How was he when you rode him? Shoeing, especially the hot shoeing, always makes my horses really tender for a few days.
Front shoes sounds good. We've always had shoes on our horses, but the baby and the newer mare we have are currently barefoot. My dad has already decided we will do front shoes when we begin training the baby and when we bring the mare on the trails. Some of the trail footing is really harsh, so we may need to go with shoes on all four but we'll see when we get to that point. Sometimes its all about trial and error. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to go from shoes to barefoot than it is to go barefoot to shoes!