Re: Shoe wear vs. miles ridden

[twoodcock@lendleaserei.com]

Very interesting idea!  I do have an arc welder, and can sort-of-kind-of use it
without either electrocuting myself or burning myself, but this sounds like
something I should whine to either my brothers or father to do for me.

What EXACTLY is the alloy you are using?  I'll have to know what to ask for at
the shop.

-Tamara




"Ed & Wendy Hauser" <sisufarm@mmmpcc.org> on 08/10/2000 02:05:53 AM

To:   Tamara Woodcock/US1/Lend Lease@LLNA, ridecamp@endurance.net,
      ComeRideWithMe@egroups.com
cc:

Subject:  Re: Shoe wear vs. miles ridden




My Ranger slides his rear unevenly and thus causes a lot of excessive shoe
wear.  (It's a conformation thing and not the subject of this post)  To get
6 weeks out of shoes I have to surface them with hard surface alloy.  I use
St. Croix eventors.  I fill the groove at the toe, both sides of the shoe,
and the heels with medium carbon hard surfacing allow using an arc welder.
This stuff is hard enough to last, and soft enough that the farrier can
shape the shoe cold.  He leaves a set of shoes which I get ready before his
next visit.  In contrast to Borium, this material does not increase traction
at all, which would be dangerous in an endurance horse.

If you don't have a welder, a welding shop could do it for you.  As a point
of interest 150 yr. ago shoes were hand made from wrought iron, which is
actually much harder than the "mild steel" modern shoes are made from.
"mild steel" is actually almost pure iron and very soft, and does not harden
much if at all upon quenching.  An old farrier I know used to make shoes
from old dump rake tines and quench harden them.   He did this for people
who wore shoes out to fast.  The spring steel from the rake tines wore much
better.


Ed and Wendy Hauser
1140 37th St.
Hudson, WI 54016
sisufarm@mmmpcc.org