Washers

So the other day I stopped at home depot to pick up some washers to place under the nail heads of the rear most nails on her front shoes.  If you recall, during the hunter pace on the 17th of August one of the rear nails on her left front shoe pulled through the polyurethane when it was stepped on by the hind in deep footing.

The manufacturer recommends 8mm washers bent in half like a taco, but when I got to the store and saw how big the 8mm washers really were, I couldn't imagine the nail heads not slipping through them, even if they were bent.  I opted to go for the 5mm washers and not bend them.  I'm using Delta Combo 5 City Head Slims and the 5mm washers were a perfect fit.  I had to dremmel out the nail channel in the shoes to accomodate Daatje's white line so the 5mm fit fine flat.

Pulling out the exsisting nails was not easy.  They were quite secure!  That made me feel pretty good about the shoes staying power.  If they're that hard to get off on purpose, they won't be too easy to pull off by accident.

So, I re-installed the rear nails using the same holes and set the washers under the nail heads.  The alteration looked something like this.

New rear nail with 5mm washer.  Right front.

New rear nails with washers, left front.

 She's been stomping around on this set of Ground Control Shoes for nearly 3 weeks now.  They are showing appropriate wear for being under an 1100 lb horse who's in work, I think.  Still plenty of thickness.  I plan on resetting them at 6 weeks and hope to get a full 12 weeks out of them before replacing them with a new set.

We should be well prepared for the hunt in Lyman, ME on Saturday.  The weather is supposed to be fantastic.  I'm really looking forward to it!  Will of course, be back with a hunt report/photos. :)