Powder coated horse shoes?

[browneyedcowgirl]

I am sure y’all have seen the pictures of horses on Facebook sporting bright pink horse shoes on all four feet. My mare is barefoot so I’ve never thought much about it. My barn buddy has a gelding that keeps shoes on the front. He wants to powder coat a pair of horse shoes and give them to the farrier to put on.

My concern with this is traction. I feel like powder coated shoes would be slick. But maybe not any more than regular shoes? I guess this would only work for cold shoeing as well? Hot shoes couldn’t be coated, I’d imagine. Would it effect fit or function? I was hoping for some insight. I often help care for this gelding and I don’t want to see him getting hurt, he is 16 years old after all. I am the more experienced horse person between the two of us and he is looking for some advice from me. But I don’t have any to really give on this. I guess I’m old fashioned and my guy instinct here is to say “don’t do it”. Anyone have any experience with this?

[flaxenfilly23]

No experience in actually having put them on a horse, but do have some experience with powder coating. I’d think you would have to shape the shoe, then powder coat it, then put the shoe on the horse. Shaping the shoe either hot or cold would crack or chip the powder coat pretty severely. They make textured coats if you’re concerned about traction. I honestly think it would be much easier to just wire brush the shoe while its on the horse and throw a layer of quick drying enamel on it. Sure, it wont last very long and would have to be redone every time you want it to look nice, but it would be much simpler to work around.

[tazycat]

Do you have a picture of these shoes? never heard of it. My one horse has on front shoes but just regular steel ones. Don’t like shoes on my horse his feet are looking terrible i’m going back to barefoot for my horse. My barefoot trimmer will be coming out to fix his feet in 2 weeks.

[Bluey]

The way shoes wear, you probably would only have coating left on the sides and not for long in those.

To have colored shoes you need shoes of a material that hold the color all thru it, like some kinds of plastics.

Now, just for one event, like a parade, that would work, the paint may last that long.

[lifeishorsesarelove]

@Bluey

The way shoes wear, you probably would only have coating left on the sides and not for long in those.

To have colored shoes you need shoes of a material that hold the color all thru it, like some kinds of plastics.

Now, just for one event, like a parade, that would work, the paint may last that long.

Agreed. My mare is shod in front because we do hack on the road fairly extensively, and we’d trash the paint on these just getting to the end of our road (though we ride walk-trot on pavement and will canter and gallop on soft shoulder, which is more than many do when hacking I think).

Powder coated shoes would be a massive waste. I have seen coloured plastic shoes, if I was dead set on having colourful feet and had money to burn, I’d try those first. They would wear faster than steel shoes but if the color is important to you then they’d actually stay coloured for more than 5 minutes because the color is all the way through.

[IPEsq]

I don’t think powder coated is the best idea. These, on the other hand… (but they sound expensive!!)
https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2017/04/…h-horse-shoes/

edited to add…I found the company’s actual website
https://americanequus.com/horseshoes/

[Kyrabee]

The Monobloc shoes…come in purple:cool:.
Susan