corks

[Mark Cowdrey]

Just had my team shod for the winter last week. Last year was the first time (in 5 yrs) I did that & found it very satisfactory. I was able to use my horses a lot more, w/o/ worrying about what the footing might be. As I currently only have 3 days a week to use them, it is important that I not be limited by icey or slippery conditions.

I knew I did not want just gobs of drill-Tek on the bottom of the shoe, because it didn’t make sense to me that that would give me sufficent “penetration” or good snow or mud traction. I wasn’t too wild about using sharp corks if there was an effective alternative. John Hammond (who shod my horses) suggested welding short pieces of 3/8 (1/2″?) square bar stock on toes & heels, then putting the D-T on them. That was just the thing I had been mulling over as a possiblity.

They worked well for me last year. This year, at the suggestion of Meg R., I had him put “snow rims” on the fronts to help reduce balling. John also said he has had good luck W/ them. I had figured they would go all around, but J. said the fronts, being rounder, seem to ball worse and suggested just doing them. Thinking back, I seem to recall that that was so, that I had had to knock out the fronts more often. So far so good, though we haven’t had any sticky stuff yet.

Thoughts? Comment? Other methods?

[Carl Russell]

Mark aren’t corks a little soft? I remember doing the same thing because so many people pronounce caulks as corks. Anyway caulks in the woods year round for me. Traction is traction, and traction is confidence when it is needed. Drill-tex has been pretty inadequate for me. In the winter I prefer sharp caulks. On ice I want to see the chips fly. I just make sure that the inside caulk is angled inward so that it is less likely to jab into the inside of the other foot. Horses figure out how sharp those caulks are after a couple of cuts and they stop stepping on themselves. Furthermore, its a long way from the heart, and I’ve never had a wound turn into bad situation. I take a pulling shoe, cut the center out of the toe caulk with a grinder, in essence making two. Then I sharpen the front edge. The turned heel on the outside I cut sharp edge in back. The inside I cut in the other plane, and sharpen the inner edge. This give the horse security against skating too far in any one direction. I have pulled more than a few logs in snow and never put balling pads or rim pads on, but I can see the logic. Of all the miles I’ve traveled in the woods in winter, the few times I’ve had to get down and knock out snow balls has not been a big problem for me. I like to have something to do while they catch their breathe, and handling their feet is never wasted time. Carl

[Mark Cowdrey]

Carl, I guess I ‘m spelling with my mouth instead of my brain. Thanks for the feed back. A photo or drawing of that shoe & the angles you grind might be helpful at some point. If they do happen to cut themselves,do you treat the wound? Disinfectant?

[Gabe Ayers]

We also use toe plates and heel caulks. We also use the hard face weld on the surface to help with gaining purchase on ice and rocks. The surface will last much longer with the hard face welded on the ground contact edge. We have never sharpened them but they do tend to get sharper with use. We have found that the hard face weld will make the shoes last so long that they wear out from the top and the nail holes first instead of the bottom. We usually get about two years of solid work out of them. The placement of the heel caulks on the inside edge of the shoe definitely helps with them stepping on themselves.

When they do injure themselves, we just gob some furazune on it or a topical antiseptic like the yellow greasy stuff commercially available. I think calm patient driving lessens this from occurring. The key could be making your turns (particularly 180 degree turns) at the log – slowly by controlling speed of the turn through pulsing contact with the horse on the outside of the turn. The bit contact on the inside horse determines the degree of turn and the contact on the outside horses determines the speed the turn occurs.

I do think the caulked shoes are harder to keep on the horses than flat shoes and keeping up with regular resets is important. We also like to use the regular head nails to make for easy clinching along the way to a reset.

These pulling/logging shoes definitely give the horses confidence on a heavy load. They are more able to power walk a big log out and less likely to scramble or hop on a heavy load when they are well shod. One of the most important things we can give our horses is confidence.

You are lucky to have a farrier like John Hammond work on your horses feet. Good draft horse farriers are even more rare than good draft horses users. This is why we had to develop our own ability to shoe our own horses. My son Jagger has advanced his farrier skills to be able to do this work now and it is a blessing and a considerable economic savings. Farrier services end up being the single greatest cost of logging with horses full time.

That is an interesting point too, we do actually work our horses almost every day that the weather will allow. This means no hard falling weather (rain) and wind less than 25 mph gust is working weather for us. This means we (two people,my son and I) work about 200 days a year and produce around a 100K board feet per year of “worst first” selectively logged trees. Sometimes our Sundays end up being rainy days and we do actually work on the weekends when we have the weather. Economically our ox is always in the ditch. It is a matter of making enough money to support ourselves requires this type of dedication and consistent working.

