Tried a wider toe clip on a tricky horse last Thursday and got weird results

I had this one horse that kept losing shoes on the left front, no matter what I did. So I decided to try a wider toe clip to give it more stability, thinking that was the obvious fix. Well, the shoe held on great but the horse started tripping like crazy on that foot for about 3 days. Turns out the extra clip changed how the hoof broke over at the toe, and it threw off his whole stride. I ended up going back to a standard clip but set it a little farther back from the toe, and that solved both problems. Has anyone else had a clip placement backfire like that on a specific gait issue?

2 comments

2 Comments

max_ross18d ago

Tried something similar on a client's mare that had a funny hitch in her right front. Stuck a wider toe clip on and she stumbled so bad for two days she nearly went down in the paddock. Felt like an idiot watching her struggle with my "fix." Ended up going back to a regular clip and just trimming the toe a hair shorter instead. Sometimes you outsmart yourself trying to be clever.

laurac9618d ago

Oh man, that's brutal. Sometimes simple really is better.