Hot or Not
June 20, 2011
Is hot shoeing a good fit for your horse?
From America’s Horse
Hot shoeing just might be the perfect fit for your horse. Journal photo.
You’ve seen old paintings, maybe a Currier & Ives print, of a 19th-century blacksmith? The village smithy stands, sweat on his brow, over a hot forge, pounding red-hot metal into shoes to protect the hooves of the working horses of the times.
These days, the majority of farriers don’t fit that description. Time was, if a farrier needed a special shoe, say a heart-bar, he’d have to make it himself. Now, ready-made, or “keg,” shoes come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, reducing the need for such self-reliance. And there are plenty of competent farriers who never use a forge at all as they go about their daily work.
But forges aren’t exactly obsolete. About 30 percent of farriers in the United States use them much like their forebears did. Shoes that are hand-forged can be completely customized to a horse’s needs, and shoes that are heated before they’re shaped can be better contoured to match the horse’s hoof.
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“You can really make it match,” says Dusty Franklin of Minco, Oklahoma, a certified journeyman farrier with the American Farrier’s Association.
Farriers who use forges to shape shoes can also use them to fit shoes precisely to the hoof. To “hot fit” a shoe, a farrier heats it in the forge and then, using tongs or other tools to pick it up, applies it to a horse’s trimmed hoof. The metal burns a seat into the hoof, leaving a perfect imprint.
“One of the things that keeps shoes on the best is two flat surfaces,” Dusty says. If there are gaps between the shoe and the hoof’s trimmed surface, the hoof can move around on the shoe a little, possibly enough to wiggle it loose. A hot-fit shoe provides a better connection to the hoof and then is nailed on normally.
“The more surface area, the stronger the bond,” Dusty says.
Of course, there are tricks to hot-fitting shoes. A farrier doesn’t want to burn down very far into the hoof, and he doesn’t want to get the hoof too hot, lest he risk transferring too much heat to the hoof’s sensitive tissues.
Another problem could come with young or spooky horses, who might not appreciate the plumes of smoke that waft up from their hooves. With those types of horses, Dusty says he’ll opt for “cold shoeing,” where he simply gets the hoof as flat as possible with his tools and then nails on the shoe.
The spooky horses are reacting to the sight and smell of the smoke, not any pain. Horses’ hooves are just like our fingernails; as long as a farrier stays out of the “quick,” there is no pain when nails are driven or when shoes are hot fit.
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Hot-fitting is actually good for hooves. Dusty compares it to a nylon rope: “When you have a lead rope that’s fraying at the end, you burn the end and it stays together and makes it stronger.”
Hoof walls are made of tubules, and hot-fitting essentially melts the tubules together and makes the hoof stronger, Dusty says.
This style of shoeing is also easier on the farrier. When steel is heated, it moves and bends much easier on the anvil.
“Not hitting cold steel year in and year out is easier on our bodies,” Dusty says.
There’s also an educational aspect. When a hot, flat shoe is placed on the bottom of the hoof, the way it burns into the hoof tells a lot about how flat the farrier has trimmed the hoof. Flat spots will burn into the high areas of the hoof, and low areas won’t be burned at all.
Those telltale signs help farriers learn their tendencies and, by correcting them, become better at their trade, perfecting their time-honored craft.
Comments
7 Comments on “Hot or Not”
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June 20th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Your story missed one of the most important reasons Virtually ALL horses should be Shod HOT….. Disease…. Anarobic Bacteria , Thrush and White line just for starters……when you put steel on the end of a freshly trimmed foot you trap bacteria into an area between the shoe and the open cells of the hoof wall and whiteline……with out burning and closing off the tubula its an open pathway and eating ground for bacteria and even in a desert dry area the moisture of the hoof that is expelled is enough to keep the Bacteria or Thrush alive feeding deeper and deeper into the white line of the hoof wall until the usually with in 3 or 4 shoeing cycles , Large chunks of hoof will Break off due to lack of connectivity to the sensitive structure……
If a Shoer says Hot shoeing isnt nessasary and he can save you money by cold shoeing RUN.
this is a very OLD Classic Scam where you are only cheating the Horse and that Farrier will usually be extremely hard to find if ever when its time for the 5th shoeing and theres nothing to nail a shoe on to since major Chunks of foot are now rotted and missing and the structural integrity of the foot is completely GONE.
