I have a new client that wishes to try the slypners on her endurace arabian. Has anyone used these? Did they work well? How difficult was it to apply them? It is my understanding (which may not be correct) that the shoes cannot be shaped much and that if they dont fit the horse out of the box he's gonna have to wear something else.

All you have to do is pretend you're a sheetmetal worker and work in a tire store; and you'll be fine.
There should warning labels with these shoes; they are dangerous on wet grass and wickedly slick on snow if you don't have the correct inserts in.
Have had clients start a race in good weather with slypners/reg. insert; the weather changed and horses had to be hand walked into the Vet area in order to change inserts. Make sure your client learns to change them or you'll be spending alot of quality time with them.

George,

Is your client looking for a shoe that offers concussive protection? Haveyou showed her the Ground Controls? or Easy walkers? Or Eponas? Or Pony Wairs?

Also, the Slypners are a fairly hefty shoe when everything gets put together - somehting that will fatigue the horse doing emiles and miles of travel.

Regards,
Kim

Slypners are a good shoe. The stainless shoe with the rubber inserts are an engineering genius. Along with the nails they comprise a system for different situations.
Have applied them in Vermont, Maine, Washington State, Florida, Virginia and the deserts of the middle east.

Worked amazingly well for the situations used.


They are designed to be fit a little long. The stainless rims can be shaped a little on the anvil and with a rubber hammer or the mechanical horseshoe bending device; looks like a conduit bender.
They have toe clips that one can have or grind off. The nails are specifically designed for the shoe, long with heads designed for locking the rubber insert in place, with thin shanks.

Grass can be a problem, but a change of the inserts with studs is easy. Crimping the stainless rim can be a problem if the insert is lost during work. Horses with a gait faults, such as winging of the "toed in" horse or "plaiting" in the "toed out" horse can create ankle problems. This is due to the grab and no slide of the rubber insert during the impact and load phase of the stride..

IMO, the shoes are a good option on hard footings on a straight going horse. Have shod some very successful endurance horses who ran in the Slypner shoes.

I've done a fair amount of competitive trail riding and seen these shoes on a bunch of different horses. Many times, I see them complete the ride with an Easy Boot on as they yanked a front shoe during the ride. A close farrier friend applied them once on a horse he did. He's got a lot more experience than I and he admitted that they can be difficult to fit and applying the insert. I have applied the Ollov shoes on one of my client's horses now for over 3 years. She is extremely happy with those shoes and gets pretty good wear out of them. For those unfamilar with them, they are a steel shoe with a natural rubber coating made in Sweden. Fronts come with toe clips which I knock off to get a better fit on this particular horse. Many times, I can reset the shoes on this horse. They can be tricky to open/close as you have to be careful about whacking them with your hammer so as to not damage the rubber coating. I use E5 slim nails so nothing special to putting them on. Did read an article that said they could be slippery too but this client hasn't had an issue with them.

Last I heard the shoes were out of production but there was a supply being sold off by the manufacturer. That was a year or two ago, they might all be gone by now.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!