I finally took a crack at these today! It took forever to get the correct sizes and all of the supplies. I felt pretty confident going in and my first impression is that this is going to be very doable, assuming I can get them to stay on - something only time will tell.
I am terrible at documenting things, but I did manage to snap a couple of photos. I did fronts on both my mares today; my gelding will get done this weekend. I used the Versa Grip Octos with wedges.
Not surprisingly, fit is key. One of my mares fit pretty perfectly into the 122s right out the box. My other mare has a bit wider foot and I felt she was harder to fit. I had a really hard time setting the shoe back far enough to get a good break over. My farrier is out in three weeks and he said he would help me fit them. So I’m trying not to be too nit picky; they’re both better off than they were yesterday!
Both my mares have a low left front. The wedges were easy to attach to the shoe, just be mindful that they screw in flush and don’t pull away from the shoe. Also, they drop ship from the warehouse so they take several days longer to arrive. I ordered from Valley Vet.
Left front on mare #1.
Left front on mare #2. This is the ugliest hoof on paper, but she is the most comfortable of the bunch barefoot.
One tip I picked up from scouring the internet: use electrical tape instead of plastic wrap! I tried the plastic wrap first, but quickly switched to electrical tape. It’s much easier to get a tighter wrap and thus a better glue bond.
It’s been super dry here so I didn’t have to do much in the way of drying their hooves. I rasped, cleaned with a wire brush, and then sanded the hoof wall a bit with 60 grit sandpaper. No fancy tools.
They were still attached at night check. 
We’ll see what tomorrow - and turnout - brings!
The cloudiness in the tabs indicates spots of air. When you have a good bond, the tabs are all pretty clear all the way through. I’ll see if I can find a pic. The good news is that I’ve actually had better luck with tab stickability on tabs that have already been glued–the additional roughness helps with the bond. I would also suggest going REALLY ham on the electrical tape. I wrap the tabs all the way up and down, completely covering them, then press pretty hard with my hand just to squish any additional air out. I leave the tape on for about 30 mins usually; I’ve done less time when in a rush and longer if I have time to kill.
). There were some serious TB hijinks, so I was happy they stayed on through that. Some tabs seem to be on pretty tight, others need a little help. If I can baby this set through the next 2-3 weeks I’ll have another go and hopefully apply some new tricks. In the meantime, I have my gelding to practice on tomorrow.
I need to add sweeping before gluing to my order of operations. I did forget to buff his right front with the sandpaper, so it will be interesting to see if that makes a difference in retention.
but it’s just a matter of getting shoes without the cuffs/tabs pre-applied. Then the shoe is ground down to fit the hoof, and tabs welded on.
