hello, this is my question: last time the farrier came by was on april´s 14, and i have a championship next week, it will start on may´s 14, should i call the farrier and tell him to come by and put new shoes to my mare before the competition?? i really dont know if its necesary, what do you think will be best: should i leave his shoes on, or should i get him new shoes? because it has only been 23 days since the farrier came. How frequently should the shoes be changed? thank you, sorry about my english.
Hi....
Somewhere I missed answering this question, but its an excellent question to answer although your show has just
gotten over.
I do not reset shoes just for a specific event unless I see something wrong with the shoe. If you are only 23 days out
of shoeing that would be basically 3 weeks. I would say you would be perfect on those shoes for your event actually.
I like to have a shoe "broke in"....before a run. I do not like shoeing a horse at an event and then going in and making
a run due to the amount of fresh steel on the shoe. Shoes on horses are no different than shoes on our feet. It takes
alittle bit to break them in and make them feel right. A horse will wear a shoe a certain way that the steel shoe will "break
over" in the right places and start to show wear according to how a horse actually travels. I feel that in order to compete
at the horse's best level that little bit of wear is necessary to make the horse feel his most comfortable.
In my opinion the only common reason to reset a horse before a big show is if you see obvious signs of a shoe slipping from the nails
not holding, or if you notice a week out from your show you see the obvious signs of a foot that has grown ultra fast and
looks much longer in the toe than it normally would. I reset my horses every 6 weeks as a guideline and know what a 6
week growth on a hoof is supposed to look like for that particular horse. Keep a close eye as your farrier shoes your horses
and you will become more comfortable about making that decision should it arise.
Hope you had a great show. And thanks for your question.
Laura Schumann
Laura's Ladder To Success Barrel Clinics
"I BELIEVE" TOUR 2009
