We use the Sigafoos and my farrier is able to get a frog support pad nailed to the shoe, then shoe goes on. He drills a hole in the pad and is able to get cushion stuff in there too. They really don’t seem much harder to get on than regular glue-ons, albeit my farrier has let out a few cuss words and cursing his good work when it comes to pull them off sometimes, but usually after a cycle, the side edges are lifting a bit and he gets a good grip, the cuff peels up pretty easily. FWIW, we lose about 2 shoes a year - weirdly never the one with the pad now that I think of it…
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Change farriers. This isn’t worth forfeiting your sanity over. I have certainly been there - but with a horse that massively over tracked in work and threw shoes with the best farriers in the country. It’s so frustrating.
The long toes and less than ideal heels are a red flag to me. If you don’t have ideal angles, your goals of a better hoof are going to be hard to come by. They are also likely affecting the horse’s timing, causing the predisposition to lose shoes. Add that to a shoe that doesn’t fit the hoof shape perfectly and you’ve created a recipe to pull shoes. Your farrier needs to take the fact that the horse can’t get through a cycle - and did before - seriously.
I’m not sure what the current set up is with the shoes, but for the horse that constantly pulled shoes that I mentioned above, we placed glue on the heels to prevent any sort of lip or area with the shoes that the horse could step on and pull. I did have him in steel or aluminum with pads but this might potentially be an option with a glue on, depending on what you are using and how it fits the horse’s hoof, etc.
Also, check the American Farrier’s Association’s (AFA) website - there is a search feature where you can find CJFs near your location. It’s been really helpful for me.
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Thank you all for ensuring me I’m not crazy. I’ve reached out to another farrier to see if we can get on his schedule - fingers crossed that works out. Here is a rad of her “bad” foot with the shoe I don’t think fits well (from the cycle). What I see: long toe + breakover of shoe much too far forward, broken HPA even with the wedge, heel support not far enough back (all of which I had raised verbally to farrier prior to rad).
Your horse has lipping at the tip of the coffin bone. Is there a history of laminitis ?
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I came to ask the same thing. That’s not normal
Yes and no - the tipping is not new. This is the [Coffin bone infection ] (Coffin Bone Infection - Possible Round 2) horse (praying that formatting works). The losing of the shoes is separate from the (multiple) other hoof issues which is why I started a new thread. Laminitis never DXed (and some of her care team says no way, others say of course) but she is treated as if she is laminitis prone (see my other thread about her and my other not finishing their super low NSC feed 
).
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Goodness… so this isn’t your first rodeo re:feet.
I really am sorry. I wish I could offer more. I will say that to me as a complete layman there’s isn’t anything egregious in those X-rays re: placement. Does not mean there isn’t room for improvement! I’m just not seeing a yikes. The farrier works with what they are given. I 100% believe if you feel knowing the history and your horse things could be different… get another opinion/farrier. You are your horses best historian and advocate. Trust your gut.
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This. My old gelding did great with Sigafoos (fronts only). They were pricey, but they allowed me to extend the time between farrier visits. This was a horse who lived outside 24/7 in all weather, so I was quite impressed with the durability of the shoes.
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Update - Returned home last weekend from a week away to find that the LF (applied on 9/15, which is our current cycle and same cycle the RF came off in 24 hrs) was off. Waited until Thursday for farrier to come fix. Guess what is barely hanging by a thread as of this morning? It may have been that way yesterday as well, but I’ve been on house (well bed/ couch really) arrest with COVID so haven’t been outside to see horsey since it was reset. This is how it looked when I fed this AM and when I messaged farrier all they had to say is “OMG WTF this shouldn’t be happening!” Uh. No shit Sherlock. The only thing they could possibly think to try is nails which I am adamantly against as this horse just can’t tolerate the nailing and I don’t believe that’s the answer anyway. Oh, also guess who is out of town for the next week and half and won’t be able to fix it (again) when it inevitably falls off? The suggest was for their assistant to handle (uh no) or for me to take care of it myself. I explained that I’m paying several hundred dollars every few weeks so this DOESN’T happen and I don’t have to do it myself. This is insane. But hopefully the end as they have officially been fired. Just have to limp her along with boots or the super glued shoes applied by yours truly until her appt with the new farrier on 11/6.
