bar shoes/wedges??

lauren123

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2007
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East Yorkshire
Just curious really if anyone has ever tried heart bars? Or wedges?
It's something that is suggested every now and again in soxs case and I am slowly coming around to the idea of at least considering them.

Good? Or bad reviews.

I get the whole idea of wedges but I guess I am slightly... weary. Of doing so as having tried pads/fillers etc before it hasnt worked/made no difference and cost me £110 quid when he wasn't in work!
 
I think they have a place for specific problems, but no reputable farrier would use them unless needed.
 
Ive used a bar shoe for a pedal bone fracture to help stop the foot from splaying whilst healing. Just googled to see the difference between a bar and a heart bar. A heart bar shoe looks to have a more pointy bit in the middle, which might provide support under the frog I guess. not a clue about a wedge.
 
My RI had heart bars on her big mare (16.2, big boned, dinner plate hooves). She had intermittent lameness on her fores which vet and farrier couldn't resolve. Specialist shoeing kept her in light work i.e. hacking for 1-2 years, but she was never up to much more and although it helped it didn't solve. The mare's now a field ornament.
 
Joe had bar shoes when he damaged his suspensory and his fetlock was dropping. My farrier told me they weren't ideal if he was going to go anywhere. But he was on box rest so it didn't apply. The vet worked with the farrier to come up with them. In the end nothing worked but, they had to try. Has someone suggested for Sox then?
 
Joe had bar shoes when he damaged his suspensory and his fetlock was dropping. My farrier told me they weren't ideal if he was going to go anywhere. But he was on box rest so it didn't apply. The vet worked with the farrier to come up with them. In the end nothing worked but, they had to try. Has someone suggested for Sox then?

Oh yes! The vet suggested them a while ago but my farrier at the time wasn't keen on them as he felt once you started to use them types of shoes there was no going back. He prefered to use pads etc so we did for a number of shoeing we tried different pads etc but some made him worse and other showed no improvement. That was when the vet suggested to take his shoes off as he is 'lame with them he won't be any lamer without them!

I just feel it's a lot. It was a huge thing to take a tb especially sox completely barefoot.
 
Navicular/soft tissue injury. Horse currently barefoot

One of my horses is foundered with old tendon injuries. He has been barefoot since 2012.

Half way thru 2015 he slowly started back sliding because the farrier wasn't "seeing" what the hooves needed.

November, 2016 my vet had me being the horse to the clinic for his farrier to shoe the fronts.

They put aluminum full rocker shoes on the horse and for the first time since May, 2012, the horse is rideable for light hacks.

They also use these full rocker aluminum shoes on a two year old QH with the worst case of navicular on BOTH fronts they have ever seen.

The aluminum rocker shoes were designed by Ric Redden, an American equine podiatrist. He does overseas consultations with the vet and/or farrier. All the information is on the NANRIC web site, if you're interested in researching.
 
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That's very interesting Lollykay, and I'm glad you weren't one of the people so obsessed with barefoot that they wouldn't consider shoeing. While barefoot can work well for some I don't like the often held opinion that it's the only answer - sometimes facilities or the horse mean shoes are needed & like you I know first hand that a god farrier fitting a well thought out shoe to a correctly trimmed foot can literally be a life saver. My experience is more laminitis based & I can honestly say my farrier got Jim years he wouldn't otherwise have had & has got my badly rotated welsh cob so sound that he's now fit enough to be quite a handful.

First priority has to be to get a horse comfortable which means correctly balanced & supported. If that can't be done in a reasonable time frame without shoes then look to shoes. Don't expect them to work miracles though, even the best farrier can't work miracles if he doesn't see the horse often enough or if an agreed plan isn't worked to. I find it interesting that people will put a lot of effort into barefoot yet think that once shoes are on they needn't do anything.
 
That's very interesting Lollykay, and I'm glad you weren't one of the people so obsessed with barefoot that they wouldn't consider shoeing.
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Not at all, lol. I was a die hard, go where there wasn't a trail, trail rider. My heart horse always wore shoes. While I could ride the other ones barefoot, they got shoes if I had company coming and knew we would be doing some serious riding.

I had a pretty bad accident in 2006 that left me with really bad vertigo. I wasn't able to look up to see what was on the overhead shelf in the closet without passing out. That meant no riding therefore no need for shoes.

I had kept my own horses trimmed, off and on over the years, but had to give that up and have the farrier trim them.

It got to where the farrier didn't "see" what he was doing with my foundered horse's hooves and the hooves slowly started to regress and he rotated again.

I showed pictures to my vet, who is a leg/hoof specialist. He's known my horses since 2007. When I saw his face slowly turn purple, I knew I had better do as he said and bring the horse to the clinic, lollol

Those aluminum full rocker shoes are the greatest thing since peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But it's crucial to keep the vet involved, as I have learned. If the vet is standing over the farrier and taking X-rays before and after a re-set, the farrier shouldn't be able to screw things up. I have witnessed my vet order the farrier to take the shoes back off and shave more off here or there.

The farrier learned to just tack the shoes on before the X-rays, in case he has to pull them off again, lol

It's nothing short of a miracle that my horse is able to be lightly ridden. I will never take him off the property but we have fencing that ranges from 300 feet long to nearly 1/8th mile so I can ride him "on the rail", so-to-speak. Now if I can just find the time --- I am retired and I'm pretty sure New Years Day was only two weeks ago. Mom always said to not wish my life away because the older one gets, the faster time goes, lol

Here's the link to the shoes, if you care to read. He does do overseas consultations.

http://www.nanric.com/when_to_use_the_rocker_shoe.html
 
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