Interesting horse shoes

[Bonnie M]

:shock: Look at the shoes this place sells! :shock:

I don't know much about shoes, but I've never seen any like this before.

http://www.shoesbywilhelm.com/Gallary.htm

[reuben T]

"Our shoes have been aero-dynamically designed to prevent wind resistance."



:roll:

[Cindy]

What a bunch of crap.

[Heidi]

:shock: I cannot imagine a situation on a horse's hoof where shoes like most of those pictured would be required! Have I led a sheltered life?
I understand the 'spikes' would be for keeping the shoe on, but some of those raised 'pedal platforms'(?) looked almighty high to me! ...and such odd shapes...

[lisa l aka marci]

WOW! A bunch looked like corrective shoes, I saw what looked like really modified heart-bar shoes, the one with the frog backward is probably used that way - I have heard of shoes being put on 'backward' .....

The ones with the really high-inset 'frogs' with springs.....well.....could they be used with really padded shoes?

One looked like it could be used to either widen or narrow a heel - it had the threaded piece on the back - like a turnbuckle.....

WOW!

I better get dressed for work and look at these more later!

[lisa l aka marci]

Oh gee.....keep reading - look at the pictures and the desciptions/narrative......I hope the shod pictures are AFTER pictures - when the horse is on the way to recovery! Can't quite tell with some though......

[cristy]

it that for real? Some of those shoes look more like torture devices to me! No WAY!!!!!

[Abejita]

and they cant even spell Gallery

[lisa l aka marci]

Before I left for work I started looking more at the website.......and actually, if you look at some of the pictures, you can see that these are EXTREME 'corrective' shoes.......and I say "corrective" - as it looks like they are used to help relieve BAD trim and shoeing jobs - like the uneven front feet because




Horse was left at 46 dg - R, 54dg -L, owner told that all animals must be set at such because all animals have one leg longer than the other - all horses have one shoulder higher than the other and all horses have one hip higher than the other.....lost all front motion.........Set even, motion returned, shoulders loosened and didn't even have to lob off the toes to achieve such.
http://www.shoesbywilhelm.com/image_page/Tips/horse6c.jpg

http://www.shoesbywilhelm.com/image_page/Tips/horse6d.jpg

If you look at the 2nd picture, the pads are of different thickness to even out the angles on the hoof.

I am no farrier, can do a halfway decent job of filing off breaks etc......but to me these look like (for the most part) devices to alleviate man-made problems of the hoof to help the horse be sound until the hoof can repair itself........

Read through the whole site and see if you agree/disagree.......there seems to be a bit of tongue-in-cheek sarcasim there too - about bad farrier jobs......gave me a couple of chuckles!!!

For those of you who whine about getting this (silicone) on your hands and tools, well, this has never been said to be the cleanest job. Paper towels or rubber surgical gloves may help you little girls.
After all, you don't really want to be a (cat) all your life.

Last quote edited for content!

Edited to add.....check the catalog - it helps explain what some of these shoes are for - weighted shoes etc......interesting what you can do to a horses' stride with weights!

[CarolU]

I can see uses for most of them for corrective shoeing, but it sure does boggle your mind how seriously disabled some horses must be to need such correction. This last one with the uneven feet is horendous...what a bunch of BULL that owner was fed. That poor horse! It must have been in terrible pain!

[Terry Wallace]

O.K...now wait a minute!

The hooves & shoes posted....

The horse has underslung heels and practically no heel at all.
This type of pad shoeing has many benefits.

For one thing... getting that horse back in proper bone alignment is the number one concern..so that it CAN get some heel spread going eventually. It takes time to correct that. It takes support to correct that.
Usually it takes extra shoe heel length sticking out behind the rear of the hoof maybe for 1 inch or so... Too bad we cannot see the "whole horse" before & afters to see exactly what was going on...

I have used this exact same type of pad shoeing on a horse with ringbone who also had underslung heels. The padding is for the comfort of the horse (not just hoof but tendon comfort too) as well as for the alignment of the bone column. In the case of the mare we had here..it is to give the joint the chance to FUSE so the horse can eventually return to being sound on that foot. BTW...you cannot just do that to one front foot, you must do both to keep them both lined up.

Differences in thickness and angle of padding is directly related to getting bone alignment and it would not be unusual at all to have one pad thicker or thinner than another as it all depends on how the hoof was to begin with.

Now...there ARE some very strange shoes on that site...but before I could say they were "torture devices" I'd really have to see the application of why such a shoe would be beneficial (or not)...
The spring loaded frog for example...is a very strange set up...but...if you had a club footed horse with no pressure to the frog, who was standing on his "tip toe" and you were attempting to bring the hoof back DOWN into a normal position...it *could* work...I'd have to see it applied. BUT...I could imagine that the frog could be pumped into supplying the hoof with a better blood supply or augmented blood supply to what it would be already getting with the thought toward bringing about desired changes to that hoof

The sharp pointy side calks generally get rounded and shortened when applied to a hoof...It looks like extra material for a farrier to work with.
Most of the shoes look like short-term application corrective type shoes. JMO.

[CarolU]

Terry, what I was talking about was what was done to the horse to cause the uneven feet. Did you read the caption from the site above the pictures? The owner was told by their farrier that hores have one leg longer then the other so he trimed one foot shorter then the other. This was done deliberetly.

It amazes me what CRAP some people spread as gospel.

[Mellifluous]

I noticed that they harsh on the Natural Balance shoes pretty badly. I am not a fan of those either.

There were a bunch of horses in them at the h/j barn I worked at. None of them were sound. My farrier said that he has never pulled them off of a sound horse. He HATES those shoes with a passion.

[Terry Wallace]

CarolU..my comments have nothing to do with yours.... ;-)

I am only speaking of this type of shoe job...and not about what the person was told...

[TrueStepPaso]

I'm not a "fan" of any shoes....as we all know....but I do have to say something in regards to Mel's post...

All farrier's I've encountered seem to "hate" the Natural Balance shoes....they think it's a fad, and want nothing to do with them. And therein lies the problem......
The customers want to try these NB shoes, and they are NOT to be applied as a "regular" shoe, (in fact, if I remember correctly, they are only to be used as a transitional piece to barefoot) and have to have a certain trim at the toe :roll: .......welllllll, the farriers don't know this! And eventually the horses go lame....yet they blame the SHOE. :roll:


Oh, and those shoes on that web page horrify me. Sorry, but they do. :new confused

[Abejita]

well the one that has the piece out the back that has like screws or turnbuckles..That looks kind of like what I had read about being used on a horse that had gotten himself caught in fence and cut all the tendons so bad..well almost cut his foot off..the extra piece on the back was used to connect to a leg brace.

[Red Ryder]

Seems to me all these shoes are for "some type correction" whether from previous farriers, owner neglect or problems, or just pure problems with the horses hoofs no matter what created it.

My guess is that most of these shoes are one of a kind made for special situations,and it's doubtful that one ordered from them will be "exactly" what you need but maybe a great starting point.

From looking at all the different designs I can certainly see possibilities.
I personally would have to withhold comments and judgment until I saw the horse that would need any of these.

I will give them an "E" for effort for being creative to meet special needs.