Shoutout to the farrier at a clinic in Denver who showed me how to balance a hind shoe in under 2 minutes flat

He used a simple cross-peen hammer and a stump anvil, no fancy jig, and now I'm wondering if anyone else has tried that method or if it's just a regional thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_carter1511h ago

Whoa hold on, you're telling me he was doing that cold? Just whacking away at a hind shoe with a cross peen on a stump and calling it balanced? That's wild, man. I've been around horses my whole life and I've never seen nobody pull that off without at least a couple heats in the forge. I mean sure, maybe he was doing some light cold shaping to tweak the balance but a full on job in under two minutes without heat? That's got me scratching my head. I'd be worried about the same thing you are with the nail holes getting all distorted if you're not real careful where you land that hammer. Honestly sounds like a recipe for a shoe that's gonna crack or cause the horse to land funny, but I guess if it worked for him more power to him.

jamie_white14h ago

Was that a full forge weld he did on the spot or was he just cold shaping the existing shoe? I've seen a couple old school guys up in Montana do something similar but they always claimed you need the steel hot to get the balance right without leaving stress cracks. Curious if he had it in the forge first or if he was literally just whacking it cold with a cross peen and calling it good. The stump anvil part is what's really interesting to me because most modern shops act like you need a 200 pound cast iron block just to touch a hind shoe. I've been wanting to try that method myself but I'm worried about jacking up the nail holes if I'm not careful with the hammer placement.