If you have ever tried to wrestle a bent or twisted shoe off your horse, you will share my amazement at how easily they can come off when your horse over steps and catches a front shoe with a hind hoof.
It’s nearly impossible to dislodge a shoe when you want to; when you don’t? They come off like butter.
Freedom lost his left front shoe at the hunter pace on Sunday. Front shoes are particularly problematic to lose because a horse carries about 60% of its weight on its front legs. Too much time/use without the shoe can leave that hoof damaged, sometimes to the point of lameness.
The trick to having a shoe replaced without much fuss is to find the lost one. Otherwise, your farrier needs to shape a new shoe before it can be re-applied. Tacking on the old one? 10 minutes. Starting from scratch? Half an hour or so.
So you can imagine how pleased I was when another team found Freedom’s shoe and turned it in to the organizers. On Monday I picked it up and by Tuesday afternoon it was safely back on Freedom’s hoof!
Hello!
I’m curious about this shoe, is it some special shoe because Freedom has sensitive hooves? Or where does the “filling” come from? I’ve only ever seen the shoes by themselves, without any material attached, so I’m very curious about this one!
Hi Caramelia — Freedom has leather pads on his front shoes to protect the soles from bruising. In New England, especially when out hunting, pads are pretty common because the territories are rocky and we are often moving at speed. Freedom is prone to bruising so that just offers some added protection. The pads he’s wearing are leather and my farrier often packs the frog with Magic Cushion.
Thank you very much for explaining!
Don’t you love how (un)predictable such things are? 😉
Yes. The only thing you can count on is that your horse will lose a shoe at the most inconvenient time/location!