Took me 6 hours to figure out why that mare kept pulling shoes

New client called me out to a barn in Woodinville. Said her mare loses a shoe every 3 weeks like clockwork. I checked everything - angles, balance, even the clips. Took me 3 visits before I noticed she was dragging her hind toes because of a stifle issue the vet had missed. Simple fix once I saw it. Anyone else run into a horse that made you feel like you forgot how to read a hoof?

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alicesingh3mo ago

Oh man, I feel your pain. In my experience, it's almost never the obvious stuff. I had a gelding once that kept throwing shoes on his left front about every two and a half weeks. Drove me crazy for a whole month. Finally noticed he always loaded his weight weird when I was rasping that foot. Turned out he had a mild shoulder strain that made him land toe-first to avoid pain. A few weeks of hand-walking and a simple wedge pad while it healed, and the shoe stayed on like glue. Your mileage may vary, but horses are amazing at hiding pain in weird ways. A stifle issue is a sneaky one, I would have probably missed that too for a bit.

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barbaraw473mo ago

Not sure I'd jump straight to a stifle issue from one thrown shoe. Horses lose shoes for all kinds of dumb reasons - wet ground, a bad trim, even just the horse being clumsy. Unless you're seeing other signs like uneven movement or stiffness, it's probably just bad luck. I've had horses that would toss a shoe because the farrier nicked the wall wrong.

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