If you can’t work your horses there is often something you can do in the woods, at the sawmill, the wood working shop, the mechanic shop, the barn or the house. You also can work to promote your services in your community. When it is rainy, too cold or windy, then you can write and read information off the net like we are doing now. I am sure there are New Englander’s thinking, “to cold”, this guy has got to be a southerner…yep, I am. A southern Appalachian, that lives at 3000 feet altitude and am glad to have a portion of my forest that is a New England type forest with native Sugar Maple throughout it. Of course we have a few other (marketable) species native to Appalachia that are not found in other areas.

Keep working them when you can. Give John Hammond our regards.

Jason Rutledge
http://healingharvestforestfoundation.org

[Carl Russell]

@Mark Cowdrey 170 wrote:

Just had my team shod for the winter last week. …… it is important that I not be limited by icey or slippery conditions.
……….This year, at the suggestion of Meg R., I had him put “snow rims” on the fronts to help reduce balling. John also said he has had good luck W/ them. I had figured they would go all around, but J. said the fronts, being rounder, seem to ball worse and suggested just doing them. Thinking back, I seem to recall that that was so, that I had had to knock out the fronts more often. So far so good, though we haven’t had any sticky stuff yet.

Thoughts? Comment? Other methods?

For the first time in over twenty years, my horses came into the barn this morning with their feet all balled up. Six inch ice balls. I’ve encountered balls when working them, and I’ve seen ice build up in the shoe before, but never like that.

We have had lots of good dry snow, and sub-zero temp, but nothing very unusual. The one thing that I do notice that is different this year is that the seepy places are still very wet, with standing water in some places. Under this blanket of snow they are not freezing, and I wonder if the ground condition affects the quality of the snow.

Working them in the woods yesterday we had no balls, even though we have to cross an area of unfrozen mud and running water.

My problem yesterday was more the clumps of frozen snow on the branches of the pines I was tryingto fell. 5 thousand pounds of tree standing, can’t get any momentum to fall, so I buried three wedges, and still it stands. I cut two others marked nearby that looked to be part of the problem, and still it stands. Another day for the record books. Carl

[Carl Russell]

I got a call a couple of weeks ago from Meg Reige because she had had a conversation with a fellow in Massachusetts who seemed to describe a small collection of drive caulk horse shoes. I followed up on it and ended up with 20 drop forged shoes in really good shape, and three boxes of caulks, sharp and blunt.

Many years ago I got several pairs of Drive Caulk Shoes and grew quite fond of using them, especially in winter, on ice. The shoes are made of hard steel, with wholes in the toes and heels for caulk plugs to be driven in. The ice caulks are shaped like chisels. When sharp shod, the chips fly. I am so looking forward to shoeing again with shoes like this.

If anybody out there has a similar stash, or knows of one please contact me.
Carl

[Rob FLory]

Hi Jason,

You wrote,

“I do think the caulked shoes are harder to keep on the horses than flat shoes and keeping up with regular resets is important. We also like to use the regular head nails to make for easy clinching along the way to a reset.”

My buddy is just getting started in shoeing the horses that we both use. We haven’t had much luck in reclinching on a loose shoe, but maybe that is because we are using city head nails. Can you elaborate on your comment above?

Thanks, Rob Flory

[Iron Rose]

Never found that cauked shoe any harder to keep on flat shoes ,if the shoe is set properly. There are certain horses that are harder to keep shoes on than others. On those you have to figure out what the problem is. I have used clips on some as well as changing the nailing pattern as well as adding more nail holes to the shoe . Also if you are using used shoes check the nail holes if they are worn the shoe will work loose.

[Gabe Ayers]

It just makes sense that a caulked shoe with big toe plates gains greater purchase on the ground and requires better attachment to the hoof. When they get a little long in the toe the back shoes will come off or get loose quicker, I think from the fact that when you turn them in a tight circle the one foot basically has to spin on the spot and it can come off then. The Iron Rose is right, when they are kept up with and the nail holes are not worn out they will stay on pretty good. It is hard work and turns out to be the greatest expense of logging with the horses if you have to hire it done. Fortunately we do our own these days, since my son has gotten skilled enough to fit and shoe them properly.

I hope this is enough elaboration. When they start clicking, clinch them or reset them. The angles are so important in the horses being stout. I know these toe plates and heel caulked shoes make our horses able to pull bigger logs with more confidence.

