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Carl's Tips

Shoeing Horses that hit their Knees, Shins, Pasterns or Cross Fire

Starting with the horse that hits his knees we need to observe how the horse stands whether he stands toed in or toed out, whether has a narrow chest or whether he stands base narrow.  Horses that stand toed in (or pigeon toed as it is often referred) very rarely touch their knees, (although I have shod many horses with this stance that brush their knee boots), these particular horses I dress their feet level and shoe them with a square-toed shoe.

When the horse stands turned out (or like Charlie Chaplain) you will find that these particular horses are the worst type to try and help as sometimes there will only be the one leg that is turned out, and that will be the one that hits the opposite knee.  I have had the most success with these types of problems by letting the horse mature as he develops more muscle and matures he can generally handle the problem much better. When shoeing the horse with this problem I generally lower the hoof on the inside toe whilst keeping the heels level then fit a square toed shoe with the shoe protruding over the outside toe, you will probably need to fit spreaders or go straits so as to help your horse get his confidence.

I have also had success with putting heaver shoes on the front feet fitting them the same as I explained in my previous paragraph, the main thing to be aware of is that the horse needs to be hitting right on the point of the knee and not hitting on his shins or splint bone as the extra weight will make him fold his hoof behind the knee and cause him to hit much worse. The main reason for the extra weight is to give the horse more knee action and that will bring his hoof above the knee where there is a lot less for him to hit.

Sometimes you will need to lift the second carrier strap a couple of holes because the horse will sometimes scrape the bottom of his hopples.

Horses that stand straight and hit there knees are generally not as much of a problem to correct, as they generally only need to be lowered a little on the outside toe and shod with a light steel or Aluminium shoe. If your horse continues to hit after you have done what I have suggested then fit a square-toed shoe and this will generally fix the problem.

When a horse drives through and hits the opposite shin on the splint bone with his opposite front hoof you will find that he generally has a straight pastern angle and is a daisy cutting type pacer. These horses need to be kept short and shod with a square toe that protrudes over the outside toe of the hoof, the reason for this is to give the horse more control over how he leaves the ground and stops the horse from turning his hoof in to-wards the shin on leaving the ground, I have found it best to lower the hoof just a little on the inside toe because when these types of horses are lowered on the outside toe they immediately hit their shins much worse.

Horses that hit their front pasterns with their hind feet are a major worry as they are generally horses that have enormous ability. I have found that the heavier shoe that you put on the hind feet of these types of horses the more they hit, I have had the best results by shoeing these horses level or a little lower on the outside toe and putting a very light shoe on the hind feet with a small cog on the outside heel. If this is not sufficient I then put a diamond-toed shoe with a cog on the hind feet, the reason for the diamond toe is to stop the horse hitting with the steel of the shoe as the hoof.