Some horses that go into a singlefoot or strike a pace occasionally can be easily converted to the pace by shoeing light in front and heavier behind, from three to five ounces more weight in each hind shoe than he is carrying in his front shoes. If he does not take to the pace readily add more weight to hind shoes, and bevel or roll the toes of shoes, and check head higher. You need a short natural foot all around to convert to the pace. The angle of the feet will vary according to their pasterns. If the horse has a long oblique pastern, shorten the toes hind and front as much as they will allow to be safe, and do not touch the heels.
I used this method of converting Joe Patchen II from the trot to the pace, and many others. They could not make him strike a pace and after fixing his feet and shoeing him he went out on the track and paced an eighth of a mile in eighteen seconds after having been driven at the trot for over a year.
To expand a contracted foot or quarter the first thing to do is to get the foot soft by poulticing or stuffing with “Whiterock” for a couple of nights. Use hoof expanders that are stronger than the hoof, some feet are so strong and stiff at the quarters that the foot has to be weakened between the bars and frog so that the expanders will expand it. If you want the inside quarter expanded leave the last two heel nails out of the inside of shoe, put a toe clip on shoe and a clip back at the outside heel and do just the reverse to expand an outside quarter. In this way you will be getting all the expansion on the contracted quarter. If this shoe is fitted so that the expander can be placed in the foot after the shoe has been nailed on, the contracted quarter will be expanded over a quarter of an inch before the shoe is clinched up. Nails should not be used back towards the heels of a contracted foot that is to be expanded. When the foot expands wider than the shoe, reset shoes and renew the position of expander to act stronger. The softer you keep the feet the faster they will spread, do not let them get dry and hard. The expansion you get in the foot of a yearling or a two or three-year-old can be kept after the expander has been discarded by not allowing the heels to be kept too high for too long a time. But in aged horses that have had contracted feet or quarters for years and have become set, you can expand the feet or quarters, and when you stop using the expanders the heels and quarters will contract right back to where they were before, in the majority of cases. In cases of this kind in aged horses after the feet have been expanded the quarters should be cut down low and the coronets blistered on both inside and outside quarters.