If you’re ready to move your career beyond basic trimming and shoeing, the next step might be using acrylic glues to repair damaged or low-quality hooves. “Being able to perform acrylic repairs makes a farrier appear more professional in the eyes of clients. If the horse has a problem, you can become the problem-solver,” says International Horseshoeing Hall Of Fame member Red Renchin.

Any shoer willing to learn could soon be using acrylics for jobs such as repairing quarter cracks or shoeing thin-walled hooves. “It’s just a matter of having a basic understanding of the process, and then doing it step by step. It’s not complicated at all,” says Renchin, who uses acrylics almost daily in his Mequon, Wis., business.

That basic understanding, he says, begins with knowing that there are two fundamental reasons for using acrylics:

1. The cosmetic repair of damaged hoof wall. “Sometimes pieces of the hoof wall are missing, and you just want to fill them in to make the foot look nice,” Renchin says.
2. The need to build up a foot so nails can be used to hold on a shoe. On some feet, so much…