shoes. 99% of horses don't need them, they just need to be set up correctly like Rachel said.
Aluminum shoes can cause a hoof to "sting" from the vibration. By the sounds of your horse it seems like that's the problem. If you insist on wedges I'd go with a wedge pad |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| On the sore feet post I believe a lady posted plastic mail on shoes, you may want to look into those |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | Use the next size up shoe or 2 and turn the heels under... (fold them back)
Edited by komet. 2015-04-03 1:56 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 276
| Thank you for the suggestions. I know the aluminum wedges are not helping. I just don't know if we should be brave and go back to regular shoes without any type of pad or anything. We have tried to put the largest size and set him as full as possible, so I'm not sure we can do anymore there. I would love to have him in regular shoes, just don't want his legs to be under the stress of a bad angle. I also am scared to change too much at once because we have a really hard time getting his feet to grow enough to reset. Thank you all for the advice. We will talk it over and consult my vet (who suggested the wedge pads or wedges in the first place) and try to come to a conclusion. |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2931
Location: North Dakota | I currently have my horse in a 2 degree wedge pad with a regular shoe because he has heel pain. Based on my farrier (who is the BEST in my area, many on here can vouch for him), this is the best way to go. My horse has great feet; just unfortunately has heel pain.
You can create a "wedge" without a shoe, and he actually trimmed my horse's hoof this way once to show me (and then fixed it of course!!). But when you do that, you are changing the dynamics of the hoof that are going to lead to other problems, when you artifically try to make the heel "tall" to create a wedge.
You can put a horse in a wedge shoe, but you NEED to have some sort of support system underneath it (a pad or an actual support ... don't know the official name) because now you've raised the entire bottom of the hoof off the ground. If you are doing wedge shoes without the support .... not good.
I guess I don't understand how the pads were "braking his feet and heels down pretty bad"? When done right, there shouldn't be any problem. My horse has been in wedge pads with shoes for almost 3 years. Even when I pull them for the winter when he's not being ridden, his feet look great, angles and all.
When has he had a lameness exam last by your vet?
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