13 Gluing Tips That Will Stick With You

Grand Slam farrier offers ideas to improve your glue-on success

It’s difficult enough trying to juggle all of the variables involved with gluing on a horseshoe, but try doing it when the leg and foot come off.

Arcadia, Calif., farrier Wes Champagne pulled the foot forward and began forming a clip with his rasp along the back of the heels when the Blacksmith Buddy leg and hoof fell apart.

“OK,” he says to the laughter-filled room, “we lost his leg and foot.”

The Blacksmith Buddy’s inventor quickly put the limb back together and continued his glue-on shoe demonstration during the “How-To” Hoof-Care Product Knowledge Clinic presented by Postyme at the 13th annual International Hoof-Care Summit in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Fresh off becoming the first farrier to win the Triple Crown in 37 years, then helping American Pharoah complete the Grand Slam at the Breeder’s Cup, Champagne shared a number of valuable tips to help you successfully glue on a shoe.

1 Rasping for adhesion. “The glue is only going to adhere to wherever you rasp. If you don’t rasp in one area, your glue isn’t going to adhere there. You can wash it with all the solvents you want, you’re still not going to get the same results.”

2 Drying a foot. “If you’ve ever set a foot down on a rubber mat, sometimes you’ll see that you have a wet hoof print. The hoof is going to drop off moisture right where you’re going to bond the glue. It’s a good idea to use a small butane torch and just…

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Jeff cota 2023

Jeff Cota

Jeff Cota has been a writer, photographer and editor with newspapers and magazines for 30 years. A native of Maine, he is the Lead Content Editor of American Farriers Journal.

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