This is a great shoe this year. When I first saw the picture, I thought it would be difficult to get a consistent clip location and lateral extension. But I was given almost 2 weeks to get this article done (a real gift) and after thinking about it for a while, I decided to cut off the excess material instead of forging it.

That made the shoe much easier. There should be some really good shoes this year. Had there been a rule against cutting the stock, it would be a harder test of forging skills.

Choosing The Stock

But making this shoe can be a little deceptive since it is wider than it is long. That makes it a hard shoe to see a horse’s hoof in.

For this shoe, I used a 3/8-by-1 1/4-by-16 1/2-inch piece of bar stock. The amount of stock you will need is going to be very dependent on your style, since there is a lot of opportunity to change the dimensions on this shoe. It may take a couple of tries to determine what you will need.

Since this is a fairly wide section, it is difficult to keep the stock from warping while you make the…