Always Always Always Hot Shoe………. if you don’t your only Cheating the Horse…..
for those Farriers that like to cold Shoe I personally envite you to go get a Pedicure and have your feet sanded smooth just before you use the Shower at a public Gym and tell me in a week if you didnt get a hell of a nastyr case of Foot Rot you lazy bastards.
even baby horses can get used to the smell of a smoky foot if you know what your doing….
Don’t Cheat the Horse………..They deserve Better.
June 20th, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Loved this article, and now I better understand why our farrier hot shoes.
June 20th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Thank You Craig !!! I’ve been at this game for a long time and I so hate those two phrases !!! Every piece of iron needs to go thru the fire … even when they are resets !!! In the old days I used some pretty nice pre-made shoes from England BUT they had to be heated to “perfect the fit” due to the concave bar stock that they were fabricated from. Today “everyting” is hand made (precision cut from six foot long bar stock) …. consequently I do burn up some propane. BUT the biggest reason for going to the horse with “hot iron is as Craig stated: “Disease” …. and closing off those “tubules”. Searing those tubules disallows micro organisms in and also stops fluid leakage from the foot …. even though minimal …. that does exist. If you need “hot iron” to check how flat your trim is; you better get your eyes checked !!! FURTHERMORE …. perfecting the bend of your branches and quarters (even on store bought shoes) needs to be done over the “horn” of the anvil …. NOT in the “hardy hole” !!! Hot Iron is so sweet to form and create a nice shoe over the horn when you master the technique. This work, when properly done goes a long ways back and the men who did it were called “farriers” and they worked in a “smithy” opposite of the wheel wrights. When folks call me a “hot shoer” … I take offense ….. for that is a phrase that came about in the USA during the mid 1900′s ….. and that is a fella who is opposite of a “cold shoer” ….. another procedure that was invented in the USA in the 1900′s ….. and you can usually find those guys (cold shoers) at “K-Mart” on the aisle where they sell the “blue light specials” !!! I and the men that I enjoy working around take great pride in our workmanship and in that which we accomplish. That pride shows up in the way that the horses (for which we are responsible) get around day in and day out. Some of these are high dollar show horses, some are hard working ranch horses, and some are just back yard pets …. but we utilize “all” that we have to offer as we tend to each and every one of them ….. and as Craig stated earlier …. hot iron is needed to complete the project correctly…. Kim Kobow, Salinas, California
June 20th, 2011 at 5:39 pm
AFTERTHOUGHT……
There is so much more to shoeing a horse than applying a hot shoe to his foot and watching the smoke roll !!! So many “uninformed folks” feel that is “hot shoeing”. That is but just one small part of the so-called process of Hot Shoeing….. and when done in the manner that it is supposed to be done …. THAT application does not “dry” the foot out …. but instead insures that fluids are retained due to the searing of the tubules …. failure to do so actually allows “leakage”. If he is “burnt” to the point of drying; he probably is also burnt to the point of being lame !!! Good Farriers do not do that !!! Hot Shoeing also allows for ease of metal work by the farrier ….. that is really the most important point. I am a farrier, not a “hot shoer”. I do use a forge to create every shoe and I even run the resets thru the fire. Let me share another tidbit to go with that which was just stated …. I do have reason to NOT “Hot Fit” a shoe to a horse’s foot from time to time….. Kim Kobow, Salinas, California
June 20th, 2011 at 5:41 pm
Great article, and great feedback comments. I loved all the information, it sure makes it easier to decide which is better.
June 21st, 2011 at 7:15 am
Hot shoeing has its place, but too many of the new shoers around here only use it because they aren’t good enough to level a foot correctly and form a cold shoe to fit flat and correctly. I learned shoeing from an old man who shod horses for the US Cavalry and his dad before him was a blacksmith in Ks. There is a place for hot shoeing, but not as a substitute for talent.
July 21st, 2011 at 3:08 pm
All I’m going to say is that I thought the article was good, but the people that put out bad comments need to realize that you can’t put all the info about anything in one small article like this one. What do you think all the schooling the farriers is for?
We aren’t going to know the ins and outs of everything in one page or even 2 or 3. I was an apprentice to 2 different farriers at one time when I was younger and believe me there is a lot to learn and every farrier has his own opinions on things as well.
Thanks for the time and effort put into this article and all the others on all topics.
Brandy Snider