The morning a hot shoe split right in my hand near Lexington, Kentucky

Monday started out fine, but around 10am I was pulling a shoe off a big Percheron and the metal just cracked right down the middle while I was holding it. Never had a shoe do that before, and it left me scrambling to find a replacement in my truck because I didn't have another size 5. I ended up spending almost 45 minutes trying to reshape a different shoe on the anvil to get it to fit close enough. Has anyone else had a shoe fail on them like that in the middle of a job?

2 comments

2 Comments

wood.john24d ago

Jumped right in to help a buddy with a hot shoe at his barn last fall and the same thing happened to me. Had a size 3 crack clean in half while I was trying to set it on a mare's hoof. It's a real headache when you're already pressed for time and have to start over with a new shoe.

abby_henderson24d ago

Yeah, I've got a buddy who tried that same heat and quench trick and it backfired on him too. He was working a wedge shoe for a draft cross and the metal just gave up halfway through the bend. Ended up sending him back to the forge for like the third time that morning, which is exactly what @wood.john is talking about with that headache of starting over. It's one of those deals where you think you're saving time but it just bites you later.