Loading…
1
PSA: A mare almost lost her hoof because I forgot one check on a hot shoe fit
I was at a barn outside Lexington last month and the owner asked me to look at a mare that had been off for a bit. I pulled the shoe and found a pressure groove so deep it had started to pinch the sole, all because I fit it hot and never checked the heel on the anvil after. I had done maybe 40 shoes that week and got sloppy with my own rule of tapping the shoe on the hoof before nailing. The owner did not yell, she just said, "You know better," and that hit harder than any complaint. Now I keep a small chalk mark on my stand as a stop sign before I ever pick up a nail. If you have a trick that forces you to slow down on the last shoe of the day, I want to hear it.
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
mason.drew22d ago
That pressure groove thing gets talked about a lot but nobody brings up the heat side of it. A shoe that gets fit too hot and then tapped down cold can shrink back just enough to change where the contact lands on the heel, so even if you checked it warm, the fit you thought was fine might not be the fit you nail on. I picked that up from an old timer who would let the shoe cool all the way and then re-seat it one more time before he ever reached for a nail. Takes an extra minute most days, but on shoe forty of the week that minute is exactly the kind of thing that keeps you honest.
7