Shoes for Jack

[Matt Shade]

Somebody somewhere thought it would be a good idea to cross a Clydesdale with a Quarter horse, and somehow we decided we should buy him to use him as a lesson horse.

I drove to Kentucky and picked him up and wondered what the heck we were doing the whole way home. Jack is a cool horse, but an odd fella. He's stout and probably weighs over 1600 pounds, but is only a little over 16 hands tall, he's kind of like a Budweiser horse that somebody shrank to 3/4 size. Trouble is they didn't shrink his feet. And that is where the trouble starts.

There are hundreds if not thousands of styles of factory made horse shoes to pick from, but they only come in certain sizes. Draft horse size shoes are mostly made from half inch thick steel and are well over an inch in width. They are heavy and meant for very heavy horses that are moving at slow to moderate speeds. My man Jack likes to gallop around and jump over things and has quickly become a favorite of the OSU equestrian team so he needs a shoe that doesn't double as a boat anchor.

The shoes he came in were too small and have caused him to have under run heels, so to add to the mix I have to correct the low angle of his foot and work on getting the heels to grow downward instead of crushing and growing forward horizontally. This means a shoe that has a wedged shape to raise the angle of the foot, and also a longer shoe that comes back and supports the heels of his foot. I did a lot of research on what was available and finally gave in to the idea that I will have to make Jack custom shoes for the rest of his (or my) life. Its a good thing the girls love him

I'm figuring this out as I go and this is the 2nd set I have made him. I start off with 16 inches of 3/8x 1 inch flat bar. Plain old A36 I get from my steel supplier in 20 ft bars. The first step is to upset the bar on both ends and try to get it up to 1/2 inch thick. At the same time I taper the bar and put the heel profile into it. I keep pushing material from ends back into the bar until it is only 15 inches long.

The second step is to thin the toe and draw it out. This gets the bar back to 16 inches in length and makes it have a taper from half inch thick on the ends (heels) to 1/4 inch thick in the middle (toe)

Step 3 is to put the toe bend into the shoe. It kind of looks like a boomerang at this point. While the branches are straight I use a homemade fuller to put the nail crease in. This improves traction of the shoe, and also give the nail heads a nice place to seat.

[Matt Shade]

Next step is to turn the branches and continue bending the shoe to shape. This usually pinches the nail crease a bit, so I run the fuller a 2nd time after shaping.

When the shoe is pretty much shaped I use a home made punch and punch all of the nail holes. These are square holes and that have to be sized precisely for the nails you intend to use. This shoe is punched for #5 combo's which is a decently big nail for saddle horse feet, but much smaller than most drafts would get used. They are the biggest nails I keep in my shoeing box and so far have done the job.

After nail holes, I draw side clips on the shoe. Those are the little tabs that stick up. You bend these around the side of the hoof and it keeps the shoe from shifting around and breaking the nails off, or breaking the hoof wall apart. You can also effect the shape of the foot as it grows so you have to be careful where you locate these and how tight you set them.

[Matt Shade]

Last but not least you nail them on.

The white foot has a badly crushed heel, that has improved a little bit since we got him with the longer shoe protecting it. The layer of leather is to provide a minor amount of cushion under the damaged heel.

The black foot is much healthier and should be just fine with regular trimming and shoes that are the right size.

You could probably fix these issues by letting him go barefoot for a while and carefully trimming, but he has very flat feet with thin soles and such low angles that we would not be able to ride him while that was going on for fear of damaging the tendons in his leg. This is a lot of work, but it makes him comfortable now and lets him keep doing his job.

I completely forgot to get a pic of Jack. I will try to do that soon

[astronut]

What are the brown cup like socks above the foot area and what are their purpose?

[Matt Shade]

Those are called Bell Boots. They are flipped upside down for the pics. When they are pulled down they drape over the foot and prevent him from stepping on the back of a front shoe with the toe of his back foot and either ripping the shoe off or hurting himself.

[astronut]

Okay, thanks for that info!

[Samcord]

I know absolutely nothing about horses, but I would like to see a picture of Jack.

[LKeithR]

Nice work. I'm not a blacksmith but I've watched enough shoes being mounted --and held enough horses while it was happening--to know how much work that is. Now that you've got one set you should at least have a pattern for future operations...

[toprecycler]

Making shoes sure sounds like a lot of work, and a lot of custom features that make you think and know how to help fix the horses feet.

I expect that since you work with Jack often and see him work with the kids, it helps you decide how to custom the shoes as needed.

Amazing amount of knowledge needed to fabricate a set of shoes.

Do you keep spares on hand in case he throws one off and can quickly replace it?

One other question regarding nail holes. Do you intentionally make to holes in different spots on replacement shoes so they will not go into old holes in the foot? Will the horses feet repair themselves of the old holes, providing a new area for future nails to hold on the shoes? Or do you have to put something in the foot like epoxy to fill old holes in the foot.


I can’t amagine having nails in my foot holding shoes on. Who ever thought/ figured out that you can nail shoes onto a horses foot?


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[Matt Shade]

I do tend to move the nails around. The first set of shoes I made I punched for 8 nails and only used 6 of the holes. The other thing that helps is that as the foot grows longer the old holes move down and you trim them off. If you have ever smashed your thumb and had to poke a hole in the nail to drain it, its exactly like that in that the hole moves to the end of your thumb as the nail grows out.
I have been shoeing for a few years now and at times it still feels weird to be driving nails into a foot. The best way I can explain it is that it is like a very large fingernail, and as long as you stay in the outside edges, it is all dead material you are nailing into. I have no idea who the first person was that decided to try it though.