If you put Happy Hoofwear™ shoes only on the front, is there a difference in height if you use a steel, aluminum or go barefoot in the back, and more importantly – will that be a problem?
If you put the Happy Hoofwear™ shoes only on the front, yes, there will be a difference in height between the front shoes and the hind shoes, but the difference is not a problem. If you use a steel shoe on the hind hooves the average steel shoes are approximately 1/4″ thick. If you use aluminum shoes these are an average of 3/8″ thick and if the hind hooves are barefoot, of course, there is no shoe. Since horses have independent suspension front and hind (although some gaited horses are an exception) for a vast majority of the horses, there is no problem with wearing our Happy Hoofwear™ shoes on the front and wearing steel, aluminum or no shoe on the back. As farriers know, however, making sure you match size, style, weight and thickness for the left and right hooves is critical, although again there are always exceptions. There are times when farriers deliberately shoe with different shoe lengths, shoe thicknesses, shoe sizes, left foot versus right foot, but those instances tend to b
