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 Sorry I don't have any advice
Posts: 1975
         Location: Sunnyland Florida | This hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll throw this food for thought out there:
For quite a few years I've heard horse chiropractors and a few great vets say that if you're going to shoe at all, shoe all 4. The reason is that when you only shoe the front, you elevate the front and the spine is out of whack. Long & Short-term, this supposedly can cause all kinds of problems. Well, it made perfect sense to me and I've only shod all-around for many years.
I leave the young ones I'm patterning barefoot as long as I can, then shoe them all around when they start competing.
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 Veteran
Posts: 251
    Location: Oregon | I might be the only crazy one here! And my horse runs differently, she rates and drags her inside her inside hip when she turns. I will ride her in the winter with just front shoes but during the spring/summer I put a βminiβ slider on her hind. My farrier takes a regular plate and then makes trailers off the back end. It gives her enough grip to run but not so much that she is ripping up her hocks. She is one that gets hock injected so Iβm careful to not add to much friction to them. |
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Veteran
Posts: 100

| Thank you for everyone's input, I definitely have a lot to think about now! Lol. I am meeting with my vet and farrier next week and now have good questions to ask. Thanks again! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 617
  Location: London Ontario | Also remember if they are slightly built down hill back shoes will make it worse... |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 494
      
| IF I shoes one it's only the front shoes. I do believe that hind shoes can have too much grip for some horses. I sent my mare off with an NFR girl to use for a month. I told her-Keep her barefoot on back (before I got her she had shoes on all 4 but I transitioned to 2). Horse placed at rodeos, but did not have her normal caliber going on. Well long story short, horse comes home with all 4 feet shod of course. Ripped those suckers off the hind end and took her to the next large barrel race about 2 wks later. Won by .3 and set an arena record with well known people running. On my other mare that has had shoes on her whole life and is an extremely LOW, get down and turn. The type that you absolutely cannot run on any hard ground. Pulled all her shoes and she is still a butt draggin machine. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
   Location: SE Louisiana | Runaway - 2015-07-22 9:22 AM
This hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll throw this food for thought out there:
For quite a few years I've heard horse chiropractors and a few great vets say that if you're going to shoe at all, shoe all 4. The reason is that when you only shoe the front, you elevate the front and the spine is out of whack. Long & Short-term, this supposedly can cause all kinds of problems. Well, it made perfect sense to me and I've only shod all-around for many years.
I leave the young ones I'm patterning barefoot as long as I can, then shoe them all around when they start competing.
If you're not shoing the back feet, you should not be cutting them as short as you would if you Were putting on shoes. That should compensate. |
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