USING ADHESIVES OR GLUE WITH HAPPY HOOFWEAR™ SHOES

One question we are often asked is “Can Happy Hoofwear™ shoes be glued on?” The answer is “yes”. The primary reasons for shoes to be glued on is because the foot is too sore to allow nailing; a foot has such poor quality of hoof that nails will not hold; or there is so much hoof missing that there is no place for nailing.

This guideline was written by one of our Farrier Consultants, a Certified Journeyman Farrier. He wanted to remind owners and farriers alike that there are options when you are considering whether to glue on shoes. They do not need to be glued in pairs. If the left foot is normal and the right foot has large portions of hoof missing, the left foot can be nailed as usual and the right foot glued. This helps keep costs down. Also, if there is enough hoof wall to get just 2 or 3 good nails or screws in, these can be added after the glue has set up.

Our Farrier Consultant found that the most critical factor in the gluing procedure is the farrier. In general, we find that the faster the glue sets up, the less chance there is for things to go wrong, which usually involves the horse moving and/or taking its foot away, thus compromising cleanliness of the hoof. As farriers are all aware, sore horses do not want to stand still for long. As such, the farrier needs to be very organized, because once the process has begun, you need to be smooth and efficient and must be fully prepared to work immediately.

We have tested two adhesive products currently on the market: Equilox and Vettec. Our Farrier Consultant had no preference. (*Please note: these products are not affiliated in any way with Happy Hoofwear™ and you should follow each manufacturer’s specific instructions for use.) In this case, we used Equilox. Both companies have product descriptions and videos and application directions on their web sites: www.equilox.com and www.vettec.com.

The glue is temperature sensitive and is easiest to work within a range of 65 – 85 degrees F. This first photograph is a bucket of water with an electric heater in it, because on this day the temperature was about 40 degrees F and cold glue takes forever to set up. When the water is hot to your hand, simply drop the glue cartridge into the water.

Clean feet are of paramount importance, so be sure your work area is clean and dry. Trim the feet just as you normally would and lightly rasp the heel area and the bottom inch of hoof wall. This removes all surface dirt and oils.

Fit the shoe as usual. Notice the “R” written on the bar of the shoe. Because the farrier must be ready to work immediately and be efficient, we recommend you label the left and right shoes on both the hoof side and the ground side. This will ensure there are no accidents in gluing the right shoe on the left foot and visa versa. While the shoe is marked as to size, we also noted the size (*in this case “0”) on the right heel of the shoe. This is just another way of making it easier for you to track your inventory.

To ensure good adhesion of the glue to the shoe, lightly buff the hoof side of the shoe, roughing up the surface.

The following photograph shows the right branch of the shoe scuffed up while the left side is still smooth. You can see that the shoe is not thinned out, but the surface is simply scuffed up.

As shown below, the left foot has the bottom edges lightly rasped to enhance cleanliness and adhesion, while the right one is untouched. Prepare one foot and then apply the shoe. This minimizes the chance of dirt and moisture contaminating the second foot accidentally.

Just prior to gluing the shoe, flush the surface of the hoof wall with denatured alcohol to be sure all oils and finger prints are removed. Do NOT use acetone for this purpose. Because of the cold temperatures, we used a heat gun to dry and warm the hoof.

Use the same flushing technique on the bottom of the foot. You will notice that at this point, rubber gloves are being worn. Latex gloves tear easily leaving your finger or palm exposed. Once the foot is clean, do not touch it with a bare hand. The hoof will become contaminated with skin oils and sweat, resulting in the glue/hoof bond being seriously compromised.

Now that the foot is clean, DO NOT PUT IT DOWN. Get into the driving position and squirt some of the glue onto a paper towel to be sure that Part A and Part B are being ejected correctly.

Have the shoe handy and twist on the mixing tip.

Apply glue liberally to both the foot and the shoe.

Position the shoe and apply gentle pressure to squeeze out any air pockets between hoof and shoe. Hold the foot until the glue sets up. In this case it took approximately 4 minutes.

Medial and lateral views after the glue has set up and the foot put down.

Attach a new mixing tip, (because the glue in the first mixing tip has set up by now), and apply glue to the quarters and heels. Spread this around using a Popsicle stick or similar item. (In this case we used a piece of the shoe that was nipped off while fitting the shoe to the foot.) Usually this step is done to both feet after the second shoe has been applied and the glue set up. Due to the cold temperatures on this day, we chose to do the first foot immediately while the glue and foot were still warm. After the glue sets up, this area can be rasped smooth.

We are sharing with you what happened when we were doing this segment, because we hope to give you a heads up to avoid the same mistake. After the first foot was done, the plan was to put the glue back into the hot water while the second foot was being prepared. We realized belatedly that the glue cartridge was now open and water would get inside if we did that. In hindsight, we should have had a zip lock bag on hand to seal up the glue cartridge, so that it could safely be submerged into the hot water again for the 2nd shoe. At this point, our Farrier Consultant determined the best option was to kick into high gear, and the foot was prepped and glued in record time. The second shoe was held in place for 8 ½ minutes (*much longer than the first shoe required due to our error) until the glue appeared to have set up. By this time the horse, normally very good to shoe, was agitated about having to stand for so long on one leg so he finally tired and slapped down his foot hard and fast. Even though the glue had set up hard to the touch, it was not hard enough for HIS touch, and the shoe slipped and twisted.

We tried again. Our Farrier Consultant picked up the foot, repositioned the shoe, and applied additional glue. This time the heat gun was used to warm the glue, shoe, and hoof, and the glue set up in 4 ½ minutes. Again, with hindsight, knowing that both cleanliness and glue temperature had been compromised, a couple of nails or screws could have been added for security.

Now dress up the feet and make things look pretty. You may notice that the rubber mat looks different in these photos. After the cold glue debacle, this poor, patient horse just had to stretch out and do “his business”. So the mat was lifted up and turned over. Fortunately, at this point it did not matter, but this is one reason why the first foot should be completed before starting on foot number 2. Cleanliness is critical!

Here is the finished job. Now for the down side. Because of poor planning, the right front shoe did not stay on very long. Four days later the shoe was found out in the pasture. Again, another reason why it is so important when gluing to have everything ready to work immediately. If not, you’ll just be doing the work over again days later.

Owners might ask you: “What happens to the foot if the shoe gets pulled off?” As this photograph shows, the shoe and glue pull clean. As we noted, the glue did not fail, the farrier did. A mistake was made, and with glue you only have one time to do it right! Upon returning to the barn we expected to chip the glue off of the shoe and reapply it. This glue would not come off even using pull offs. Rather than using a grinder, we kept the shoe for demonstration and used a new shoe. We hope you folks learn from our mistake!