This keg shoe modification is a good way to provide a wider lateral heel and a slightly longer lateral heel for horses that need lateral support on their hind feet.

There are a lot of horses that are cow-hocked, which can cause them to have a low underrun lateral heel. Because of this conformation, the horse will breakover the medial toe. With a few simple modifications and without too much exaggeration, we can help these horses go a little easier and relieve a lot of stress in the fetlock and hock areas.

At The Anvil

First, heat the lateral branch. Set it off the face of the anvil and knock the medial branch down. This will offset the branches to allow you to get in to work on the lateral heel (Figure 1).

Now set the lateral heel down as if you were making a steep heel check. This allows you to pack a little extra metal into the heel for the rest of this modification (Figure 2).

Figure 3.

Figure 2.

Next, bevel the edge of the shoe (as if you were making a rolled toe) from the last nail hole of the lateral branch to the end of the heel. Bevel lightly at the nail hole and get deeper into the metal as you forge toward the heel (Figure 3).

Figure 4 is the finished lateral branch. Figure 5 shows the difference in width between the branches.

Figure 5.

Figure 4.

For Added Support

At this…