How to prevent the hoof migrating forwards by shoeing 'traditionally'

[Lucy J]

can it be done? twice my mare has ended up going from natural balance into traditional shoes through reasons beyond my control. both times she ended up with mechanical laminitis, terrible flares/cracks and a severely underrun heel after 6 months.

now i have moved back to scotland I am struggling to find a true NB farrier. what hope do I have? I can't face her going through all this again.

what is it that is so hard about keeping the foot the same shape and not letting it migrate forwards?

help!

[Yann]

I think it's a problem inherent in the act of putting a shoe on a foot. Once the horn can't wear naturally there is always going to be a tendency for it to happen, and it's going to be worse in a weaker foot prone to flare. It's made worse by poor trimming and shoeing, or going too long between visits, and once it's there it's very hard to get rid of, especially when the heels are involved too. It's the main reason I took Tess's shoes off and whilst there's still a long way to go they do look like feet now rather than duck bills :)

I don't think it happens to all shod horses by any means, especially those with stronger feet and good farriers.

[MelanieD]

My farrier used to use quarter clips on the fronts, set the shoe back and roll the toe rather than shorten from underneath or dump it from above. Worked pretty well. Doing the backs that way had fatty's too long back toes under control after 2 sets and the fronts were kept from running forwards even though they were a bit of a disaster in other ways and would be exactly the kind of feet that would run forwards without good shoeing. Pretty similar approach to natural balance really just done with normal shoes with quarter clips instead of a toe clip so they can be set back.