History Of The Quix Shoe

I tried to glue my first shoe on my own horse at the age of 16 in South Africa . My first attempt was made using a bicycle inner tube and super glue. I then tried with fast setting epoxy. As you can imagine it did not work. I became a professional Farrier 6 years later and was always intrigued with attaching a shoe on without nails. I remember putting my first tab glue shoe (the one Mustad makes) in the early 90's. It was difficult to shape and even more difficult to get level. I then met Steve O'Grady a veterinarian from the states that expanded my horizons. I followed him back to the States and we worked together at The Northern Virginia Equine Podiatry Centre. We glued on hundreds of shoes with Equilox and it worked and worked well. The only problem was we were gluing on Aluminum and I wanted more. I started making a plastic shoe in my Farrier shop out of superfast, the material I'm now using with the Quix mold. I made a prototype of this shoe in 1998 and wanted to patent it then. I was not confident enough after my prototype was applied and felt it could be a lot better. I then concentrated on passing my Certified and Journeyman exams which did at the end of 1999. I have since relocated to Dubai, working for one of the most beautiful stables in the world. My trainer here is Satish Seemar ( 4 time U.A.E champion Trainer) and he has supported me in my endeavors. Rick Redden recently did a clinic here and I was one of the Farriers involved, working side by side with Rick for 4 days. This clinic stimulated and motivated me again. I immediately got back to my dream of a plastic glue on shoe. I had nailed plastic shoes on and the new Poly Flex shoe was out and very impressive. I then started molding a shoe that I could glue on. It looked good and I felt I was on the right path. The shoe was cast out of urethane plastic then glued on to the hoof with superfast. It failed miserably as the first shoe shattered into pieces the first day, I was gutted. I then pondered and thought: what if I made a latex mold of the hoof and shoe, then injected the material straight onto the hoof. That would be a custom shoe of note. I made this first mold and gave it a try. Patrick McWilliams the head lad at the stable and I had no expectations and he held the mold on the foot and I injected Superfast into it. We waited for about 1 minute and slowly peeled the heels of the latex mold back. WE WERE ASTOUNDED, the shoe that I had designed was sitting nice and pretty, glued onto the hoof tight. We could not believe it could work that well. We promptly did the other foot, and it was also perfect. Robert Stevenson my colleague was the first Farrier to see this in action and has now become a valuable member of the Quix team, The rest is what you see on this web site. This product is still in the testing stage and so far so good. I have absolute faith that there is no better way to shoe a laminitic horse, you can build a custom shoe at any angle, any position and get it on in minutes.

Derek Poupard, CJF, Dip WCF

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