Glue On Horseshoes by Sound Horse Technologies

SoundHorse
T E C H N O L O G I E S
advanced equine hoofcare products

Stronger and Safer Than 8 Nails — The ONLY glue-on horseshoe with a built-in SHOCK ABSORBER

Shoe Failures

Uh-oh …. A shoe came off. What happened?

Let’s admit it, the loss of a Sound Horse shoe does occasionally happen. There are a number of reasons shoes can come off. One of them is by design and the others generally involve a mistake. Let’s review the product & processes:

1. Horse pulls or “grabs” a shoe. When this happens something has got to give; if nothing moves there will be a catastrophic hoof failure. With a nailed on shoe, the clinched nails are stronger than the hoof wall so the nails rip through the hoof wall as the shoe is pulled. If you are lucky, the shoe leaves quickly and the sole does not get stuck with a nail. Whatever happens, at minimum you probably have some broken hoof to repair

The Sound Horse system is different. The shoe is designed and built to separate safely from the hoof if there is a pull or grab. The cuff is securely bonded to the hoof wall and will stay attached to the hoof wall reinforcing it during & after the grab. The cuff design has the fabric embedded in the urethane rim pad – when grabbed, the fabric will start to pull out of the urethane. If the pull or grab is severe enough, the entire shoe will separate from the fabric cuff. No nails to stick your horse and the hoof wall is protected by the adhesive reinforced fabric cuff.

2. The entire shoe came off the hoof. The whole thing came off & it looks like a slipper. The fabric cuff and adhesive are completely hard and kept their shape, but the horse just stepped out of it. What happened?

This type of failure occasionally happens. We can generally trace the problem to one of these areas:

Hoof Preparation
Adhesive Preparation
Adhesive Application
Shoe Application & “Dry Joints”
Stretch Wrapping
Adhesive Cure

a) Hoof Preparation: Start with a dry hoof. You do NOT need to use solvents to clean and prepare the hoof. Once the hoof has been trimmed you should rasp the hoof wall to clean it. As a final step, use either a clean rasp or a clean piece of sandpaper to dress the outer hoof wall… it does not need to be roughened but it does need to be reasonably clean. This is good enough for all but the worst hoof problems. Don’t touch the hoof wall with your hand once this preparation process is complete.

b) Adhesive Preparation: Mixing the adhesive COMPLETELY is very important. The EquAcrylic ™ adhesive we supply is a modified epoxy-methacrylate. It is similar to Equilox, Equibond and several other acrylic adhesives In acrylic adhesives the hardener is very tacky and must be mixed completely to be effective. When using our EquAcrylic ™ “Twin-Packs” we recommend starting the mix in the poly twin-pack and completing it in the supplied cup. Mix in the cup for 1-minute -- 60 full seconds. This will assure predictable performance.

-- [do NOT use urethane repair adhesives to apply the Sound Horse shoes].

c) Adhesive Application: The first step is to take a small quantity of mixed adhesive & smear it on the hoof wall to allow the adhesive to start to “grab” the hoof. This is an important part of the process and will increase the reliability of the cuff attachment. Completely impregnate the cuff layers with the rest of the adhesive.

d) Shoe Application: Pick up the horse’s foot and smooth the cuff onto the hoof while aligning the shoe. Use the wooden blades (supplied) to smooth the cuff eliminating gaps or air bubbles.

Dry Joints: The epoxy-methacrylate adhesive is a very reliable material that has been in use in the equine industry for almost 20 years. We sometimes see farriers working so very hard to make a perfectly smooth cuff that they strip most of the adhesive out of the joint between the fabric and hoof wall creating a “dry joint”. If you have a shoe drop off and it looks like a slipper with a hard cuff, you may have a dry joint issue. Relax when you put the next shoe on, the adhesive will hold it and a little work will make it look good.

e) Stretch Wrapping: This is the critical process. Practice by lifting a hoof and wrapping without the shoe. Wrap from high over the heel bulbs across the toe of the shoe – 5 wraps. Align the heels and continue wrapping high over the coronary band back over the heels f the shoe – 5 wraps. Repeat toe – 5 wraps. Repeat heels – 5 wraps. Wrap around entire shoe- 5 wraps. Drop the hoof. When doing this step you are stretching the wrap ~ 15-20% and securing the shoe with this “X” wrap [don’t just wind wrap around the hoof]. The stretch wrap will:

a. Secure the shoe while the adhesive cures

b. Smooth the surface of the adhesive

c. Hold heat in to accelerate cure

d. Keep the farrier & horse happy [since the hoof is not off the ground for more than 60-90 seconds]

f) Adhesive Cure: The epoxy-methacrylate is designed to cure in 5-7 minutes at 70F. If the temperature is lower it will take longer; hotter weather means shorter cure times. At 35-40F expect the cure time to increase to 8-12 minutes. At 90+F expect the cure time to drop to 4-5 minutes. The stretch-wrap will hold in the heat and help accelerate the “cure” process. In extremely cold weather you can carefully use a heat gun to help to start the cure process. A little heat is all it takes – use too much heat & the stretch wrap will soften & slip.

“Open Time: This is the time that the adhesive is “open & workable” and before it stiffens up and begins to cure. You can extend or shorten this “open” time to help you with your application. We package the adhesive in “poly-packs” so you can easily cool or warm them. In HOT WEATHER put the sealed poly-pack in cold water as you are preparing the hoof and you can extend your working time by 60-90 seconds. In COLD WEATHER warm the adhesive poly pack and you’ll shorten the open time by up to 90+ seconds.

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