I guess I
should have asked for opinions concerning Hot FITTING which seems to be the
correct term. I’ve certainly gotten a lot of good input from this post
and thank you all for responding.
I think my
original gut feeling was correct in that sizzling the hoof is not really
necessary. Apparently, the farrier can cool the shoe a bit, touch it quickly
to the hoof, and get the info he needs to know whether there are high/low
spots. What I object to is using the very hot shoe to ‘melt’ the
hoof to fit the shoe. This is what results in all that smoke and stink.
However, there are a myriad of opinions related to this practice.
Ann
Responding to: The problem is, there is no term to distinguish
the two practices of using a forge to shape the shoe but not putting it hot on
the horse's foot, and putting the smoking hot shoe on the hoof and searing it
on there.
