[vthorseshoe]

John Hayden’s animals in the video and on channel 3’s program are Canadians.

I have been trimming and shoeing them in the past for a number of years.

He also has a good looking colt out of one of the mares that he will be putting in harness this year.

John has even plowed his driveway of snow in the winter with this team.

Nice job Carl. Very well done.

Bruce Matthews
http://www.nedrafthorseshoeing,com

[vthorseshoe]

As Carl and Jason stated so well, shoeing for them is for traction.

horses should have shoe’s put on for specific reasons not put on because your neighbor has them or your grandfather did it.

1. traction.
a. pulling logs or loads
b. pulling wagons or equipment
c. parades or hay rides on pavement
d. prevent slipping on ice

2. protection from wearing hoof wall away on abrasive surfaces

3. sore footed
4. hospital plate to protgect foot while being treated for wound or infection.

5. corrective shoeing
a. splits/cracks
b.enhance an animals way of moving
c. raise foot off ground to prevent abcess caused by stones and flat soles.

Hi Jason !!! Haven’t seen you since I spoke with you at Paul Smith College.
Hope all is well with you.
Still have your suffolks ?

Bruce
http://www.nedrafthorseshoeing.com
vthorseshoe@aol.com

[vthorseshoe]

Hello and I appoligize for being absent from this site for a few months.
It has been a busy season for me and I am now heading a committee for the American Farriers Association and that is keeping me from sleeping ,much.

I just returned from a 5 day tour of Nova Scotia and Prince Edwards Island.
It was my birthday present to myself this year.

The person wanting to travel with me contact me 802-279-5367

The Canadian gentle3man in Sherbrooke with questions on donkeys, yes I have experience. I do the donkeys at Shelburne Farms in Vermont.
I do understand the difference in trimming a donkey and a horse.
Many don’t.

Once again I am sorry for being gone so long.

UPDATE on my DVD. It is selling very well and I have put on one clinic in Rhode Island a few months back and the end of this month I will be in Bethel, Ohio putting on a 2 day clinic on how tgo school your draft or horse to stand quietly for the farrier or vet.

November 8th I will be speaking at Cornell University and putting on a demonstration with my harness and schooling method in front of a houseful of farriers from all over the USA.

Contact me at vthorseshoe@aol.com if interested in my DVD.

Bruce

[vthorseshoe]

Hi Matthew,
Keep getting around those Canadian mares there at the college.
They are good animals and find time to go visit Dan Burke. His animals are used for working in the woods and Dan is a good hand with the reins.

Bruce Matthews
http://www.nedrafthorseshoeing.com
Farrier for Pauls Smith College (4+ yrs)

[vthorseshoe]

I see quite a few Gypsy Vanners here in New England and they range from 14 hands to 15.2 and are used for driving and riding.

A few years back someone saw them in the UK and started to import them to the US.

Like anything new over here there are more folks willing to part with their money if they think they are getting a special breed of horse. A super horse, and the pie balds and pinto’s sell for big bucks over here.

So over here it is a marketing thing. Big money and folks who will pay for an imported breed that is not heard of yet.

Like the Halflingers and Fjords and a few otherimported breeds they have a place and are a good animal.

They appear to be a quiet well put together cob type suited for driving, but nothing special in my book that warrants $25,000.00 more or less.

Bruce Matthews
http://www.nedrafthorseshoeing.com

[vthorseshoe]

If a shoe is put on properly it will say on .

unless the hoof wall is weak to begin with
or the farrier drove his nails low.
or the animal hooked the shoe and pulled it off
or stepped on it and ripped it off.
Or you have gone way over the scheduled 8 weeks or for some 10 week intervals between reseting the shoe.

Other than the above the shoe should stay on.

I have and many other farriers have put on traction devices, caulks, studs, borium, drill tech etc and keep shoe’s on full term until the next scheduled shoeing.
And then the shoe is taken off so as to trim the hoofwall back to normal size again.

Frank Walker is in your state and shoe’s drafts and I can bet he would tell you the exact thing I just said.

So If you loose another shoe check for one of the above and see if that is the problem.

Hope this helps to understand the main reasons for loosing a shoe.

Bruce Matthews
http://www.nedrafthorseshoeing.com

[vthorseshoe]

Yes I enjoyed looking over the site last night.
It is well done and a good venue for information and meeting folks of similar interests.

Sorry I missed you the other day George, but had a super visit with Mellisa and a wrm cup of coffee.

Glad you like the DVD.

Bruce Matthews 😀

[vthorseshoe]

I shoe logging horses and sugaring horses with flat farm plates and lI place borium on each side of the toe and a spot on each heel. I build it up to a size that will afford traction and a solid grab on ice or ground.

I went to this method because of hooking a drawn heel or toe grab in roots and pulling a shoe off.
(I have seen a number of folks applying pulling shoe’s with long heels and toe grabs)

I also will draw and make a “small” heel on the shoe’s and put borium on the heel after flattening it out when it comes out of the forge.
I will put two large spots on the toe and have had very good sucess with this shoe.

I shape all my shoe’s in the forge and make my modifications on a hot shoe taken from the forge to the avil.

On pads there are basically two types.

You have a full snowball pad that covers the whole sole of the hoof.

you also have a snowall rim pad that leaves the sole exposed and can be cleaned out but the pencil rim pad will kick out the snow and prevent balling up.

Either one works well.
I use mostly rim pads so if something was to get wedged in the hoof or frog you can see it and remove it before your animal goes lame. It also prevents the need to pull the shoe to lean out under the pad.

On a full pad I pack the foot with hoof packing and then use oakum fibre to fill in the space between the pad and the bulb of the frog.
This usually keeps debri from entering under the pad.

my 2 cents worth 😉
Bruce Matthews
nedrafthorseshoeing

[vthorseshoe]

I was told through customers conversation, that the Canadian Horse was presented to Canada as a gift from the king of France.

I have also been told that through modern day DNA testing. The Canadian Horse is the foundation horse breed of the American Morgan Horse.

If you go back to the history told for years how the school teacher would travel around and stay at folks homes. He was paid for some work with a colt. This colt became known as Justin Morgan. A strong chunky powerful horse who was good in the woods all day then could be ridden and raced on weekends.
Strong enough to have pulled a log with a number of men sitting on it.
Now look at the geography and the proximity of Vermont to Canada and it fits like a puzzle.
With the news of the DNA as proof of the Canadian Horse being the foundation of our Morgan’s.. You can definitely see the strong resemalance of our Morgans to the Canadian.
The origional Morgans were strong solid animals, not the saddlebreds we see today with a flavor of Morgan left in them through breeding.
my 2 cents;

I can only present this as 2nd hand hearsay but believe it to be retty darn close to the truth. 😀

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