What is the biggest challenge you face in your shoeing business:

pricing

scheduling

getting paid

stocking your truck

finding time to learn new things

dealing with irrational client behaviour

something else?

M/L Balance - the answers from captains of our industry - 2, Bill Poor

Hi,
Would you mind to give some very brief answers to the questions below to be shared with others on Farriers Online? I will take special care that you being the author is clearly stated and copyright indicated.
1.How do you hold the leg and look at a front and a hind foot to asess medio-lateral balance?
2. Is your guideline for level the skeleton (e.g. X-rays) or the outside of the hoof capsule?
3.What is the most important thing to remember about medio-lateral balance?
Thanks
Balazs

Bill Poor:

1.

Hold the leg loosely and let it relax with your weak hand and look at the foot with your dominant eye and check for level, medio-lateral balance.

2. 

Everything comes from the coffin bone; as far as level the hoof capsule: well move and shape to the weight of the horse and how he is landing flat or not or just ware.

3.

Most important you can't fix every horse so try to make him sound the best you can and if it ain't broken don't fix it!

 

M/L Balance - the answers from captains of our industry - 1, Chris Gregory

       

Hi,
Would you mind to give some very brief answers to the questions below to be shared with others on Farriers Online? I will take special care that you being the author is clearly stated and copyright indicated.
1.How do you hold the leg and look at a front and a hind foot to asess medio-lateral balance?
2. Is your guideline for level the skeleton (e.g. X-rays) or the outside of the hoof capsule?
3.What is the most important thing to remember about medio-lateral balance?
Thanks
Balazs

Chris Gregory

Hi Balazs. I guess you don't have my book. You can see it at www.heartlandhorseshoeing.com, and it answers those questions very in depth.

For #1, I evaluate mediolateral balance on the front foot by holding the cannon bone with my outside hand, my head against the ribs, and allow the foot to rest. I then compare the plane on the bottom of the foot with the axis of the cannon bone and pastern bones. What I do with the balance then depends on whether I am trimming to the long axis or the short axis. For the hind foot, I evaluate balance by looking at the foot on level ground from in front of the leg. The reciprocal apparatus prevents us from seeing the bottom of the hind foot in a weight bearing position, and the bending of the digit around the fetlock makes it impossible to evaluate mediolateral balance in the air.

For #2. The hoof capsule tells you a lot by looking at wear, distortion and flare, position of bulbs, frog, coronet, etc. However, x-rays often show that what we see on the hoof capsule is not always telling the truth about the position of the coffin bone. I tend to judge the foot from the outside more than anything since most of the time I am shoeing without x-rays.

For #3. The most important part of balance is to be able to put all of the pieces together and look at each foot as an individual. There are a lot of times where a foot must be trimmed to accommodate the way the limb loads, even when some of the landmarks on the bottom of the foot would have you trim it differently. Balance is a whole-horse issue when it comes to trimming, not just a hoof issue.

Hope this helps.
Chris

Is Your Horse Balanced?

Blue Mountain Centre's website offers you a guide to answer this question yourself.

equine hoof care & rehabilitation centre

 

The Centre had it's official launch day on the 13th of November. The official flyer about the launch and also the Centre can be found at Google Docs (you might have to sign in).

Farriers Online is planning regular updates about the activities of this new facility. Your comments are most welcome if you were one of the lucky ones who attended the launch event.

Our very own Rodney King in Rood and Riddle video on youtube

We continue to be proud of you Rodney.

Great Advice From David Hankin

Reading up on farriery can be a very time consuming project. Therefore I am always out for little gems of advice to share.
Well, this one from David Hankin is easy on the eye but has some valuable thoughts on how to manage horse-feet in lean times...

The moment of truth...

This is our first effort at creating a survey, please support our effort in creating relevant information for both farriers and clients.

Click here to take our survey Thank you!

A sneak peak into old forges

The "standard screw-in studded front shoe" was the prescribed front shoe in the Royal Hungarian Army. It's design was based on the Austro-Hungarian (K und K) design. The shoes were forged using the help of a striker in a bottom swedge, one branch at a time.

I am waiting for some replies from friends to provide you with exact bibliographic information on the textbook (Dr Mihaly Horvath: Horseshoeing science.) and also looking at finding more data on the development of the standardized shoeing prescriptions in the armies of the past. If you have any relevant data to this subject please email me so we can share it with everybody.




 
It is always interesting to see what our fore-bearers did. I will be following the tracks of the farriers of the last 300 hundred years in the next 12 months. I hope it will be interesting for many farriers and horse owners.

Any content suggestions are welcome at farriersonline@gmail.com.