Tried a grooved shoe on a foundered mare last month and it backfired big time

I put a set of grooved natural balance shoes on a 12 year old Quarter Horse with mild founder in the fronts. Figured the extra traction would help her roll over easier, but she started tripping on flat ground after 3 days. Anybody else see weird stuff when changing up shoe patterns like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

faithbaker1mo ago

Tried grooved shoes on a foundered mare myself a few years back and man did it go sideways fast. She was doing fine on soft ground but the second she hit any gravel or packed dirt she was stumbling like a baby deer. The grooves seemed to grab at every little rock instead of letting her foot slide natural-like. Ended up pulling them after a week and went back to flats with just a rolled toe. Sometimes you think more traction equals better but these horses just want to walk normal.

harper_gibson21mo ago

Three years ago I put grooved shoes on my own foundered gelding, and they worked fine. The trick is getting the depth right - my farrier cut them shallow, maybe 2mm deep, not those deep chunk grooves. That mare might have had grooves too deep for gravel. @faithbaker, I bet the issue was more about groove depth than the shoe type itself.