Rocking 77 Horseshoeing

01/24/2025

The very best farrier care can only go so far.
☝️You must properly feed for optimal hoof health, if you want the best out of your horse.
✋️No shoeing or trimming mechanics can grow healthy walls, laminae, soles or frogs on horses WITHOUT good nutrition.

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*Sufficient Protein AND Amino Acids
*Low Startch and Sugar diet
*Balanced Vitamins and Minerals
*Added Biotin, Zinc, Copper, and Vit E
*Balanced Omega Fatty Acids 3-6-9

12/09/2024

🤦‍♂️LOST SHOES🤦‍♂️
There are several reasons horses can lose shoes. Here are the most common culprits:

Overreaching- A timing issue in a horse's gait that causes the hind foot to hit the back of the front foot, potentially injuring the heel bulbs or pasterns and causing the shoe to come off
->Consider using a correctly-fitted pair of overreach boots/bell boots
->Overreaching is also common in horses with EPM

Soft Hooves or Dry brittle hooves
Muddy conditions or Dry Conditions
Weak hoof walls, stretched white lines, and softened soles can make it difficult for a horse to hold a shoe, and can also allow bacteria and foreign material to pe*****te the hoof capsule, leading to abscesses.
-> Provide a clean environment with minimal mudd

Nutritional Gaps-
Make sure your horse’s diet is designed for optimal hoof health
->Consider a consultation with an equine nutritionist to balance your horses diet or add a hoof supplement

Environmental Conditions
Rocky uneven footing
Foot stomping from flies
Pulling shoes off in the fence
Too long of an interval between shoeing cycles
-> Use fly boots and spray, shorten time between shoeing cycles, consider fencing options other than wire

12/07/2024

Four reasons for cracks
Length- wall too long
Infection-white line or abscesses
Nutrition - deficiency causes weakness
Trauma - getting caught in things, heavy blows etc damage to coronary band, or keratoma

Fix the problem you fix the crack

12/04/2024

I tell clients that my job is to maintain good lengths and angles so their horse can perform at its very best.
If we wait until Fluffy looks like he “needs” to be done then we aren’t maintaining anything, we are fixing them at every cycle. And at some point we won’t be able to fix them with just a trim or shoes.
I always tell my customers that my general rule of thumb is at 4 weeks I can gain ground on a problem. At 5 weeks I can maintain what we have and at 6 weeks I’ll start losing ground.

12/30/2023

• Balance the hoof: trimming the hoof so that both sides are symmetrical in shape and size, and the hoof sits even on a hard, level surface.

• Bars: the area on the underside of the hoof on both sides of the frog where the hoof starts to narrow

• Bilateral: both sides of the hoof, or both left and right hooves

• Breakover: the period in a horse’s gait when the heel begins to lift as the horse moves forward

• Brushing (or interfering): in movement, when a horse hits its opposite leg with the hoof that’s in the air

• Changing the breakover: adjusting the way a horse’s foot leaves the ground

• Cold shoeing: when a farrier shapes the shoe without heating it in the forge

• Coronary band: the area at the top of the hoof wall where the hairline meets the hoof

• Digital cushion: the wedge-shaped area below the coffin bone at the rear of the horse’s hoof

• Dishing: in movement, when the hoof swings in, instead of a traveling in a straight line; usually caused by a toed-out conformation

• Flat-footed: a horse whose hooves have less than a 45-degree angle

• Forging (or overreaching): when a horse strikes its front legs with the toe of a back hoof; can cause injury to the heel bulb or pull off a shoe

• Frog: the V-shaped area on the underside of the hoof, pointing down from the heel

• Heel: the back part of the underside of the hoof

• Heel bulbs: the softer cushions at the very back of the underside of the hoof; they form the external part of the digital cushion

• Hoof wall: the hard, h***y outer covering of the hoof

• Hot shoeing (or hot setting): when a farrier heats the shoe in the forge and quickly places it on the foot to sear the area where the shoe will be nailed.

• Laminae: the inner layer of the hoof that attaches the hoof wall and the internal structures of the hoof

• Lateral: towards the outside

• Medial: towards the inside

• Paddling: in movement, when the hoof swings out, instead of traveling in a straight line; usually caused by pigeon-toed conformation

• Raise the heel: changing the angle of the hoof by leaving more heel when trimming or using a pad or specialized shoe to get the desired hoof angle.Usually done to relieve stress on specific hoof or lower leg structures.

• Rasp: when a farrier files a hoof to smooth and slightly shape it

• Resecting the hoof wall: removing a section of outer hoof wall to expose an area with infection

• Rocker toe shoes: shoes where the front is slightly angled and lifted off the ground to influence where the horse breaks over.

• Setting-back shoes: placing the shoe slightly back behind the toe, then shortening the toe to ease breakover

• Sole: the underside of the hoof

• Toe: the front of the hoof

• White line: the band that wraps around the sole of the hoof and connects the hoof wall and the sole

12/25/2023