Shoeing Cold bloods

[Teehee]

Hello,

I was reading another thread where they were commenting prices on shoeing, and a couple people mentioned that cold bloods are a lot more expensive... which I understand, since they do have really big feet and are probably harder to handle... but what just dawned on me was...

Why do people shoe cold bloods?

I mean by logic, I understand that if I ride my 13 hh pony and I'm 10 stone lets say... well I can see how riding on it can file down their hooves... but when you're talking about a huge horse where having a rider on their backs is like carrying around a crumb... It seems to me in my own mind, that their hooves shouldn't wear down as much as smaller breeds...

Or maybe there's a different explanation like there hooves are really soft or something...?

[Anro]

I thaught shoes were to protect there feet from hard surfaces ie road

[Afellpony]

.....that's what I thought too. I dont have my pony shod as he's not ridden on the roads. By the way, my pony is a cold blood - and - he's not hard to handle. Where did you get that idea from that coldbloods were harder to handle than warm bloods? An awful lot of nonsense is "written" about the various breeds, a lot of it without any foundation at all. Probably stems from old wives tales!!!!!!

[Teehee]

O.k. now I'm really confussed now!!! lol

I always thought horses where shod to keep their feet from wearing down... for example if you ride on asfault without shoes, it's like taking a nail file to them...?¿

Also in the old days horse use to walk miles and miles, so even though it was soft ground (no asfault) they had shoes on to keep them from filing down... or was it for other reasons?

[Esther.D]

It is basically to stop the hooves wearing down (and protect them) on roads or rocky tracks, but the weight of the rider makes no difference. The large draught horses are more expensive as they need specially made shoes that the farrier cannot just buy 'off the peg' as it were and then adjust in the forge.

[shandy84]

My OH's boss charged more for draught shoes because although they handmake 98% of their shoes, they required more metal and took a lot longer to make and longer to fit.

[MelanieD]

They are shod to stop them from wearing down too much, they don't have to have a rider on to wear their feet down. Other reason for shoeing is horse is doing some work so owner assumes it needs shoes, I do know some that are perfectly sound shoeless and can cope with more work than they're doing easily that are shod because their owner thinks thats what you do if your pony spends more than 10 seconds a week being worked. Its quite surprising how much work on hard surfaces is possible without shoes if you give the feet time to adapt to being without shoes.

Cold blood types aren't harder to handle but draught horses are harder work to shoe. Friend's farrier brings an assistant with him for shoeing her shire and after picking his feet out I can see why, he's very well behaved but his legs are really heavy even though he doesn't lean.

[Wally]

Hoof is only as strong as hoof, it's made of the same stuff whether on a Shetland or a Shire, The sheer weight of the horse alone will break off the horn and wear it down. You will rarely see a shire with Ali Ba-ba feet, but you often see Welsh A and Shetlands with curled, neglected feet, where the big guys will break the toes off due to their sheer size.