George Geist

Is no hard and fast rule for that or anything else in the trade but one possible explanation for a 7 nail preference that I've heard anyway goes back to old world medieval religious beliefs. 7 days in week. 7 seas. Number 7 used frequently in the Bible etc. This long running tradition is still alive and well.

Personally I've never seen a tenotomy work. It seems to be a last ditch desperation move by some vets. I'm not saying it's always wrong. The words "always" and "never" shouldn't be in any horseshoers vocabulary. Trouble is whenever I've seen it done it's usually when a horse is going south in a hurry. As Charles can probably concur, when a horse goes in that direction nothing usually helps them and they usually die. Different shoeing methodologies tend to be hit and miss. Sometimes they work sometimes they don't. It just depends. I've probably seen barefoot work just as good more often than not too. Reason I wonder about the bleeding is it works on people right? Old timers and contemporary Amish have and had some degree of success with it. So why do contemporary shoers and vets seem to collectively turn their noses up at the idea? George

Thanks Charles, Glad somebody out there has some experience with this. Have you found doing this to stop any rotation and bring about stabilization? George

Granted I know most folks have never heard of this, just the same I heard a lot of old timers talk about this 40+ years ago when I was beginning to learn the trade. Thing I'm referring to is drilling a hole through the hoof wall in the toe area of a hot founder. Blood would spray out like a firehose at first while it relieved pressure. Soon as pressure was relieved blood would drop out in a more normal fashion till it clotted with the horse noticeably more sound. The late Burney Chapman was known to have experimented with this treatment but it's been many years since I've heard of anyone doing it. Any of you have any experience with this and if so how did it work for you? George

Depends, Punching out a nail hole usually either hoof packing or beeswax as previously said. Drifting through thicker stock which takes a few heats use a piece of coal or coal dust. Punches wont stick.

The springs were for a saddle type hold down. They were sold by thoro'bred for fastening down swage blocks. An anvil equipped as such is indicative that a previous owner was practicing swaging race plates. There were as many ways to fasten a hold down as there were to pull a clip but those tack welded pieces were sold by them and worked pretty well. Guy that had it was probably practicing for his union (JHU) test. If only anvils could talk. George

Yes sir, definitely. When horses were sharp shod in that manner the heels were oftentimes turned perpendicular to each other as they are in an attempt to protect a horse from injuring himself if he stepped on his opposite foot. Crosswise like a race plate sticker would be on the lateral or outside. Inline or parallel would be on the medial or inside. George

Sheep flock together but Eagles fly alone. Keep yourself out of such situations. Sounds like a real Chinese fire drill That geing said, such a cluster-you know what in my view would also tend to create a lot of unnecessary safety issues. When it comes to working there is NO SUCH THING as Acceptable Risk! George

Is this group still active? Went out to their shop last month and it was all locked up. Anything happening with these guys? George

It is what appears to be a muleshoe with unfinished heels. It was an early kegshoe. Cant say what the logo meant other than it being a company makers mark. Unfinished heels enabled the horseshoer to turn calks, weld bar shoes, or cut off for an exact fit. George

Horse bits are best made of copper with sweet iron running a close second. Yes, sweet iron will rust but not if its wiped off and kept clean. Reason for these materials is to encourage the animal to salivate. This helps keep a good soft mouth. Stainless can be dangerous to weld or forge due to the hexavalent chromium. OSHA recently lowered the permissible exposure levels of the stuff. I'd recommend guys do their homework on the stuff before messing with it. George

It a jump welded hind bar shoe. Looks like it was shod sharp for ice at least by the heels. Cant tell from this view if the toe calk is sharp or not but I suspect it probably is. Being made of iron it is an old one. George

I know most of you guys have probably seen this old vid from the Westinghouse works but for those who haven't it shows a bridge anvil in use at about the 4:20 mark: George

They were primarily used in railroad shops. Plenty of heavy work done there. If I were to take a SWAG at the usefulness of the shape I'd figure it to be for bending track or other long sections of stock. George

Looks like a horseshoer got a hold of it and did some unnecessary mods. Thankfully they didn't weld on any turning cams At least is still in good shape and very useable. George