Composite shoes

Bodshi

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Apr 23, 2009
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I'm guessing no-one on here uses them or it would probably have been mentioned already, but if anyone does have any experience/opinions I'd be interested to know.

A visiting professional yesterday told me about her horse, a TB with bad feet who had had so many lameness issues he was on the verge of being pts. The farrier then took him on a journey of alternative shoeing, they tried glue-ons and different makes of composite and have finally settled on Duplo. She showed me before and after videos with the Duplo shoes and the change in the shape of his feet is amazing, he previously had very little heel and his feet were small and poor looking, now he has good heels and a nice wide base. I wondered whether they could help with Raf's 'odd' foot, which is very underrun at the heel and grows out to the side. Not sure though, as both YO and RI say the problem is coming from the fetlock joint, not the foot itself.

I'll obviously discuss with my farrier but he may well talk me out of it. And I know how evangelical people can be about new things they have tried that are helping with their particular problem, so I'm not getting carried away with the idea, but I reckon it's worth thinking about.
 
Anything is worth doing a bit of reading up on and discussing with your farrier, and he'll have a far better idea of what may or may not help that your YO or RI. Even if it's coming from his fetlock - has the vet confirmed this and have x-rays been taken? - there may be a fair bit he can do to help by supporting the foot differently. Fingers crossed he can come up with something that helps.
 
I think if you discuss with your vet and farrier, then something that can potentially help him is worth a try. Does Raf really struggle though with the odd foot? How does it affect him? I'm a bit if it's not broken don't fix and all that. But obviously you wouldn't be posting if you didn't want to explore....... :oops: (Sorry if I've missed any previous posts about it in particular:))
 
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Anything is worth doing a bit of reading up on and discussing with your farrier, and he'll have a far better idea of what may or may not help that your YO or RI. Even if it's coming from his fetlock - has the vet confirmed this and have x-rays been taken? - there may be a fair bit he can do to help by supporting the foot differently. Fingers crossed he can come up with something that helps.
I think if you discuss with your vet and farrier, then something that can potentially help him is worth a try. Does Raf really struggle though with the odd foot? How does it affect him? I'm a bit if it's not broken don't fix and all that. But obviously you wouldn't be posting if you didn't want to explore....... :oops: (Sorry if I've missed any previous posts about it in particular:))

He doesn't have any noticeable problems at the moment, he was x-rayed and diagnosed with 'mild arthritic changes' 4 years ago but doesn't need any treatment yet and is not lame. I am aware though that because of this poor conformation he likely to suffer problems as he ages due to the additional pressure being put on the tendons and ligaments etc because the pastern is at a bad angle. The person who came yesterday frightened me by saying his foot looked worse than the last time she saw it and that in the soft ground of the arena he was standing with his toe pointing downwards to alleviate the stress on the back of his lower leg. You know when you're congratulating yourself that your horse looks really well, and then someone comes along and puts a real downer on things ...

The reason I travel to go to my particular farrier is all because of the foot issue and the fact that he was recommended to me as someone able to help. I trust him as a farrier and he's a nice person too and Raf is good as gold for him (he used to break free and bugger off for the last one) so I'm sure I can have a good conversation with him, but I think he'll have quite 'traditional' opinions.
 
He doesn't have any noticeable problems at the moment, he was x-rayed and diagnosed with 'mild arthritic changes' 4 years ago but doesn't need any treatment yet and is not lame. I am aware though that because of this poor conformation he likely to suffer problems as he ages due to the additional pressure being put on the tendons and ligaments etc because the pastern is at a bad angle. The person who came yesterday frightened me by saying his foot looked worse than the last time she saw it and that in the soft ground of the arena he was standing with his toe pointing downwards to alleviate the stress on the back of his lower leg. You know when you're congratulating yourself that your horse looks really well, and then someone comes along and puts a real downer on things ...

The reason I travel to go to my particular farrier is all because of the foot issue and the fact that he was recommended to me as someone able to help. I trust him as a farrier and he's a nice person too and Raf is good as gold for him (he used to break free and bugger off for the last one) so I'm sure I can have a good conversation with him, but I think he'll have quite 'traditional' opinions.

That's a shame you felt he was looking good and then someone's opinion changed it. They most likely meant well but it can often be a bit upsetting! Sounds like your current farrier is trustworthy.
 
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My YO has a tb x cob with 2 bad front feet/legs - I'm not sure which, but he has pads inside both shoes. To the best of my knowledge, he always has had them. I'll ask her if I can take a pic of one of them
 
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I'm not sure I'd fret about an opinion based on him stood on soft ground, that could be as simple as the arena surface not being level to start with and so making him look like he was putting the toe down. Who was the professional and what's she like as a person? Some do like t try and make themselves look better by voicing opinions on things they really should keep quiet about. However if you want to discuss it with your farrier it does give you a good opening.

It sounds like your farrier is great, and if he has a reputation for helping horses with problems I wouldn't bet on him wanting traditional for the sake of it. Some of the more modern materials and styles don't work well on every horse or are only suitable for certain types of work or lifestyle, I remember people suggesting some things for Jim and my farrier very patiently explaining exactly why they weren't a good option and why other things were worth trying. A good farrier who is also a nice person is a Godsend!
 
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I've known a couple in non-metal shoes and tried some with Jess too, I think it is def worth exploring :)

My friends mare had appalling feet, too sore with nothing as very thin soled and didn't hold shoes well plus her arthritis was more noticeable after she'd had shoes on a while. He farrier decided it must have been to do with the vibrations (for want of a better word) and decided to go to Easywalkers and they worked a treat for her, she was notably more comfortable, stayed sound and didn't pull them off as much as she did with metal shoes, she was riding and competing again pretty quickly. The knock on effect of not ripping them off and being more correct in her gait was her feet began improving.

I also tried some on Jess the other year when we were trying different shoe solutions for her lameness, we had the Easycare Easyshoe performance glued on, it was a catastrophic fail :( she was instantly crippled in them, the farrier kept saying they have to get used to them and to wait it out, but she couldn't even load her front feet enough to graze, she was so sore. I had the very expensive shoes removed after 10 days and she was visibly relieved to have them off. When removed I noticed there were several big globs of now hard glue between the shoe and foot, some pressing into her already sore heels, her frog and sole, in my mind this is what made her so sore and was an application error. I have been debating trying again with glue on's but getting someone very experienced and very skilled at applying them is critical to them working IMO, I expect fitting nail on's is probably more akin to fitting normal shoes and most general farriers skill areas, so perhaps that is a simpler option.

Another friend has recently put her pony in Imprints. The pony went down with lami, had 10 and 11 degrees rotation and soles only 5mm thick. There was instant comfort improvement with the imprints and 4 rounds on the rotation is now corrected and shes up to 15mm of sole, so a great success for her.

I've heard good things about the duplo shoes, and also about eponas, easyshoes, glushu, pegasos....theres certainly lots of options :)
 
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These are the pics of YO's horses pads. Apparently he has one leg shorter, so our farrier, who's very good at remedial shoeing suggested it, and it works really well. Probably not relevant here though!Screenshot_20190822-151015_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20190822-151056_Gallery.jpg
 
These are the pics of YO's horses pads. Apparently he has one leg shorter, so our farrier, who's very good at remedial shoeing suggested it, and it works really well. Probably not relevant here though!View attachment 99526View attachment 99527
Thanks @Huggy, that's really interesting. What round feet he has too! I have no idea whether it's relevant or not - I don't think Raf has one short leg but I'm sure that's not all they're used for. So good that your farrier has found a solution to keeping the horse comfortable and sound.
 
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