Eli has now tossed his left front shoe twice and his right front shoe once. This has led to me not being able to ride him at all, and a lot of days of missed turnout for him. This is all in the space of less than two weeks.
Other than they are bar shoes and Eli likes to grab his heels, I have no idea why they are coming off so easily. It looks like he is literally just stepping out of them, leaving all the nails in tact in the shoe.
Once he gets his left front tacked back on again, he’s going to be on a slightly modified turnout schedule that means less time outside and no turnout right next to another horse. I am not actually sure how much that will help, though, especially if he is going out after a few days of no turnout due to no shoe — he’s going to run around regardless of which turnout he’s in. He should be able to run around! It makes me think he just can’t wear bar shoes, but I don’t know what other options we have yet. (I plan to find out soon.)
I may buy some hoof boots, but that’s not ideal considering they wouldn’t do much to support his low heels. I’d have to fit wedge pads in the hoof boots, I guess? I’d like to just ditch the bars entirely, because Eli has never pulled off shoes like this before. I am starting to feel really bad for him because he’s stuck in a stall until the farrier tacks a shoe back on and all he is doing is being a normal horse in turnout.
I also just bought him a new heavyweight turnout blanket because his current heavyweight blanket is a stable blanket with no shoulder gussets, but he went outside in it once anyway. It’s so disgusting now I don’t even want it on him again until I get it cleaned. But with a heavyweight turnout blanket, he won’t need the stable blanket.
yikes if he never threw shoes before I would have to think the bar shoes are the culprit that sucks! At least it looks clean and not like he is ripping half his hoof off but still….
Horses…and it is so expensive for farriers work that that sucks too having them back out so often.
Eli BEHAVE for your mom.
What heavy blanket brand did you go with?
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If he tosses one again, I will confer with the vet on what other options we have.
I wound up getting this one from Dover: https://www.doversaddlery.com/riders-intl-plaid-hvywght-to/p/X1-240443/
Inexpensive and since he’s not outside a lot, hopefully he won’t be too hard on it!
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i think i had one like that before and it lasted pretty well for a few seasons!! And I bet it is pretty on him…..
Crazy glue those suckers on? HA HAHA
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Two paddocks over?? That’s impressive!
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I have not figured out how he does that with a front shoe. The paddocks aren’t super large or anything, but it’s still a good ways away.
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A farrier I used to use in Texas would actually cast shoes onto a foot. When there was a ton of horrid rain, horses were pulling shoes left and right as their feet cracked horribly. Even Amber threw a shoe, and she’s never done that in all the years I’ve had her. So he got some casting material, tacked on the shoe (only 2 nails since the feet were so bad – I don’t think Eli has this problem) and then proceeded to wrap the whole hoof + shoe in the cast. Amber lasted 2 weeks (her paddock was by a pond so 3 guesses why it didn’t last too long) and one mare lasted about 10 weeks so she could grow hoof back. Maybe that’s an option for Eli?
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I am not sure if that is an option or not. His feet are typical TB feet, but mostly in decent shape. I am going to buy a set of hoof boots, though, in case this keeps happening!
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That is frustrating. Have you seen the work of Emily Cole? She captures these sorts of things in a really cute way. This one made me think of you: (http://www.emily-cole.com/store/p185/%27101_Expensive_and_Inconvenient_things_to_do%27_Greeting_Card__.html). Irish used to lose shoes all the time, even in bell boots. He has low heels and poor hoof quality so it was like he sneezed and they came off. My farrier uses alumunium shoes that are wedged shaped to supprt his heels. They work really well.
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Yes, I have seen her illustrations and they are pretty cute! Eli actually had an aluminum wedge on before the pads and bars, and I am about to start campaigning hard for him to go back to that. It would not address his thinned soles, but Venice turpentine is not hard to use and it worked well on a different horse I owned a while back for basically the same issues.
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Badger was a king shoe puller, which is what lead to his needing most of the summer off the year I owned him… What finally worked for him was using a pair of pull on bell boots with a pair of the pro choice ones over top of those. He still pulled shoes on occasion (pulled one in his stall once…) but much less frequently with the double bells.
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I am wondering if the double bell boot strategy might help! If he’s not in bar shoes, we don’t really have this problem. But maybe layering the bell boots would keep him from grabbing the bar shoes with his hinds. I should ask about squaring up the hind toes, too.
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