Pro tip: Stop fighting with old clinch blocks on draft horses

I used to wrestle for half an hour trying to get a clean clinch on a Percheron with those old block anvils and a hand hammer. Last winter I switched to a clincher tool that does the curl and the seat in one motion, and now it takes me maybe 8 minutes per foot. Has anyone else found that a specific tool change cut your rough shoeing time in half?

2 comments

2 Comments

noah_webb25d ago

I was still finding nail holes in my own boots for a week.

evan_jenkins25d ago

I read somewhere that old-time cobblers would actually reuse nails from worn out boots to fix new ones and sometimes the old nails would work their way back out. That's wild to think about, man. I bet you were just walking around and randomly stepping on something sharp thinking you picked up a staple from a packing box or something. It must have driven you crazy trying to figure out where all those holes were coming from. I remember reading that a lot of folks back then just accepted it as part of breaking in new boots. Honestly makes me appreciate modern shoe manufacturing a whole lot more.