12 replies to this topic

[Chile]

Since shoes are no longer pulled to measure them, lead is being put between the hoof and the pad. According to my farrier, they will either indent the sole for a lead insert or attach the lead weight to the pad. IMO, cheating like that should be grounds for suspension for life.

[maryjo]

No, they decided to abolish the weight restriction and go with a SIZE restriction instead because of the hassle of weighing shoes, and having to remove them and put them back on and the time it consumed and the delays and of course its hard on the feet having shoes on and off like that. The measurements do help out...the foot can only be SO long and the shoes have to fit within the confines of the measuring gauge to pass and be legal. There is nothing in the rules saying you CANT have these extra pieces on the shoe, but they may change that in the future. It hasn't been necessary as this is a "new" thing. During the steward shadowing I did, the veteran stewards at Canadian Nationals were waiting to see if there would be any presented for the pre-measuring. Most of the barns want to make sure they are within the legal limits, so time is allotted for the shoes to be measured by the stewards before the show. A few shoes like this had to be adjusted as where the welds were on the cross bar they were too thick.

I wondered myself what kind of effect they have on the actual function of the foot... doesn't seem like it would assist in the mechanical function of the horse in any way...mind you adding all that weight and length doesn't either, so that's not really the point.

In any case it was interesting to see!!

I just saw this reply.

Evidently you did not read the resolution that was passed.

It had NOTHING to do with 'hassle' of weighing shoes etc.

Please educate yourself on WHY this resolution passed.

It was purely to come up with a means to allow horses to wear the size shoes they need to wear. We used to be restricted to 14 ounces. Whether your horse wears 00 or 5.

So now horses can be shod with shoes big enough.

Are there people overdoing it? You bet. But we had people 'overdoing' the size before by short shoeing.

The LENGTH restriction is still 4 1/2 for purebreds, 5" for half Arabians.

[Hoofhaven]

I re-stated what I was told by the stewards at the stewarding clinic that was held at Canadian National in Regina last year when these types of shoes were first appearing. If you want to tear someone's head off, go after the officials who gave ME the information WHILE I was paying for a course in order to "educate myself"