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42 years as an Equine Veterinarian, Specialist in lameness problems with horses
Woodlands NSW 2575
I’ve just inspected the latest version of the Costin Horseshoe and it’s just about a perfect horseshoe. The shoe gives plenty of sole protection, it is thin horseshoe so it doesn’t stand the horse off the ground too much. It’s got three clips – a toe clip and two side clips. These clips can be cut off, if required. It’s got the nail holes set nice and wide so you’re not going to prick them.
The shoe has a nice seat out in the sole bearing surface of the shoe; a break over; good toe grip; good pattern on the bottom that should give plenty of traction; the pad that you can glue on the top of it where you can have a multitude of adjustments to the shoe.
Steve has designed several attachments where if you’ve got a horse than needs balancing from the front to the back you can make one side higher and one side lower. You can raise the heel up, you can give it a rocker shoe. You can make a hospital plate out of it by just gluing or screwing the hospital plate on top of the shoe.
You can put a raised heel on it if you have an injury to a cannon that you need to raise up for a while. You can pour the inside of it with some equithane if you needed to support the frog more. You can make a heart bar shoe out of it.
The shoe has got a multitude of uses and Steve has made it out of a very good polyurethane material.
I can’t see any reason why these Costin horseshoes won’t be useful for virtually everyone who’s trying to shoe horses with normal feet and also, with problems.
I think it’s got more give in it and it’s much wider. A steel shoe as wide as the Costin Horseshoe would be very heavy. The Costin Horseshoe gives you much more sole protection; it’s got a nice little concave surface that allows the frog pressure to still be utilized. If a steel horseshoe was anywhere near as wide it would weigh three times as much as this shoe. It’s very hard to mould a steel shoe but the Costin Horseshoe is certainly easier to shape and mould. You can spread it a little bit. There’s six different sizes available in the Costin Horseshoe that should fit virtually every horse. From a warm blood down.
I’ve never seen another plastic (polyurethane) horseshoe like the Costin Horseshoe. Well not like that. I’ve seen some people try and make plastic shoes but not like this shoe. I think the difference in the Costin Horesehoe is the material that it’s made out of. The other plastic horseshoes I’ve seen are glue on plastic shoes which are ok for a short term but the longevity of the Costin horseshoe will be much better.
The Costin Horseshoe would absorb a lot more vibration compared to a steel shoe. However, it’s more than that. It’s more the twisting effect that’s the problem in a horse’s leg. And the Costin Horseshoe would enable you to get DP balance (dorsal-palmar/plantar balance), which is front to back balance, very easily by just adding the attachment to the bottom and changing the shape of the attachment. The Costin Horseshoe would absorb a lot of the vibration and it would mould with the horse’s foot a lot better. There’s a lot more bend in it, but it would protect the foot better at the same time.
Steve’s done a great job with the design of this horseshoe.