Continuous foot growth is both an advantage and a disadvantage while shoeing dressage horses.
The advantage is that the hoof has tremendous ability for healing and repair. The disadvantage is that as soon as we put that foot down, everything we have done to help it starts to diminish. Virtually every shoeing job will turn into a wreck if it’s not redone before all functionality is lost.
One way to limit the damage is to stress the importance to your client of sticking to a schedule that is tailored to a particular horse.
When I was shoeing full-time, often my schedule for a group of horses far from home was predicated on horses that needed a shorter schedule.
I had some luxury on those horses that were closer to my home. Some had hooves that curled faster than others, while some were stronger than others. I would put those with more fragile feet or those with conformation problems on a 4-week schedule. Those that grew slower, I would put on a longer schedule.
