Stud Help Again - re Taps

S

sonjafoers

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Hi,

I posted on here recently asking for tips looking after my stud holes and after todays frustration I am still looking for help!

The advice on here seems to be to plug the stud holes as soon as the shoe goes on, which I don't do. I have been leaving them untouched until the morning I need them and then clean them out etc etc. but from now on I will plug them with the cotton plugs & vaseline as soon as the farrier puts the shoe on.

I have also ordered some travel studs so that I can clean the holes out & put these in before travelling, so that when I arrive I just need to swap them for the studs I'll be using. Oh how easy it sounds, if you could have seen me sweating, struggling & cursing today you would know I need a miracle!

So...question number 1: can I put the travel studs in the night before & turn out with them in? My gut reaction is not to do that and to leave the travel studs until the morning of the event but I just want to check.

Question 2: I now know that my SupaStuds do need the hole tapping sometimes and I have been looking for a decent quality tap to replace the totally useless one I have which came in a ready made kit. I have seen some with a big plastic handle for about £8 but also an aluminium one which is actually round to fit in the palm of your hand which looks really easy to use. It is £25 so before I fork out does anyone have one and if so is it worth the money?

If anyone has any other tips to make the whole process easier I would really appreciate it.

Thank you
 
As no one else has replied (yet)...travel studs would be ok to turn out in, but the movement (and the wear if you don't buy new studs often) will make them harder to get out again.
Oh, and from my years of roll up smoking...cigarette filters make good plugs...
S :D
 
Thank you Shilasdair,I did have the same thought about turning out overnight with the travel studs in but I was just trying to save myself extra stress on competition mornings.

Somebody else suggested cigarette filters to me so I think I will give them a try, they don't look much different to the cotton plugs you can buy but are much cheaper so got to be worth it!
 
Ditto the cigarette filters, perfect for plugging stud holes - anything that makes life easier when you have a team of 10 big horses to stud up is a blessing!

As for stud taps, my personal preference is for the round ones, purely because if the horse for any reason whips its foot away and stamps down, the rubber ones are safer. The T taps can do damage in that scenario.

Ive never used travel studs, have always just whipped the cigarette filters out and studs straight in, no problems.
 
Travel studs can actually be more of a problem than they're worth. We used to use them all the time but they can be fiddly. In wet or muddy weather than can really stick. They can also rust in even in just a few hours.

If we can we clean and pack the stud holes the night before - we've found oil and lint free cotton wool work best - but neither of us smoke. Otherwise we just try to make sure we have time in the morning....

Part of your problem may actually be the supastuds. We used them briefly but found that although they are great once they are then increasingly hard to get in. This is because they slightly re-shape the stud hole each time until you end up with an oval instead of a round - not noticibly, but enough to mean getting the studs in was really really difficult after a while. We discussed it with our farrier and he had found the same problem with a number of clients including his daughter who competes internationally as a junior. On his advice we changed back to ordinary studs and have had far fewer problems. I do keep a spare set of supastuds as they can be quick and easy the first time. But then you have to change the shoe before you use them again!

Rubber T Taps are far far safer if the horse mucks about. If they put thier foot down on a metal tap you can be in very serious trouble.
 
Thank you everyone, I must admit I used normal studs for years before switching to SupaStuds last year & I haven't actually found them any easier so maybe I should just switch back to my old ones. Thank you for that info Shay, because I find the whole stud thing so frustrating I'll try anything to make it easier!

With regards to the rubber taps I found a round rubber one on the net a while ago but can't seem to find it again, only an aluminium one. Could anyone point me in the right direction please?
 
http://www.eddiepalin.com/catalogue.php?catid=8

The ones that double as a rubber groomer are the only ones I can find, the aluminium one is okay too, the shape is the most important part.

We used to buy boxes of just the filters, but I can't remember where from. 1000 filters may be a bit much for you if you just have the one horse though!
 
i just keep road studs in all the time. i've used plugs before and after a while they get stuck and it's a real mission to get them out! my farrier puts them in for me too so that saves on me having to do it
 
Tiggas Saddlery sell a useful bit of kit: Plastic handled stud cleaner. Cleans out the stud holes, no need for plastic bungs, cotton wool etc. Studs screw straight in.
 
Ok, I'll add in what I know. I have never had any difficulty whatsoever with b's studs. as soon as possible after shoeing, clean out the stud hole best as possible using a farriers nail. There can be a little bit of mud in as long as it's mostly out. Then I take 2 slim cigarette filters, squeeze them together in my fingers, (the ordinary filters are too fat. 2 slim ones side by side fill the hole perfectly)
dab them into a jar of vaseline so you have a nice dollop on the end of them then dob the vaseline into the stud hole and SCREW the filters in clockwise. That'll clean & lubricate the threads as they go in.

Then the night before the show, I whip out the filters with a farriers nail, once you have prised them a bit out, if they are stiff, you can turn them anticlockwise and practically unscrew them out. You'll see your threads are nice & shiny. Then dab the thread of your travel stud in vaseline and that should screw in very easily. Changing studs at the showground should then be a breeze.

You shouldn't need to tap at all, but if the shoe is worn you might need a bit of fiddling to get it started if the edge has burred for example, but keep the stud perpendicular to the shoe and it should go in fine.
 
Agreed, supperstuds really aren't all that as they destroy the thread. I have a really good thing for picking out which also has a wire brush on it and gets the hole clean in half the time. We clean ours the night before and plug with cotton wool but now off to get some filter tips as this sounds like a great idea!
 
I use "blanks" which screw in with an allen key. I take them out the night before a competition and grease the hole but apart from that they stay in permanently.
 
Those of you having trouble with supastuds - I'm not sure what you are doing differently to me but I have no trouble and wouldn't use anything else if you paid me!

You do have to take the time to get them in the hole square - helps if the farrier did a decent job with the stud holes in the first place ;) My preference is to have a hole punched in the shoe while it is hot and then the thread tapped in so that you have a good 'lip' around the hole - I hate it when they just drill straight through the groove, it's impossible to get a good purchase on the hole then.

I use supastuds travel studs and put them in the day before, then turn out with them in. I have hacked in them too but would not normally because they are relatively pricey. They don't rust because of the treatment they've had and I've never had one go mis-shapen:) You do have to get them in dead square but that highlights it if your holes are squiff, at least you know before you get to the show! Then take them out carefully and the proper studs go straight into the same holes. Easy :)
 
mainpower said:
I use "blanks" which screw in with an allen key. I take them out the night before a competition and grease the hole but apart from that they stay in permanently.
Click to expand...

I use them too - they are fab. I put a tiny bit of cotton wool in the allen key hole, then pick it out with a nail when i need to remove them, at most then you have the tiniest layer of mud to remove:

http://www.equestrianclearance.com/westgate_efi/mt_studs_accessories/index.html#placeholder

Click on images and then it's the 'Screw-In Stud Hole Plugs' pic
 
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