Forging?

So, Geoff has learned a lot since I got him - we have a mostly soft mouth, we move off the leg, we've got the start of laterals, we have a balanced walk, trot and canter and we are acing our walk/trot and walk/halt transitions. However, Geoff is still very on the forehand, and whilst we've been doing lots of work on engaging his hindquarters, typical OTTB has very little back muscle and finds it hard. We have been working on it, and he can engage for short periods, but does find it hard.

However, I have found that whenever I let him trot out (he's 17hh and all legs, so has a HUGE trot when he trots out) he forges. My instructor says that because he has a relatively short back and very long legs, when he gets on the forehand he forges. However I did an internet search (deadly things) and it told me all sorts of things about forging being due to stifle problems/bad riding? He only forges in the trot, and only when I'm riding him.

My questions are: is it just because of his short back and being on the forehand or am I doing something wrong? Is it something a horse grows out of once as their training improves?

I do want to event Geoff, and whilst he'll never have to reach a high level of dressage I am one of those eventers who is uber picky about their dressage... so how far is something like forging going to affect that?

Your farrier can help his forging by squaring off his toes at the back to help his break over.
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Interesting that Wares said that. My farrier says the opposite; increase the breakover of the front feet so that they move out of the way of the back feet faster, so the back don't clip them (forging).

Anyone else?

You could be right Tiny, but I am pretty sure a farrier can correct forging squaring off a hoof somewhere!
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Is it as simple a fix as farriery? That's a weight off my mind! I'll speak to my farrier.

Is there an article or recent study on that? I'm curious to know. I've always thought like wares on this one, but that could just be an old school method.

Possibly, but not always. That should be your first step in figuring out what is going on. Like I said, I've always thought squaring off the toe would fix it. My guy will forge with he gets long, riding or not. A visit from the farrier usually does the trick.

Farriers can definitely help with forging. My mustang had similar problems before he got trimmed for the first time (I got him as a wild critter and it took me about 3 months before I could handle his feet reliably). Once his feet were trimmed properly a time or two, it wasn't an issue any more.

By the by, I've also heard that increasing the breakover of the front hooves allows them to move out of the way of the rear hooves better. Really though, I think it's best if all of the horse's hooves have a good breakover.

Got any pics of his front feet? I'm guessing you have some very long toes there. Correctly trimmed front feet fix most forging problems.

Haven't got pics but no, his feet aren't long. He was trimmed and shod four weeks ago, and my farrier is excellent, he's the local corrective shoeing expert as well as doing lots of farriery training for the new apprentices... whether there are things he can do to fix it is one thing, but his feet certainly aren't in bad nick... He's due out in two weeks, so I'll drop him a text and let him know what the problem is so we can do something about it.

Tell your farrier about the forging and ask if he can help?
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