SHOEING SESSION FOR DEC 03  update 6/2/04

Our new shoer arrived for his second session at doing our herd. The last time he only did the older non workers. We put 3 in the EQUIFLEX shoes on all four. The shoes stayed on in all the mud here in TN. 

We reset all three.

The old mare (FASHA-26) had about 40 miles of work. Easy going rides. She has been going so well in these shoes and Mike has  her balanced very correct.  I am thinking about working her back in shape for and easy LD this year.

The 'young' mare (FAME-21) had about 50 miles of work on her set. She is not really sound enough for rides any more, old shoulder injury. She is a real fun horse to ride and loves to go.  So I will keep her in shoes and ride her for fun and some camping rides this summer.

The old gelding (  MAGIC-29)  is going like was still 10, but then he always went that way. Carol is riding him some. I think he may have about 20-30 miles of work on these shoes.

Our workers were shod the last time by Jaye Perry. They both had some issues from previous shoeing. It was time too reset them. Omni had the EQUIFLEX shoes on the front. Jaye decided he would do better in them. Since I am not able to haul to Jaye all the time nor is he able to come here, I decided to let Mike do the boys.

We put both in Equiflex on all four. Omni has to have a 2 degree wedge in the hind. The EQUIFLEX is not a degree shoe nor do they have one. Mike modified a degree wedge pad to fit on the EQUIFLEX.  The shoes have been on for 2 weeks. Omni is going great in these shoes. It takes awhile for them to figure out they will not slide on the hard/stone roads. He will trot along just fine. Around here I have a few miles of hard roads to travel and had to go slow and work the shoulders as much as possible. It was just not a sensible or safe thing to do. Using these shoes we can now work the sides of the roads with ease.

I will see how Omni and Raz go along with these shoes as we start the conditioning miles. I plan on keeping him in this shoe all year.  Carol has not ridden RAZ yet. She will not be doing anymore rides (endurance), has lost interest. But we will be doing  trail rides around here and planning on some horse camping this year.

About the best thing with these shoes - other then no concussion or slipping, is I can reset them  at a ride if I have to. I can shape them with a file/saw. I will carry my shoeing equipment to all the rides and a few pairs of the shoes ready to nail on.

I am NOT going to sell these shoes - way too much stuff to carry with all the sizes and bridges. If you want to try them call direct. 828 645 9128

I do plan on taking a few pairs and flyers to the ECTRA / AERC Conventions in Feb. I will have them on display.

I will upload more pictures to the photo web site soon.

UPDATE 6/2/04 Appears they will not work well with OMNI had way of going issues. He will go back to steel shoes . They just do not work well for ALL horses. It appeared he did OK at first but as we worked him he did not move correctly - short strided and drag his toes. May be due to his problems with side bone and age etc, but the shoe is NOT working now.