Photos of the shoe reapplied on 10/19. When asked why the shoe appears much too wide, the response was “it’s the same size she’s always worn”.
I agree that the glue ons do not fit properly. I think you are on the right path finding another farrier.
What is the issue with nailing on shoes? Just wondering why you are going to such lengths to use glue ons?
I also expected way worse with the toes than what the rads show (which is great). Only concern I have is the lipping as mentioned. I think the toes look fine based on that one radiograph but that certainly doesn’t show what all the hooves look like. Wondering how the back hooves are being trimmed and perhaps if that is effecting timing.
I do a fair bit of my own gluing and just want to echo that the pictures show a hack job. NOWHERE near enough glue appears to have been used for those performances. And is there any solar glue at all? The Easycare Performance really perform best with a solar and wall attachment.
Good luck with the new farrier, I hope you have better luck! I love glue ons but there’s a definite learning curve and poor application will yield poor results every time.
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At the risk of sounding like a total idiot, I have questions.
My horse has had glue-ons in the past for a couple of cycles, and they were EasyCare Performances.
But…(here comes the sounding like an idiot part) what is the squishy stuff that seems to be on the bottom of your horse’s shoes? Like…am I seeing it correctly? Is that what contacts the ground instead of the shoe? What is that? Some sort of cushioning? Whatever it is, it seems like it would cause the shoe itself to be much heavier and not to stay adhered to the hoof very well?
I’ve just never seen that, and I’ve seen my farrier put glue-ons on several horses, none of which had any issue keeping the shoes on for the full cycle.
Sorry for the silly question. Besides the cushiony stuff, the shoe definitely doesn’t look like it fits the mare’s foot.
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It looks like glue, I was wondering the same thing. Glue or snow. But I don’t know anything about these shoes, so I’m just curious!
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Yeah, I thought it looked like glue too. But…why would there be gobs of glue on the bottom of the shoes? It’s not snow. It’s not mud/dirt. It…is…confusing.
If it is indeed something the farrier applied (glue or…whatever), I’m starting to see the issue.
I don’t know what to think of those photos…
Have you ever considered doing it yourself?
The 3ds a d octos are remarkably easy to diy.
The glue on the bottom of the shoes was to build a wedge (can be better seen in the X-ray IMO) but I think this particular one was very poorly done (why is there so much glue at the toe when we are trying to wedge/ lift the heels? Why is it uneven laterally?).
I wasn’t there when this one was reapplied due to being sick otherwise I would have questioned everything then.
I’ve tried the Versa Grips with tabs (this farrier took over around when the Octos came out). I had a few issues (application) with the Versas and feel that I lack the knowledge/ ability to really get the best application. I also have a bad back so wasn’t terribly upset to hand off the trimming/ shoeing to someone else (at the time, currently wondering WTF I ever did that).
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I also wonder what’s all over the bottom of those shoes. I’ve used glue ons occasionally but have never seen anything like that. Looks like glue and it looks like it could cause pressure points as it’s lumpy.
I’m curious too!
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Why don’t they use glue ons that are made as a wedge shoe?
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=bea184b0-b767-4765-953a-b29379504636
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Thanks for the explanation. When my farrier made shoes out of glue for my pony (he prepped the foot and then ran a bead of glue around where the shoe would be) he rasped the bottom of the “shoe” to make it smooth and flush with the ground. He sort of finished the foot as if pony was barefoot, taking off high spots.
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I’ve never seen SuperFast used to make a wedge on the outside of a shoe. And I’m confused why there’s so much around the toe also?
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