Studs and Studding
To stud or not to stud?
It’s never a quick or easy job studding up horses prior to competing, but award-winning SupaStuds have a unique, self-cleaning design which enables them to be screwed into a shoe without previously "tapping-out" the hole. This makes them far faster, easier and safer to insert than conventional studs. A high-tech manufacturing process is used to harden SupaStuds, rendering them tougher than tungsten, and this also makes them rust-resistant, prolonging their life. Supastuds are not self-tapping studs, they do not ruin the thread in your stud holes. They are simply designed to clean the hole as they screw in, not to re-threat it.
By shoeing a horse, you are removing the natural contact of the foot to the ground. When the wall of the foot and frog comes into contact with the ground, this gives the horse instant feeling as to what type of terrain it’s going over and then is able make immediate adjustment as necessary to the way in which it needs to either move or change direction depending on ground conditions.
By shoeing, this actually makes it more slippery for the horse when asked to compete at speed and take tight turns over all types of terrain, and in order to give the horse more grip and confidence, the sensible option is to have stud holes made in the shoes, which will then enable steel studs to be screwed into the shoe. Different types of studs are available for the type of going, whether it’s firm, and with a short grass covering, in wetter more slippery conditions, and in deep and heavy going. There are so many types to choose from but basically small pointed studs are a good choice for most medium to hard conditions. Larger, chunkier studs are better in the heavier going.
There are a lot of views on whether to stud up on both sides of the foot both front and back, to keep the foot balanced, whether to have a smaller stud on the inside and larger on the outside or whether it’s just necessary to stud behind or in front. From there on there is the issue of using stud guards and boots to prevent self-inflicted injury when competing. Sometimes you wonder, just how much help do we need to give, and actually could we, by spending more time on schooling and training, have a horse that is perhaps better prepared and balanced galloping and jumping at speed without the need for shoeing? Well there’s a thought! But anyway we do stock studs and accessories, so for the majority of us that will need these supplies, then we can help.
We stock the most popular types of SupaStuds as well as a range of Liveryman and Stromsholm studs and accessories too.
- 6th February 2017