Shoe Making Surprise and Comments on Nail Placement

I made a pair of shoes today... first time in a while! They actually turned out okay, and I was surprised that it only took me about 45 minutes to finish them. I was expecting it to take longer, since I was making shoes in school at about the same rate; and that was over 4 years ago! Of course, those shoes had were fullered and these were not. But still, it could have been worse!

I read an interesting article the other day about nail placement. The author had completed a study on the difference between shoes with nails placed in front of the "ROE" and shoes with nails placed behind the "ROE". ROE was defined as a vertical line extended from the coronet band to the ground surface, when viewing the hoof from the side. Of course, all nails were still placed in front of the widest point of the hoof, as is standard. In this study, there was a marked difference between the two groups. Enough of a difference, in fact, that the study was cut short due to the damages being cause by placing nails in front of the ROE. The author noticed things like: damaged lamina, infected nail holes, weakened hoof wall, and the progression of the hoof capsule towards a long-toe low-heel conformation. It was very interesting to me as I have a client whose horse I generally shoe with a shorter toe. Last fall, I fit the shoe a little fuller toward to the toe and along with that came the movement of the nails farther forward. Looking back on it now, I believe that the toe nails were probably in front of the ROE. The client and I noticed upon resetting the shoes that there were changes in his hooves; specifically, the changes that I listed above. This is something that I find fascinating and will continue to play with this theory and pay closer attention to the placement of the toe nails from now on!