1996 Article Overview

Phil Fisher of Hastings, Neb., approached this article with a straightforward purpose: inform readers about how to shoe reining horses. At the time Fisher wrote this article, he was shoeing a few successful top reiners. This motivated him to share his own methods to farriers who might not be as familiar with reiners.

Fisher begins the article by identifying what farriers must keep in mind when they shoe reiners: balance.

“The horse and rider need to be in balance at all times while executing spins, rundowns, rollbacks, fast and slow circles, lead changes and, of course, sliding stops,” he writes. “As with any performance horse, the reiner must be trimmed properly. Without well-balanced feet trimmed at normal angles with good medial/lateral balance, it doesn’t matter what kind of shoes you place on the reining horse’s feet.”

Fisher instructs readers to take care with trimming the horse “so the front feet land flat and the foot has a nice broad toe to ease breakover.” He stresses the fact that good trimming will benefit the foot’s overall function.

Fisher also passes on knowledge that he received from a Hall Of Fame farrier.

“When shoeing the front feet, I use Gene Armstrong’s support principle that a line extends down to the front of the cannon bone and comes out at least two-thirds of the distance from the toe to one-third from the end of the shoe.”

He continues the article by sharing how to properly support the foot and keep…