10/25/2024
I recently had a panicked client come in with a very misrepresented concept of what the cost was to do a mildly corrective steel set on her horse. She had read something about corrective shoeing recently, and the author had indicated an enormous and inaccurate price tag, without a description of what all that had entailed.
Knowing a little about the context of what was posted, I assured her that what one horse versus the other required were not at all the same. Steel and composite shoeing are two completely different animals, are required at different times, and live in different zip codes. But it got me thinking, since many people aren’t familiar or aware.
Let’s talk about the cost associated to do a corrective composite shoe package. These situations are often presented when a horse has minimal nailing surface available, needs significant correction beyond what traditional materials have available, or needs a reduction in capsular reverberation, whether it be due to laminitis, navicular or other injury. In order to glue on a corrective composite shoe set, you need:
-composite shoes: $36-$60/pair, depending on the flavor.
-Glue: To do corrective work, it’s best to use acrylics like Equilox. This usually runs about $110 tube, and you get approximately 4-6 sets out of a tube if all goes swimmingly. If you want to be fancy and match your black hooves with black glue, then you need to be prepared for $22/foot, as that’s what single use tubs with dye packs cost.
-Dental Impression material (DIM): $100 or so a tub, and I get about 10 sets out of a tub.
-Casting: if your horse is lacking in nailing surface, and you need corrective work, you must cast over the shoe to add permanence to the package. I use some of the best casting on the market at $16/roll. Less expensive (but prone to greater rate failure) material ranges from $7, up to $18/roll for comparable. Casting also requires dorsal wall glue which adds another 2oz.
—Fungi-dye and Hoof Clay: Since we are closing up the space to air contact, we need to protect from infection prior. Fungi-dye is a pour on substances that both sterilizes and changes color when it comes into contact with fungus. Once the surface has been disinfected, then I add a layer of sterile hoof clay to ensure a layer between the tissues and the shoe. These run $13/bottle and $56/tub roughly, and I get between 10-20 sets out of each.
Are you keeping track? For those at home, we are conservatively at $110 ($155 if you use the stuff I do) JUST IN MATERIALS for front shoes. The farrier hasn’t even started trimming your horse yet.
This is why corrective composite shoes run $300-$400 for a front set. By the time the farrier has traveled ($35-$50) trimmed ($50-$75), and shod (usually about $50/foot for glue as you can figure approximately 45 minutes to an hour of prep from start to finish, per foot, and often they’re building tedious glue wedging from radiographs), it is not particularly profitable.
BUT—often the need is not permanent. Many horses cycle through expensive composite corrections in 2-4 cycles. Sometimes even just 1.
So. Protect your investment—don’t turn out in muddy conditions. Glue, no matter how strong, whether correctly applied or not, deteriorates with constant contact with moisture. If you know your horse is apt to be rambunctious, add some light sedative to the mix the first couple turnouts. Keep the horse in for 8 hours for the glue to set in its entirety if it hasn’t been reinforced with nails.
If it comes off in perfectly dry conditions while your horse is mooching in a field, thats glue failure and all of us guarantee our work.
If you fail to follow instructions, or you’re beyond 10 days, that’s owner oversight, or general wear, just like any other pulled shoe.
