What is the EponaShoe?
The EponaShoe is a flexible horseshoe made of modern composite polymers. It makes use of four types of polymer to create the most effective flexible shoe design ever. A flexible shoe is the ideal tradeoff between what is natural for the horse, and the demands we ask of the horse.
What is Different about the EponaShoe?
Most plastic shoes are either too hard or too soft. Plastic shoes that are too hard can cause pressure points under the sole and make some horses sore. This problem is more apparent with plastic shoes than with metal because plastic shoes always have a "wider web" than metal shoes - hence, they reach in under the sole further. On the other hand, plastic shoes that are too soft will not hold nails and will not keep their shape. The EponaShoe is the first shoe to solve this problem by using two materials on the "sole side" of the shoe. The EponaShoe is hard and stiff where the nails go, but soft and supportive under the sole. It can also be thought of as "the shoe with the built-in pad". In April 2005 our US patent was granted!
Nailed or Glued
The EponaShoe materials have also been designed to accept adhesives - either acrylic or polyurethane based - to glue the shoe to the horse's hoof. It is the first flexible shoe designed to be equally effective as a glue-on or as a nail-on shoe. We have some suggestions on how to nail or glue the shoe at our main page for farriers and horse owners.
Sole Support
More and more people are discovering the benefits of supporting the frog and sole in some way. Since horses in nature often have their feet packed with debree, it is likely that the hoof and internal structures are really meant to be supported in this way, at least some percentage of the time. Our recommended method of applying the EponaShoe employs a small amount of 2-part silicon support material placed by hand around the frog, and then the EponaShoe is applied over this packing. This yields a quick, easy, and cost-effective means of achieving sole support. No more messy liquid fillers, expensive application guns, and cure-time as required by other schemes.
What Problems can it Help?
We believe that flexible shoes can help most lameness issues to some extent. Of course, a good farrier is more important than the best shoe, and success is going to depend on doing what's right for the horse -- be it our shoe or not.
Built-In Pad Choice
To help farriers deal with the wide variety of cases they confront, we offer 2 versions of the built-in pad --'open' or 'mesh' style. If you click on the images below, you'll get a 360 degree visual tour of the shoe.
Click image for animation
How is it Applied?
To fit the shoe to the horse's foot the shoe is shaped with a simple hand-grinder or bench-mounted grinder. We offer a sufficient selection of sizes such that generally not more than 1/16" of material need be removed from any side of the shoe.
It can be nailed on pretty much like a conventional shoe. By selecting the proper material to hold the nails, and by protecting the sole with a second material, we believe the EponaShoe has the best nailing system of any flexible shoe. Also, the EponaShoe was specifically designed to also be glued on if desired.
Sizes
The EponaShoe comes in 16 sizes: they are numbered 000, 00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 and for each of these sizes there is a "Narrow" or "Wide" version of the shoe. Hence, a size is specified with a name like "2N" (size 2 Narrow). Click here to see our sizing chart.
What about Traction?
On many surfaces, our composite materials provide superior traction as compared to a metal shoe. However, the EponaShoe is not too "grippy" either -- horses need to be able to slightly slip -- some rubber shoes grip too much, which can send excessive torques into the joints. The EponaShoe is available with various traction options:
Carbide-Tip Grip Option
Click for animation
It is up to the farrier and the horse owner to choose the traction devices which make sense for the terrain and use of the horse.