Braided Horsehair Horseshoe
We are over the moon to offer you this beautiful keepsake in collaboration with Tail End Jewellery. Alison from Tail End has over 18 years experience working with horsehair. Horseshoe Hearts will carefully clean, polish, personalise (if you wish) and seal the horseshoe. You can supply a horseshoe of your own or one from our stock. Alison will then braid the horsehair that you supply into the shoe and we will return it to you presented in a jute gift bag.
You can chose to have the shoe left plain, or if you would prefer we can add hand stamped personalisation to the shoe (space allowing) and also hang your shoe from rustic jute plait or white ribbon. These shoes look beautiful either placed in a frame of your choice, perhaps with a photo as a one of a kind display piece. Or you may wish to chose to hang your shoe where you can still touch both the shoe and the horsehair together as a tactile reminder of your four footed companion.
Horseshoe Details
If you would like to use your own shoe, select this from the drop down menu options and send your shoe and your horsehair, labelled with your order number and name to us. See the ‘Delivery’ tab the description for address details. If you do not have a shoe from your own horse or pony but would still like to incorporate your horse hair into a Braided Horseshoe we can supply a shoe for you. Select this from the drop down menu and send just your horsehair to us with your order number and name.
On checkout if you would like, or in with your horse’s hair, please send a note with detail about your horse or pony the hair is from. Their height, breed, build and any other characteristics that may help us. We can then select an appropriately sized shoe to create your heart from. If your pony was a small 12.2hh we will chose a smaller shoe to reflect that, likewise a 17hh Warmblood would wear a different sized shoe to a 15hh heavy cob. Barry has many years experience as a farrier so will use this to select a shoe as close as possible to the details you provide.
As standard we remove toe and quarter clips from the shoes. This is so, if you would like to frame your shoe it will sit flat in your frame of choice, or if you prefer to wall hang your shoe it will lay flat on the wall and not cause any wear or damage. If you would like the clips to be left on please advise us otherwise they will be removed as standard.
Horsehair Details
We will need you to send enough horse tail hair to be able to complete a braid round the shoe. As a guide please supply a minimum length of 40cm and approx a pencil thickness quantity of hair for the Braided Horsehair Horseshoe. If you do not have this amount or only have mane hair please contact us and we will do our best to help advise you if you would like one of these special shoes. Any spare hair will be returned to you with your braided horseshoe.
Please look through all the photos for details of the varying position of the braiding. With some shoes we may be able to provide a continuous braid round the shoe. With other shoes, either because of the wear to the shoe, or the type or brand of the shoe, we may need to create two smaller braids on either side rather than one longer one. If we have a concern when your shoe arrives that it we may not be able to fit two smaller or one longer braid on your shoe we will contact you to discuss a solution.
Lead Times
Please note due to the bespoke nature of these shoes and both Tail End Jewellery & Horseshoe Hearts working together means lead times may be longer than standard. Please be advised that lead time for these special keepsakes is currently 3 weeks from receiving your Horsehair and/or Horseshoes here with us.
How should I send my Horsehair and Horseshoes?
We ask that you send your shoes and hair to us, and select return delivery, via Special Delivery. This is because of tracking that you receive with this service. Standard Royal Mail Signed For is not a tracked service. We want your horsehair and horseshoes to stay as safe as possible and while we cannot eliminate risk entirely we believe Special Delivery – where items are tracked and signed for – is the safest way for precious shoes and hair from your special friends to travel.
More from Tail End Jewellery
Alison offers a whole range of beautiful horseshair jewellery. To see more just click here to visit her website.
Packaging
Your order will arrive with you in a branded jute gift bag.
They are ethically sourced and made of a natural fibre so you can just pop the ribbon out and pop it on the compost where it will break down naturally. Though we hope you may like to keep your jute bag and reuse it. Perhaps to store potatoes, carrots, maybe some grooming brushes or your plaiting kit, depending on the bag size. We’d love to hear what you come up with!
We have to confess, nostalgia did play a part in our choice! Do you remember those old jute horse rugs of days gone by? They were so heavy! Secured with a roller! A far cry from the modern horse rugs we see today! Did you know Mr HH’s father was also a farrier? Barry remembers the big jute sacks full of shoes that were delivered to his father’s forge.
So, for us, these rustic little bags made the perfect choice to present our horseshoe creations in. A small acknowledgement of where we came from, while being eco friendly which is a real necessity moving forwards.
We aim to use wherever possible 100% recyclable card & paper packaging, including the tape on the postal boxes, so you can pop it all into the recycling bin once you order arrives safely with you.
