UC Davis 32nd Heumphreus Lecture and the EasyShoe Flex
Submitted by Daisy Bicking of Daisy Haven Farm Inc.
Not All Composite Shoes Are Equal
One of the biggest advantages of composite shoes and glue is the wide variety of styles and application methods that are successfully used to help horses! However, if you talk to 100 Hoof Care Providers you'll get 99 different opinions about what you can and can't do with these materials.
"You can't glue to the sole." I glue to the sole all the time.
"Dental impresson material doesn't stay in composite shoes." It does for me every day!
And the best one....
My Foundered Horse is Finally Stable...Right?
Your horse gets sore feet. He is diagnosed with laminitis and founder. You have a good TEAM: Veterinarian, Farrier, and Caretaker, who help you address your horse's underlying metabolic condition and provide rehabilitative care. The horse becomes sound, and returns to his normal personality and, if you're lucky, his pre-laminitic level of performance. You can finally relax and breathe.
Or can you?
In Love With The Love Child
When working with glue and composite shoes, there are a variety of factors that impact which shoe you might choose. Some of those factors include the horse's job, the type of support/mechanics/protection/traction the horse needs, and more. When setting yourself up for success, there's also a direct relationship between the experience of the person applying the shoes and the amount of glue surface area the shoe offers. The higher the demands on the foot and shoe the more detailed your application needs to be and more glue surface area the better in many cases for added insurance.
Best Practice: What Glue Work Works?
In the horse world there are “ways to do things”. Some of of these things we do because it is grounded in science and based on research and objective information. Other things we do, maybe even most things, we do because “that’s the way it’s always been done”. This even applies to glue-on shoes. If you ask 10 farriers how to prepare the foot and apply a glue-on shoe, you’ll get 20 different answers.