Keg shoes typically come with a crease in the ground surface, but are they worth the effort to craft into your handmade shoes? And if so, what are the keys to proper fullering? Chad Chance, a veteran farrier in Pilot Point, Texas, 30 minutes north of Dallas, creases 95% of his shoes and says, “I’m fullering every day.”

When a well-clipped shoe is applied correctly, it sure looks sharp on a horse’s hoof. Some farriers will even go so far as to call them sexy. Proclivities aside, they serve an important function. “Clips are mainly used to improve the security of the shoe on the foot and relieve stress on the nails,” says Tucumcari, N.M., farrier Jim Keith. “They can be applied anywhere around the wall perimeter, but usually only in the anterior half due to their ability to constrict wall movement. They may be used to contain wall flares.”