Nice work and great photos.

Thanks for the photos and step by step instruction. Guys like me appreciate ya'll taking time to do this. I'm definitely one of those for whom, "a picture is worth a thousand words." I really look forward to any posts with pictures...helps me get it in my mind what I'm striving toward with my own work.

Jaye,
I remember another important part of the clinching process that you taught me was the direction in which one rasps the clinch.
Alot of folks including myself rasp the clinch from side to side. Instead of taking a few swipes bottom to top and then 1 or 2 top to bottom. Also, finishing rasps are great and seem to be alittle less aggresive than a worn out trimming rasps. Thanks Jaye.



Andrew Grimm

Jaye and those commenting on the work shown, you're all joking right. :confused: If I ever used any tool that removed that amount of the periople layer, left the clips that far from the hoof wall, and pulled the clinches down the hoof wall that much, there'd be more than a few eyebrows raised. I'm walking around with one leg longer than the other and can hear you all laughing from here. In my opinion, nature's varnish is still better than any commercial hoof protector we can provide.
Is this thread to demonstrate the art of "hammer clinching" and disregard all else? Maybe that's it.

John Emsley wrote: I will relay your concerns to the horse, but I know her response, she really doesn't care about it. She is only concerned that her feet LOOK pretty and she is comfortable;)

Jaye, nice post.

I use my nail nippers on the bottom side. Seems to work good for me. Ive been useing a cheap paor of clinchers for ever. Then I started loseing a lot f shoes (maybe it was all the rian we had???) and I started paying attention to my clinches more. I noticed my clinches had all been curling no matter what I did. I used a freinds curve jaw clinchers and my clinches were perfect.. It was blowing my mind. Im guessing I wore out my clinchers. Anyway I havent bought a new pair yet so Ive been hammer clinching just about everything that will let me the last few weeks. Hammer clinching comes out so nice. I dont reblock my nails, i slide the hammer down the wall with a 'flick' to start the bend, then just put them into the gouge hole. I ground one side of the hammer flat so it gets the nail good.

Good tatourial Jaye!

-Josh

I was told by a veteran shoer, that the reason clinchers (alligator clincher) were created was to prevent close nails on thin walled feet from hammer clinching. He said it caused a lot of mystery lameness. What would happen is the nail pushes back slightly and on thin walls can cause sorness. Another pointer I got about clinching was from my day at the track. One of the veteran shoers does not set the nails he bends them over as normal useing a clincher designed for low nails, this method is also used to prevent a close nail.

Phil Armitage wrote: Close nails are driven. A pressure "quick" is caused by squeezing the clinch into the wall. Both can cause mystery lameness and abcessations.

Phil Armitage wrote:
I use clinchers most of the time, though, it's mostly because I'm faster that way. But...on some horses wearing large show packages with high nails even my big adjustable clinchers aren't long enough so I hammer clinch.

Jaye Perry in gray

Close nails are driven. A pressure "quick" is caused by squeezing the clinch into the wall. Both can cause mystery lameness and abcessations.

My personal favorite is the mystery "quick" one occasionally encounters on horses that routinely torque a loaded foot (jumpers, cutters, barrel horses, TR horses, etc., usually without clips).

I speculate the etiology has to do with a nail driven near (not close) to sensitive tissue and the horse's torquing a loaded foot hard enough to move the hoof axially atop the shoe, causing sensitive tissue to be forced close to the nail. Whatever the cause, close nails are usually symptomatic within 12 to 72 hours, so I've always been a bit reluctant to take the blame when a horse presents three-legged lame after four or five weeks and the vet points his finger at me.

just to ad to Jayes great pics
mostly the same as Jaye just slightly different
first i ring the nail

hammer up with clinching block

same as Jaye rasp under making a bed for the nails

and the finish is with a rasp thats the only difference and the ringing of
nail hope jayes pics and these help the boys and girls starting out
ran into battery problems had to dig up pic 1

sweet! Nice, too