Farriers seemingly are always on the look out for strategies to improve their efficiency while trimming and shoeing horses. South African farrier Derek Poupard has found a way to change shoes in a matter of seconds, according to Thoroughbred Racing.

Poupard’s technique is borne out of necessity. Newmarket, England, trainer Charlie Appleby, for whom Poupard shoes, trains without shoes, having them applied only on race days to comply with the rules. As a result, Poupard aims to make the foot as natural as possible. He does so by creating a 3D printed cast-on carbon fiber interface that allows him to screw on an aluminum shoe.

“This is something I’ve been working on for the past few months,” says Poupard, who has a small 3D printing machine in his workshop at Godolphin. “I’ve got a filament here which is printing out what I’ve designed on the CAD [Computer Aided Design] package on the iPad. It builds the item you’ve designed in layers of 0.04 mm. There are 400 layers, which takes a long time — about 4 hours.”

» Learn more about the process, technique and which type of feet it is more useful on at ThoroughbredRacing.com.