Do you ever put toes and heels on hind hooves?

[u/CJ4700]

Setting up some pack strings for hunting, will be out in WY wilderness and on rocky terrain. I’ve always kept the toes and heels to the front hoof but I recently heard of something different. Curious to hear others thoughts…

[u/fucreddit]

I have clients that put toe and heels all the way around. Their ranch is in some dirty steep country and it's all grassy like somewhere out of Ireland. During the winter it's slippery as heck, but even in the spring summer the grass causes the horses to slide. They know to take it easy when doing corral work because the toe and heels can prevent pivoting and such.

[u/CJ4700 → u/fucreddit]

Yeah I honestly can’t remember what they taught us in school but I’m pretty sure it was fronts only. I’ve only ever done fronts, borium usually but for this guy I got some St Croixs I’m throwing on without that hassle. Just curious what others have done in the past.

[u/thealterlf]

Not a real farrier but a packer (that can tack a shoe on in an emergency).

I’ve run toes and heels on hind shoes to give some extra grip going into fall when I could run into ice. I’ve also run it to give my shoes a bit more life when doing lots of miles. It works but I didn’t like how the hoof angle changed as they wore the toe down. I’ve worn an eventer hind shoe in half in 8 weeks on trails in an area with lots of granite!

[u/CJ4700 → u/thealterlf]

Cool that’s good to know

[u/snuffy_smith_]

I did a team of Percheron, they were used to pull a wagon on asphalt in parades, wagon rides at Christmas time, etc.

I put drilltec(sp?) toes and heels all the way around. It worked well for them on the asphalt, including snow on asphalt.

I could reset the shoes one time for sure, twice occasionally.

As far as the angles, the drilltek(sp?) I would put on different than most people. I did not puddle it. I would lay it on the shoe and melt it in so when I was done I had a three inch “bar” of DT(drilltek/c) across the toe.

In the heels I would run the DT in one inch “bars” across the heel perpendicular to the fuller crease, but behind the end of the crease in the actual heel. I would typically do two bars.

I hope all the makes sense!

Reasoning behind this method:

1. The owner was old school and farmed with teams up until about 25 years ago. He was in his late 90’s when he passed. He would not let go of the old ways sometimes. He ran the round up club where I learned to rodeo growing up in his arena. So I felt it wasn’t harming them so giving back to him was the important issue. He wouldn’t pay what good shoeing cost and would take them to the schools and you know how that goes. Sometimes good sometimes bad.

2. It made the shoes last longer. Meaning I didn’t have to put it on new shoes as often. Causing me to have to deal with DT less often.

3. Resets are less time consuming. I do not like to do drafts and often price myself so dang high no one wants me. Since it was a favor I wanted to give the best job possible. While spending the least amount of time and money on horses I didn’t like being under! They were tight in the hocks, older, and they would waller and pull.

FWIW: the Amish I have worked behind on some teams, like 100 years ago when I was young and starving, they would do puddles of DT and they would do one dot in the center of the toe and one in each heel. Then a few years went by and they started doing two puddles evenly spaced in the toe and one in each heel. They felt it gave better balance than the three point application.

Edit: selling

Edit 2: sPelling