Norman was scheduled for a trimming yesterday and our farrier pointed out that he didn't really need it. It's a small fortune to have a draft trimmed ($50 without shoes) so that was cool. What an honest guy. He did trim up some uneven edges and only charged ten bucks, and he took the time to explain how winged edges effect soundness and how to tell exactly when a horse needs to be trimmed. I luffs him.
I was also pleasantly surprised when he said that Norman has exceptional feet.
Usually the drafts you see at shows have huge, square shoes that are heavy and make the horse lift his feet higher. The farrier told us that horses shod like that usually have arthritis by age six. Now I know why the horses I see at the fair have such hideous feet. And I thought draft people were generally decent folks. :( Just goes to show where the horse world is going.
The very sad fact is; most drafts do not have good feet because they are not cared for very well. Hitch horses probably are as bad as most Amish. I have seen them filled in with
ReplyDeletebondo to fit the shoe. If all that mess were cut off, their feet would be half that size. I had Percherons. My mares had excellent feet but they were well maintained most of their lives. We only had to keep flares under contol. The pair of geldings were a different story. At one point, Bobby broke a huge hunk of hoof off(he was rather an ass) that took months to grow back in. They were not shod, any of them. We started trimming the foals at about 2 months just to practice and they had great feet.