Over-reaching is when the toe of the back foot hits the heel bulbs of the front foot.

Forging is when the toe of the back foot hits the bottom of the front foot.

Both cause an interruption to the horse’s cadence and cause shoes to be pulled during work, and also causes injury and pain to the horse.

Both are caused by imbalance in the bottom of the hoof.

OK that is all pretty easy to determine, but why is it so common?

The answer lies in one or more of a variety of reasons. Often we don’t pare out enough sole in front of the hoof to find the true junction of the clean sole and the hoof wall at the toe, so we don’t trim the toe down short enough … Continue Reading ››