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Hammer-Finished Mule Shoe Delivers New Challenge

The 2017 Summit Mail-In Forging Exercise will earn a winner a buckle and all participants a T-shirt


Pictured Above: Sponsored by Victory, this forging exercise requires making a fullered mule shoe with calks and a brazed-on toe bar. You have until Jan. 20, 2017, to mail your entry into the AFJ office. Read instructions on how to enter at the end of the article

 

 

Now in its third year, the Summit Mail-In Forging Exercise has a new challenge for this go around. The inaugural contest was a hammer-finished heart bar shoe, followed the next year by an aluminum shoe with a riveted bar made out of a rasp. The bar shoe exercise allowed for power tool application. Although using power tools is a fine way to make and modify shoes on an everyday basis, I want contestants to hammer-finish this year’s shoe again. After all, this exercise is about learning and practicing the necessary skills to be a well-balanced farrier. This year’s Mail-In shoe is a fullered mule shoe, double heel calks and a brazed-on toe bar for the left front foot.

Mules tend to get a bit of a bad rap from farriers. I admit there was a time that I didn’t care much for shoeing them. Their personalities tend to be only part of the problem for farriers. Their feet often present the bigger challenge. Although there likely isn’t enough of these equids to fill your books, learning how to shoe them is a good skill to have. I will be doing a presentation at this year’s International Hoof-Care Summit on footcare for mules…

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Chris gregory

Chris Gregory

Chris Gregory is a Hall of Fame farrier and owner of Heartland Horseshoeing School in Lamar, Mo.

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