Shoeing

The Owners of the horse we had on loan insisted that he was re-shod every 3-4 weeks. Before we took him over he was worked maybe once a week, then when we had him, we built him up to 4 times a week. All of his work, was on grass, soft ground or beach. Claire made sure that his shoes were not changed unless they were going to need changing soon. Don't wait for shoes to be in a bad state, but don't change them unneccessarily ( do I get a prize for such a long word). Especially if the horse is doing light work or on soft ground.

Dave,

[Charlotte]

You can always have a 'refit' of the shoes when the horses feet have grown, only if there is very little wear on them. This normally saves you a couple of pounds - the farrier simply takes off the shoes, trims the feet and replaces the shoes. I believe this saves about £6 per set.

[hlstarmie]

My farrier charges the same even if he puts the same shoes back on. after reading your message Charlotte i think hes rather cheeky! Will have words about that i think!
Yes Dave i agree with you on not changing the shoes so often 3-4 weeks would be very expensive. Saying that though my pony needs doing every 6-8weeks as his toes grow quite quickly.

[Sonia]

Isn't it also true that in addition to the money aspect, re-shoeing too often can make a mess of the hooves as they may not have had time to grow enough for fresh nail holes

Sonia

[Charlotte]

Re: refitting shoes making a mess of the hooves -

There is no difference between refitting and reshoeing except that the farrier uses the original shoes. Therefore, you don't refit until the horses feet have grown enough to need this! Once the farrier has removed the shoes and trimmed and filed as usual, it would make no difference to the 'nail holes' whether the shoes were refitted or new ones put on!

If the feet haven't grown enough, then the horse most probably doesn't need shoeing!

My horse recently pulled a shoe off on the horsebox on the way to a show - we got back and the farrier refitted the shoe - no problems with the hoof at all.

[Wally]

Putting back the last set of shoes isn't always the easy option. My farrier explained to me in great detail why she was putting a new set of shoes on when I thought the old set would do.
The farrier can spent longer mucking about getting nails to fit. I didn't realise that you needed to sometimes use different sized nails in refits. Once she explained all the tricky details I aggreed that it was rasier to fit a new set.

[Mossy]

Last time my youngster was reshod the farrier took her old shoes off and there was little or no wear on them [She is front shod for her education not for work done]. He simply trimmed her feet, put the shoes in the oven and refitted them, hot. Simply is not quite the right word. It was only the second time she has had shoes on and she was not overly impressed. No disrespect to the farrier. I cannot praise him enough. He did not charge me the full amount, despite having to pursue his client round the yard.