Newly shod - when to ride?

tiga

tiga

New Member
Oct 29, 2007
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Brighton, East Sussex
Today Izzy is having fronts shoes put on. He has been barefoot for a couple of years but has had shoes on previously. He is having fronts as we are now doing more hacking and it is quite stony in places.

When is it okay to ride him? Should I give him a day or so to get used to his new shoes or does it make no difference?

Thanks
 
rockymountain said:
My Vet has given me some bute to give my horse the day before the shoeing the day of the shoeing and the next day. also to go easy at first and build up to a long ride. Not to ride for two days afterwards.
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Im really surprised at this. My farrier said dont worry about it, they'll sort it out, just go get on with it though obviously you wouldnt go out for a 4 hour hack that day. Rosie had been barefoot for about a year. I would be happy to pottle about that day, if she had just been shod.
 
I am shocked that your vet thought you would need to bute your horse up to get shod! If my horse needed painkillers I would either not be puting shoes on it or looking for a new farrier. The main issue I would think would be the horse getting used to the feel and balance of shoes but I shouldn't have thought it would take much time for that. Afterall we whip hoofboots on them and off we go without much thought.
 
Play it by ear, if he seems 'footy' then let him adjust, if he's walking out and seems fine then get on with it. Horses are a lot more adaptable than what we give them credit for most of the time.

But as an owner of an incredibly poor footed TB I know that sometimes I have to Bute after a shoeing. Getting nails in to his feet was always a nightmare, he had literally no hoof wall. I did eventually find out if I turned him out after shoeing, he'd walk off any discomfort whereas if I stabled/put him to bed after shoeing he was really sore in the mornings - I always shoe at the beginnnig of the day so he can go out and walk off as much as possible to avoid the Bute.
 
have you asked your farrier about using slims? they are a finer nail for horses prone to being a bit footy after shoeing. I use them on Frances' horse who has very thin, but incredibly strong walls.
 
Are you replying to me, Wally? If so, he has racing plates/alloy shoes with tiny nails now so not actually 'slims', or are they? - has done for a good while. This is when we finally started seeing improvement as his feet weren't being ripped to shreds with nail holes. He has now managed to get 'some' sort of hoof walls (albeit very thin, like Frances' horse). He has to have them nailed really quite low down which isn't ideal I know but, if they get too high, that's when it poses a problem with soreness/footyness.

Summer is always a bigger problems for us than winter. They dry out big time :(
 
No I was answering the OP! :) But what you say does make perfect sense,

Jay.O your nails will be tiny because you are needing to nail down so low, the smaller/shorter the nail the better, (in theory but they need to fit the shoe nail holes too) but you can get "slims" in all sizes. I use no.3 slims on Hákon, but no.2 ordinary width nails on the Shetlands because their feet can take the heftier nail.
 
martini55 said:
I am shocked that your vet thought you would need to bute your horse up to get shod! If my horse needed painkillers I would either not be puting shoes on it or looking for a new farrier. The main issue I would think would be the horse getting used to the feel and balance of shoes but I shouldn't have thought it would take much time for that. Afterall we whip hoofboots on them and off we go without much thought.
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Have to say I was horrified to read that also - but maybe there is a particular reason for rockymountain's horse to need this?? Id like to think so - if not, well bless my soul!!!:frown:
 
You should be able to ride your horse straight away after it has been shod.

If you cannot (and I'm not suggesting that is the case, I understand you are just asking the question 'how soon can I ride') there is something wrong and you need to discuss it with your farrier as otherwise he may not be aware that the horse is sore.

Either way, ask your farrier, it's his job and most of them don't bite.

The answer is the same for a bf trim btw (assuming there is no underlying problem). i.e. Q. "how soon can I ride?" A. "As soon as I've put his foot down"
 
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