Morgan Horse hoof clipping

Question
I recently became the owner of a 2 yr old Morgan gelding. My question is: Is there a difference in the way the farrier would clip the hooves as opposed to a quarter horse? I was told by the only local Morgan breeder I know of, that you should leave the heels longer and not to slope them as you would say a quarter horse.  I am researching this topic before my farrier arrives.  Here in North Dakota Morgans are not as common as other parts of the country and not sure if my farrier would clip correctly. Thank you for your time and any information. Respectfully, Aaron

Answer
Aaron,

As long as your farrier can give a horse a balanced foot trim with the correct angles on the fore and hind feet he should be fine to use.  The local Morgan breeder probably meant a similar thing.  You screw up a horse's balance in the entire limb when you start trimming the feet with incorrect angles.  Standardbred people insist on trimming with a long toe and long heel with the idea being to extend the horse's stride and thus increase the speed.  Unfortunately, this also slows the break-over of the foot so doesn't really buy you much but some progress is being made in changing their minds.  Let's not even talk about what they do with gaited horses - TWH and Saddlebreds especially.  Around here I've not seen QH's trimmed any differently than other horses.   I know lots of people who use the same farrier I do but he does the same kind of work on all their horses' feet be they Arabs, Morgans, TB's, Warmbloods, draft-crosses, ponies, you name it.

Like I said, his feet need to be trimmed balanced and with the correct angle.  And should be done at no more than 4 wk. intervals.  There's a lot of bone formation going on in the legs that needs to be done right.  Viewed from the side there should be an unbroken, straight line from the middle of the fetlock joint down through the pastern and the hoof to the ground.  There should be an angle in the neighborhood of 55 deg. in front I think 50 deg. or so in the hind feet.  There are small variations depending upon the horse's conformation.  The hoof should land flat on the ground when the horse is viewed at a walk and a trot.  What you put in now is what you will have later.  You don't want to risk screwing him up now.  

I hope this answers your question and helps you.  Morgans are pretty awesome guys.  I have a number of friends who ride them in distance riding.  One heavy-set friend has ridden her Morgan in over 5,000 mi. worth of long distance competitions, both competitive trail and endurance riding. Very different than Qh's in gait and temperament.  

Lyn