Re: Slippery Training Rides

[WSAbg@t-online.de (Wolfgang Schwingenheuer)]

Flemmer, Linda wrote:

> I have heard that there are horseshoe nails that have borium nail
> heads.  Anyone know the name/manufacturer?  My farrier thinks that they
> will chew up his hammer.  What do your farrier do for setting these
> nails?  Does he have a sacrificial hammer?  Harder hammer?  .....
>
> Linda Flemmer

  Hi Linda,

I have been using some of these special nails. They are made by Mustad,
Switzerland and called "DuraTrac". It is a standard nail with some
borium
welded on the head. My farrier is using his normal hammer because he is
not 
using the nails ver often.
Yes, they do last much longer than the standard nails and they also give
an
extra portion of grip.
But I find out (and being confirmed by my farrier) that they may cause a
problem: Because they are not even with the shoe, each of the heads is
"searching" grip at the road. This is causing some vibrations to the
hoof
and - at my horse - ending up with cracking the wall.
If your horse has a good hoof with strong walls the problem may not
occur.
But in our training-sessions there is about 30 - 40 % of asphalt...
But please do try them out. I have been testing some of the products for
the
Mustad company to find out if they are useful for endurance. But
regarding
the overall view of horse, local roads and riding paths we have stopped
that. The combination is to abnormal (I am trying the Mustad NailShu, a
polyuretane-aluminium mix. My horse had worn them off at about 50
km...).

Happy trails,

Wolfgang + Nösenberger's Ninja (more than 1.000 miles)