What on earth are these critters.
If you haven’t had shod horses (that’s horses that wear shoes…) or been around horses, this is all probably a rather mysterious and strange concept. So I thought I best explain. Horse shoe nails are what hold horse shoes on, they go into the hard shell of the hoof. It doesn’t hurt them. It’s kind of like the end part you trim off your own nail. No I don’t use horse toe nails.. (that was quite hilarious the other day when that one came up) or used horse shoe nails. They’re fresh out of the box. They come in a box of 500 and I live in fear of dropping a box of them. They’re made from a relatively soft metal which is why they lend themselves so well to critter making. They are a sort of tapered rectangular shape and they come in a range of sizes. The ones I use are usually between 4-5cm long.
In contrast, the horse shoes I use to make the jumps for the jumping horses are used and abused and then I recycle them into these guys. They’re not soft like the nails and to be re-shaped they need to be beaten with a hammer, with or without being heated up first. My horse riding friends keep me well stocked with shoes! The small rectangular holes you can see in them are where they nails go to hold the shoes on. The larger round hole is a stud hole and they acts like cleats on footy boots. They’re more typically used on jumping or eventing horses which is why I use those particular shoes to make the jumping horses. Lots of jumping horses don’t use studs but I think its neat to use the ones with the stud holes for the jumping horses.
The rasps I cut up for the base of my jumping horses are very kindly sought from my brilliant farrier. These are used to file down the hoof and once they lose their edge they’re a PITA to use so I get them.
While I’m explaining things (all of this has been established through trial and error and for particular reasons - none of it happens ‘just because’) the paint I use is trade quality as recommended for the application by my local paint store, (which is why they come in black, black and black). The metal cleaning process has also been refined as per advice from the amazing local paint store.
