Hi all,

I have got a question. What is better; cold or hot shoes? Also I mean if the blacksmith have got ready-made shoes and only fit them or if he make special shoes for every horse? I hope you understand what I mean,

Reiterin

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English isn't my native language, so please don't wounder about all my faults.

Personally I always have my horse hot-shod. Farriers are meant to make the shoe fit the hoof, not the hoof fit the shoe, & unless the shoe is heated it can't be shaped as accurately. A friend of mine had her horse cold-shod recently & the difference was obvious, his feet didn't look right, they were poorly balanced, caused him to fire into his opposite hinds with his feet & he wasn't tracking up nicely. To top it off, I pay £65 for a full set hot-shod, she payed £75 for a crappy 30 min cold shoeing job which left her horse uncomfortable.

yes, I preffer to hot shoes, too. It's only that we have got no blacksmith in our stable (every person have got another one of 3 ones) wich does hot-shod. So if I want hot shoes I have to pay the call-out fee. But ofcourse that's not the matter. I have to find a good one, too. At what things I can see that a blacksmith is a good one? And what is better, to have got shoes at every hoof or only at the front hoofs?

hope you can help me,

Reiterin

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English isn't my native language, so please don't wounder about all my faults.

Most farriers are well trained & conscientious, they would lose their business if they weren't any good but some are better than others. I chose my farrier & stuck with him as he has improved my horse's feet (his fronts were very dissimilar to each other, now they are a pair!), is reliable & treats my horse nicely. In the past I have had farriers that didn't have a lot of patience & one even kicked my horse hard in the gut for not doing what he wanted him to As for shoeing in front only, it depends on the horse & what you do with him really, I have tried just putting fronts on my boy but he was uncomfortable behind so has to have a full set. If you do a lot of roadwork or riding on rough tracks then he will probably require shoes all round, if you do dressage for instance & your horse spends all his time in the field or on a school surface you could probably do without shoes altogether. Also the breed of the horse should be taken into account, a native pony or cob type usually have strong, hard, concave feet, something like my Thoroughbred ex racer is more likely to have poor, flat feet. I think farriery practices here (UK) & on the continent do differ slightly, over here hot shoeing is pretty much the standard for most farriers (except racing yards etc).

thanks.

I think I let her with only at the front hoofs. And I think that I will chose a Farrier wich does hot-shod. Even if he is more expensive as a Farrier with does it cold.
The problem is that not every Farrier is a good one. My last one trimed the hoofs so much that one of them started to blooding. And I think a good one knows how much he should have to trim.
If you have god any tips about what I have to look at I would be happy if you tell me them.

Ps. I know that this text have got very wrong grammar and vocabulary in it, but I don't know how I else should say it.

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English isn't my native language, so please don't wounder about all my faults.

It shouldnt make a difference my farrier takes longer to cold shoe.

I cant hot shoe mine unless you want to get dragged around the yard.


Costs me no difference. Never had a problem them staying on, being unbalanced.

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