Glueing on shoes can be dangerous

[Phil Armitage]

When it comes to glueing on shoes, I am probably the least experienced. Boy did I learn something the hard way today. The day started out very nice. I picked up my nephew who gives me a hand now and then. We talked on the way to the barn and I told him today is going to be pretty neat. I am going to glue on some shoes and need you to hang around and hand me things. I told him we will be working on a T.B. with very thin hoof walls that are breaking away and there is no more foot to nail into and the horse has a big show this Sunday. Well I went over all the steps in my head, have all the stuff I need and ready nearby and figured lets get her done. Got the horse on the ties, prepped the first front foot, shaped and cleaned the aluminum shoe real nice and pretty. Went to the horse with the shoe and Equilox, put the shoe on the foot wrapped it all up with plastic wrap. Then held the foot up while it set up and waited. Looked at my nephew and said, hey this is pretty easy..........then all of a sudden the horse exploded, knocked me to the ground tool box went flying, nephew went running the horse broke the ties, stepped on a hose running up the isle and made a hole in it, the water shot up into the horses belly which sent the horse way over the edge. All this time I am thinking, **** the damn horse is going to ruin the setup of the glue. :D

Figured out that the horse reacted to the heat created by the chemical reaction of the Equilox. So we calmly caught the horse put him in his stall and said what the heck are we going to do now. Well I did another horse so I could calm down and still be productive. Then we shod the horse using Equithane adhere and the horse did fine. The only problem with the adhere was my rubber gloves stuck to the shoes, so I took the gloves off and now my hands are all black. I am learning alot, might be able to make a vidieo soon, wish I had caught all the action that we saw today so I could have included it in the Video, going to be hard to duplicate that. :)

[J.H. shoeing]

I used the adhere to glue one on Monday and was in too big of a hurry to get out the gloves. My hands are black also, good news is they were almost back to normal by this evening (tan and skinned up).

Jeff

Carry the nephew and the video camera when you go back, just in case.

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi Phil,

I don't know if this thread is still open but you´re not the least experienced in glueing on shoes, I am....

I heard that you´re better of using Equilox than Vettec´s Adhere, the Equilox seems to work a lot better glueing aluminum shoes. Do you know?

Also I wondered about the heat. Was this a extremely thin soled TB? Or does the heat equal that of a hot shoe?

Do you or anybody else have a nice list of do's and don'ts when glueing shoes to a horse?

Thanks,

Ronald Aalders

[Phil Armitage]

Hi Ronald, he is a thin soled TB. The one shoe I got on with Equilox stayed on real good. :D I did the other three with Equithane and had to add a couple of nails for insurance, they lasted a few weeks not too bad. The most important thing to do is make sure the feet are clean and dry. Alluminum shoes work well, however I have glued on steel. The shoes need to be clean and dry and grind the surface for better bonding. I did learn from a friend of mine that when using Equilox, you can take your time about putting the shoe on maybe this would help when putting them on thin soled TB less time feeling the heat. They do get pretty hot, but I found out from the owner way after the fact this horse also sprained his pasturn and I wonder if he got very uncomfortable while I was holding his leg up when he wanted it back the glue was still setting up so I tried to ecourage him to keep his foot up and in usual TB fassion he didnt think he could. :eek:

I am not too excited about trying it again and fortunatly his feet are now good enough to nail shoes on again. Glueing them on did help alot, to get them back into good shape. He made all his compititions except for one and did his last compitition for the season this week. So we survived this year anyways.

[StephClift]

Hey Phil, are you sure you did not try and do the same horse I tried ohhhhh about a month ago? All I have to say to the experience you had is, you are not alone. I think I was actually tossed about 8 feet from where the horse was cross tied. :eek: and it was reaction to the heat, plus he has a fused pastern due to sever arthritis, fun. Anyway I was glueing on Plastics I got them on eventually. Third time is always a charm.

[Phil Armitage]

Hi Stephanie, they might be related. Totaly caught me off guard, never had a problem with this horse prior to this. I quess like anything they will get use to it. Hope your OK and didnt get hurt. I got lucky, I hit the ground hard, right onto my tool box, amazing nothing happened. There was a funny part, I thought my nephew wet his pants, as he took off running. Turns out the hose sprayed him in the back, so he says :)

[StephClift]

The only thing that was bruised was my backside and maybe my pride. (client was standing right by). I think that just was not my day because it happened a second time doing a trim on the next horse, his problem was just not wanting to behave. :rolleyes: I do believe that the glue heating up is going to alarm some horses no matter what, it does get pretty warm. I put glue on plastic shoes on a post founder horse and I think that she actually liked the heat because she actually relaxed as I was putting the shoes on. Glue on definately has it's perks.