How do you shoe horses with interference problems?

Israeli farrier Guy Karsh shows a clever modification to prevent interfering.

Shoeing horses in Israel

Interference Problems
Guy has a beautiful modification when it comes to horses that interfere by swinging their legs too far medially. Having a shoe that is lighter medially and therefore heavier laterally reduces the medial swing. The price of that kind of weight difference in a shoe typically is a difference in the widths of the two branches of the shoe.

If the medial branch is made narrower, this might reduce the swing to the inside but changes the penetration of the foot on soft ground as well. In this case the foot would sink in more on the medial side and therefore unevenly.

Guy cuts out half-round parts of the inner section of the shoe on the side where he wants less weight. In this way, the width of the shoe stays symmetrical enough to prevent any uneven sinking into soft soil, but the desired unilateral weight reduction is still possible. Clips and clinches have to be extremely smooth, especially on the medial hoof aspects of horses with interference problems.

For Guy Karsh, farriery is a lifelong journey. As he puts it, “When I first met Doug Butler I realised how much about horseshoeing I didn`t know! I kept this attitude ’til today; we have to stay open and never stop learning as farriers:”