How to Build Horse Shoeing Stocks From Wood

Shoeing horses can be a difficult and dangerous task. Using shoeing stocks can protect both the horse and the person shoeing the horse. Shoeing stocks will prevent the horse from moving around while you are trying to fix, change or put on its shoes. You can purchase shoeing stocks or you can build them relatively inexpensively using lumber and rope.

Draw the shape of your shoeing stocks on the ground. Your stock should be 60 inches long and 42 inches wide to hold most horses.

Dig your post holes so that the outside edges of the posts line up perfectly in the corners of your stocks drawn in Step 1. Dig down 4 feet and 2 inches. Add 2 inches of gravel to the bottom of the hole and place your post inside. Level your post and add concrete, keeping the posts level until the concrete is cured. Your shoeing stock should be 46 inches tall after the posts have been sunk into the ground.

Cut a 6-by-6-inch post for each of the sides of the shoeing stocks. The posts should fit in between the posts sunk in the ground so that the total length of the stock is 60 inches. Affix these with the four heavy metal plates, one in each corner.

Cut one more section of 2-by-6-inch lumber for the breast bar. This piece should be cut to 42 inches, and will screw into the top of the front of the stock into the posts.

Cut your 4-by-6-inch post to four pieces 17 inches tall. Attach these posts to the bottom of the original posts with angle iron pieces. Install them on the back sides of the posts.

Cut four additional pieces of the 4-by-6-inch posts 9 inches long. Affix these posts so that they sit on top of the short posts installed in Step 5. They should hang over the posts so that they are 9 inches into the center of the stock. Attach these with angle iron pieces also. These are the foot rests.

Attach the cleats to the sides of the posts. Each post will have one cleat on the outside of the post. Attach the cleats just below the 6-by-6 side board under the metal plates in the center of the post.

Attach the heavy screw eyes about 6 inches to 1 foot above the tops of the foot rests on the outside of the posts, under the cleats.

Install the belly straps. Use rope, straps or chains. Screw them in to one side of the stock about 6 inches from the inside of the metal plates on the outside of the top post. The straps should be long enough to wrap completely around the horse’s belly and the other side of the stock.

Install the butt chains on the back of the back two posts above the hind foot rests. Install two additional screw eyes to the back of each back post. The first should be approximately 3 inches from the top of the post and the second should be in the same area as the cleats, but on the back of the post. Use rope or chain that is long enough to wrap under the horses’ hind quarters. Attach snap hooks to both ends of the ropes. The ropes will hook into the screw eyes on the back of the post.