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FROM THE HOOFCARE & LAMENESS ARCHIVES Soundbites on Shoeing: Putting Our Best Foot Forward Note: this article was originally published in Hoofcare & Lameness in 1994. Is a magazine format the best way to share with you all that is going on in the hoofcare world? Maybe it is time for a news broadcast, a few dozen soundbites that would fill in the blank spaces between election news and the soapy saga of O.J. This fall has been even more special than usual here in the Northeast. The warm and dry weather has allowed more than a month's extra riding time, and riders are out there, even in November, when most would have turned their horses out. There is an unprecedented interest in foxhunting when these fall days are clear and warm. No one is pulling shoes yet. No one is asking nervous questions about borium and snowball pads and if those little Hufgrip things really work. They're too busy using their horses. Good weather is good news for the horse business. Happy owners buy more horses. Good weather encourages more people to go to polo matches, fairs, and horse shows. Of course, that leaves all of you to keep those horses going those extra weeks. When are you supposed to get your wood stacked? There's a strong message out there, coming from the mouths of many leaders of the farrier and veterinary profession. It is a message of realistic expectations of what we can achieve, what our limits are, and what we can realistically expect a horse to endure. We know when a rider is asking too much of a horse--it shows up in the feet. But do we know when we are asking too much of ourselves in this day of "miracle" techniques and products? Keeping horses going--or practicing "damage control" as one farrier quipped--is the name of the game these days. Maintaining a level of performance ability is the bottom line. If you can do anything, by any means, to improve a horse's posture, way of going, and comfort, it's a major accomplishment. Congratulate yourself, because no one else may notice. Travelling from seminar to seminar this fall, the soundbites have been ringing in my ears. Words of wisdom, wit, and whimsy. Here's a collection of ideas that may someday develop themselves into articles, or disappear forever. Just some food for thought, from some very interesting people. "It's the veterinarian's job to find out why the horse is lame. It's the farrier's job to fix it."--Andrew Bathe MRCVS, Cambridge, England. "We need to make distinctions between egg bars that serve as therapy devices for lame horses and egg bars used to provide support in performance horses. Some show horses fall between the two types, and must be evaluated."--John Blombach, at the Rochester Equine Clinic, New Hampshire. "Our study of impact is realted to how the horse is conscious of wanting P3 to be level on the ground. If the horse has a long toe, the toe is in the way and it hits the ground first. If the horse has a short toe, a long heel may get in the way first."--Hilary Clayton MRCVS, Cambridge, England "This is Antarctica. (showing slide) In 1911, Robert Falcon Scott took ponies on his expedition to the South Pole, not dogs. Temperatures of -20F were no problem for the ponies' feet. The problem was they starved to death."--Chris Pollitt MRCVS, Cambridge, England (Note: They also had problems with their sweat freezing around their bodies like a sheath of ice. Remember that dogs sweat only through their tongues.) "Bridle lameness is one of the easiest to cure. Just change the rider and see if the horse goes sound."--Andrew Bathe "Bridle lameness often happens because a rider will use pressure on the reins as a timer with the stride."--Hilary Clayton "The hoof is truly amazing. I wish we knew how it remodels, compared to how bone remodels. And how does weightbearing affect remodeling? You can see a tremendous change in a hoof in just a few months, plus remember that hoof has the ability to restructure itself following injury. That's incredible stuff!"--Chris Pollitt "Allow me to explain exactly why the (British military) horses' hooves are numbered. The practice dates back to the time of the Battle of Waterloo. Military personnel were selling off the army's horses to the French locals, so the feet were tatooed."--Ivan Bell FWCF "I talk to 200 or 300 people a day and have no problem. This is the first time I ever talked to a bunch of people who might know what I'm talking about." Gary Wade, Disney World farrier, Eastern School of Farriery "There has only been one case of laminitis (in British military horses) since the 1950s."--Ivan Bell "What is horizontal rotation?"--Janice Young DVM, Cambridge England, "Shoe horses, not feet."--Roger Clark FWCF, Cambridge England. "Horseowners are more impressed by how much we appear to care about their horses than all the flashing lights and gloss of technical performance. It's the same with farriery. You gain the client's respect for competent handling first, before you get any respect for your technique."--Mark Johnston MRCVS "There used to be a set of scales in every forge. You'd weigh the old shoes and find two of equal weight so you could make a double. The old shoes were doubled over and welded for the hind shoes. You got much more wear from them than new shoes."--Roger Clark "You don't want to get the heels (on a sliding plate) too close in. Keep the shoe heels very open so dirt doesn't pack in. The horse has to be secure bnehind in the footing or else it can't--or won't--do lead changes right in the figure eight. We give a very slight roll to the toe on the plates and keep the heels in line with the toe to give the shoe direction."--Dwight Sanders, at Eastern School of Farriery "Shoeing heavy horses is hard work but ill-trained horses make it much harder."--Roger Clark "These horses I shoe are what I call 'maximum effort horses'. Horses that work hard every day, jumping five feet."--Carl Hayden, Southern New England Farriers Association "Sometimes, when I'm going to shoe a horse, I pick the nail I want before I pick the shoe."--Dwight Sanders "We always used to say that a horse that was winging out was "calling a cab".--Roger Clark "There are two possible reasons for hoof wall failure on the cellular level. Think of it as a brick wall, made of brick and mortar. You could have good mortar with lousy bricks, and the wall would fail. But you also could have lousy mortar trying to hold together good bricks."--Janet Douglas MRCVS, Cornell University Vet-Farrier Seminar. "These horses need support. You've got to give them some hang."--Carl Hayden "If you weigh the limb from the carpus down, it is only six percent of the limb's total weight."--Hilary Clayton "We still use the toe knife. It's made from 16" of old saw blade, ground sharp at one end. We need to preserve this skill. It takes a lot of practice."--Roger Clark "I'm getting some of Edward Martin's charisma rubbing off on me just touching this shoe he made."--Craig Trnka, Fort Worth, Texas "We get paid to take pressure off the lumps and bumps and put it somewhere else."--Carl Hayden, Southern New England Farriers Association "I don't like to see clips made with a bob punch. You used to be able to identify who had shod a horse by the clip. It was the farrier's signature."--Roger Clark "This horse is what you call a Luke Warmblood."--John Blombach "You shouldn't be able to feel a horse's ribs. Good feet will carry the weight."--Roger Clark "The way to increase the amount of wear you will get from a shoe is to increase the width, not the thickness."--Simon Curtis FWCF, Cambridge, England. "Bevelling is an artform. It can enhance a good foot or improve a bad one."--Roger Clark "No horse ever went lame because of calk hole placement. They go lame because of the calks. Our biggest problem is the way that inexperienced riders use calks."--John Blombach at the Eastern School of Farriery, Virginia. This article originally appeared in Hoofcare & Lameness: The Journal of Equine Foot Science and is available for your personal use only. Re-publication is prohibited without the express written permission of Hoofcare & Lameness. Detailed information on this and many other hoofcare topics can be found in Hoofcare & Lameness publisher Fran Jurga's award-winning guide to hoofcare, "Understanding the Equine Foot". For more information, or to order, click here Back to the articles table of contents Write to H&L: PO Box 6600, Gloucester, MA 01930. Tel 978 281 3222; fax 978 283 8775. Email webinquiry@hoofcare.com. Internet http://www.hoofcare.com. © 1998
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