Overheard an old school farrier say he only uses keg shoes on bad feet

I was grabbing coffee last week and heard this guy who's been shoeing since the 70s tell a younger farrier that keg shoes are just for when a horse has bad hoof quality or needs a quick fix. That got me thinking because I've been using them for almost every job just to save time. Has anyone else had success switching to handmade shoes for most of your regulars?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric3591mo ago

Man, I was in the same boat until I tried handmade on a tricky navicular horse and saw way better grip and wear after six weeks. Once you get the hang of forging them, it's hard to go back to kegs for anything but quick patch jobs.

wyatt_fox681mo ago

Funny you mention that @eric359, because "hard to go back to kegs" sounds like my wallet's feelings. I've got a box of old keg shoes in the back of my truck that I keep telling myself I'll use for something, but they just sit there judging me every time I fire up the forge. That navicular horse must be pretty picky if it took handmade to make it happy. I'd probably end up with a shoe that looks more like a paperclip than a proper piece of iron if I tried that myself.