Making sure your horse’s shoes are well-shod means they’ll be comfortable and a good fit. Here are three things to bear in mind.
1. When your horse is stood square and on level ground, look at his front feet.
Both hooves should look as though they’re the same length and the coronary bands should be parallel to the floor. Then look at the back feet for the same signs.
2. Pick up each foot and examine the shoe.
It should be smooth with no kinks or bumps, and nicely rounded towards the front.
Pointed shoes are never a good sign and will impact on your horse’s break-over moment.
3. Look at your horse’s heels on his fore feet.
Every horse is different, but as a general rule if his heels are upright, his shoes will need to stick out less at the back of his heels won’t need as much support as a horse with an under-run heel.
However, heel support on the back feet tends to be different, as this is where the horse gets hid speed and power from.
To help with this, your farrier may leave more shoe sticking out the back of the foot to better support the heel, in turn helping him with his
