I've been tasked with making shoes for the Millenium Horse, which will be a Free, but I've got some questions for any horse people out there: These are going to be Fullered Shoes (I've got some reference material), and I see references to a "toe clip", and I see a depression in the pics in the front of the shoes, which I put in the mesh, but does anything normally show above the shoe here? I think I'm going to make the depression a little wider and shallower, anyway. This is how it looks so far, on the P4 horse (I don't have the DAZ horse yet). I'll include the nails heads too (for want of a nail, the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe... and so the Kingdom fell!), but I'm probably not going to do the clenched over part.

Will there be a high-heeled option? :)

I'm a bit surprised by the form of the horseshoe front. All the horseshoes I've seen horse equiped with had not this little depression in the front. Instead, they had a flat bit of metal which helps preventing that the horseshoe slips backwards. But may be it's a type I don't know. Oh, and there should be square holes to pass the nails through (but I guess you knew that already). Hope this helps.

Have you tried looking up the websites for Farriers Schools? There's one outside Tulsa, Oklahoma that had a rather extensive website a year or so ago...they teach how to make shoes from scratch and scrap, the old fashioned way, so there may be info there you could use. And Mr. B...I don't think that a hors will work on six inch spikes...better make them pumps. ; ]

Typically- here in the UK, anyway- the front shoes have toe clips (a single 'lip' overlapping the front of the hoof, as in compiler's photo) and the rear shoes have quarter clips (two little lips that each sit about 1/8 of the way around from the center line). Check the number of nails as well- there's often a different number for the inside and outside edges, but can I remember what those numbers are at the moment? Nope. Brain's gone blank. Blame monday morning. :p

*might want to check that 1/8, actually, because as a rough guide I think I underestimated the fraction, they're further round than that. That looks like the old P4 horse in your pic?

The farrier/horseshoer usually bends a bit of the metal at the toe or along the sides of the shoe to create the clips. The clips, as far as my experience has been usually help take the pressure off the nails and keep the shoe secure; also a toe clip might be used in conjunction with "rolling the toes" to cause the horse to pick up the foot a little earlier than they might otherwise be inclinde to do; horses that clip (catch the back of the front foot with the rear toe) often have clips and rolled toes and squared toes...corrective work to try to keep them from pulling off those front shoes....

Thanks guys, the pic was a big help too. I did some looking on the web but didn't finfd anything too helpful. The reference I have says "6 nails are ideal", but they also show 8, like compiler's! That is the P4 horse, I never got mine far enough to be possable (but it did have foot detail, per the pic, even at this early stage). Yep, heels are out for the horse, but maybe something in a nice flat sandal... ;-)

Well, the Romans did call their horseshoes "hipposandals", and tied them on rather than nailing them on. :)

Ha! Never knew that. I did get the DAZ horse mesh yesterday, here is a pic of his hooves, I wish they hadn't put that strong ridge around the outside, I might have to do a morph to take it out. I gather the farrier would file it flat anyway, to fit a shoe. ;-)

That's not very realistic... The triangular shape is soft, the rest is hard and flat (when in good shape). Between the 2, there is a smooth V shaped depression that you have to clean after a ride.

But you have to draw the line somewhere, and you can do wonders with textures and bump maps... ;-) Anyway, here is how the shoes finished up. I did do a set of morphs for the hooves to get them perfectly flat, and to allow for the toe clip (which I did put in the shoes). I also put another material on the shoes faces to allow them to be "shiny", as I gather they would get from normal wear. Many thanks for the help, guys! If I ever start working on my horse I'll be asking for alot more.

This is coming out real nice !