Hope the log markets are holding up for everyone out there. Maybe we can start a thread on the values of raw logs regionally.

[Livewater Farm]

Having Had Shod Horses Professionally For 25 Years I Have Caulked Up Many Logging And Pulling Horses The Best Solution I Have Come Up With For Both Traction And Wear Is Borium
Use A Fine Grit Borium And You Can Build A Sharp Caulk On Any Style Shoe Stay Away From The Course Grits As Well As Drill Tex As Thier Course Nature Lends It To Chipping Off There Fore Rendering Its Gripping Powers Useles
With The Fine Grit Borium A Torch And Some Patience You Can Biuld Any Size Or Style Caulk That Is Required It Will Grip On Both Pavement And Ice And Add To The Life Of Your Shoes This Borium Can Be Found At Any Welding Or Shoeing Supply Store You Can Also Build Ice Nails With It And Drive The Nail Without It Breaking Off If Applied Properly But It Can Chip Your Hammer
Bill

[vthorseshoe]

I shoe logging horses and sugaring horses with flat farm plates and lI place borium on each side of the toe and a spot on each heel. I build it up to a size that will afford traction and a solid grab on ice or ground.

I went to this method because of hooking a drawn heel or toe grab in roots and pulling a shoe off.
(I have seen a number of folks applying pulling shoe’s with long heels and toe grabs)

I also will draw and make a “small” heel on the shoe’s and put borium on the heel after flattening it out when it comes out of the forge.
I will put two large spots on the toe and have had very good sucess with this shoe.

I shape all my shoe’s in the forge and make my modifications on a hot shoe taken from the forge to the avil.

On pads there are basically two types.

You have a full snowball pad that covers the whole sole of the hoof.

you also have a snowall rim pad that leaves the sole exposed and can be cleaned out but the pencil rim pad will kick out the snow and prevent balling up.

Either one works well.
I use mostly rim pads so if something was to get wedged in the hoof or frog you can see it and remove it before your animal goes lame. It also prevents the need to pull the shoe to lean out under the pad.

On a full pad I pack the foot with hoof packing and then use oakum fibre to fill in the space between the pad and the bulb of the frog.
This usually keeps debri from entering under the pad.

my 2 cents worth 😉
Bruce Matthews
nedrafthorseshoeing

[kris fraser]

would have to say the more traction the harder to stay on just lost a shoe on one of my horses for the first time that was cauhlked never had that happen with flats or d t even though they were way over due as they are know farriers horses are the last ones done that and his buddies but this winter i used cauhlked shoes with d t on them with snowball pads loved them tried just cauhlks last year no good on icey side hills didnt likem in many situations would explain more but i suck at typing but a little coatting of drill tech on the caulks was the answer for me now i lovem

[vthorseshoe]

If a shoe is put on properly it will say on .

unless the hoof wall is weak to begin with
or the farrier drove his nails low.
or the animal hooked the shoe and pulled it off
or stepped on it and ripped it off.
Or you have gone way over the scheduled 8 weeks or for some 10 week intervals between reseting the shoe.

Other than the above the shoe should stay on.

I have and many other farriers have put on traction devices, caulks, studs, borium, drill tech etc and keep shoe’s on full term until the next scheduled shoeing.
And then the shoe is taken off so as to trim the hoofwall back to normal size again.

Frank Walker is in your state and shoe’s drafts and I can bet he would tell you the exact thing I just said.

So If you loose another shoe check for one of the above and see if that is the problem.

Hope this helps to understand the main reasons for loosing a shoe.

Bruce Matthews
http://www.nedrafthorseshoeing.com

[kris fraser]

thanks for reply it was close to 12wk so id lean towards that i know frank real well apprenticed there for awhile never lost shoe on a customer that wasnt recoverd un tweeked with in normal intervals but my poor horses are always last to done

[Gabe Ayers]

Hey Bruce,

Glad you are on the board, because we need a good farrier to advise us on hoof care and proper shoeing. Thanks for being here.

I am curious (as a matter of financial planning) about what it cost to get a team of average draft horses shod with heel caulks and toe plates for serious logging.

Include the cost or borium or drill tech surfacing. This is probably the most important aspect of winter logging and we are just curious what it cost in NE.
Given the importance of that service whatever it cost to get a good job is where the operating cost estimates should start, from an outside expense perspective.

There is s a definite shortage of draft horse farriers in the south east or Appalachians. We have to do it ourselves, but often are asked what the cost are.

Thanks,

[Author]

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