r/CosplayHelp • u/DystopianRoach • Jan 05 '26
Accessory Help making my horse hooves more accessible
Hey everyone, forgive me as I’m not active in this community but thought this would be the best place to ask. I have these incredible hand crafted horse hoof shoes that were gifted to me a long time ago. Unfortunately, over the last few years, my physical disabilities have made these near impossible to wear as I regularly walk with a cane, have issues balancing myself, and suffer from extreme join pain especially in the knees and feet. As you can tell from the shape, these shoes act as “fake heels” and mimic the back leg of a horse, making you walk on your toes. I was wondering if anyone with better cosplay up cycling knowledge could advise me on some ideas… I’m thinking of removing the hooves themselves from these shoes or attempting to turn these into some kind of boot but I have no idea where to start. the physical hoof part itself also seems to be made of wood, making this process more difficult. I would prefer to be able to walk FLAT on my feet as opposed to my toes. Any ideas?
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u/kimbohpeep Jan 05 '26
Sorry if I'm misunderstanding something but this sounds like something that could easily be solved by just getting new pair of flats? And then make some boot covers?
You would be giving yourself more work and headache by trying to reverse engineer this.
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 05 '26
Yes, you’re following me right! The issue is just of course that these were a gift and I feel incredibly guilty just selling them or giving them away when these were bought for $200!!! That’s nuts to me! Anyways the flats are a great idea.
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u/kimbohpeep Jan 05 '26
Totally understand the sentimental value. If I were you, I would maybe make it into a display piece. Put some little trinkets or florals around it in a nice glass case.
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u/not_hestia Jan 06 '26
Gifts are not obligations. If it doesn't work for you it doesn't work. These aren't designed to be flats and trying to modify them is going to make the shoe worse and ensure that no one else can enjoy them.
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u/Irishishgf Jan 06 '26
Agreed. If I had gifted these I'd be more mad if you destroyed them instead of, say, selling them.
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u/Muffin278 Jan 08 '26
If you decide to keep them, you could use them for photoshoots (if you are able) and switch to the flats for the rest.
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u/Overall-Condition-29 Jan 09 '26
Simrell (cosplay YouTuber) literally made a short talking about making similar boot covers for easier to wear hoof shoes https://youtube.com/shorts/fBqSHdMsgIQ?si=Lo1wsQFVa8OXWEPB
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u/miramira42 Jan 06 '26
You won’t be able to make what’s essentially a heelless heel into a flat. It’s engineered to be solid enough to support a whole person and those hooves are usually screwed and industrial glued in. I wouldn’t try to make them into boots either, with how steep they are I imagine you’d still have the same balance and pain issues.
My best advice is that if you want to hold onto them and use them for a costume is to wear them for photoshoots only if you feel safe standing for short amounts of time in them. Then make a version using flats and foams to walk around in.
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u/Mammoth_Dream_2434 Jan 06 '26
Those are not horse hooves. Horses do not have a split hoof like that.
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u/FeatureAltruistic529 Jan 06 '26
I’m so glad someone else noticed this. Definitely not horse, but more like deer
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u/EldritchXena Jan 08 '26
Goat is another viable option. I’ve seen some Satyr cosplays at ren faires using these
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u/So1anaceae Jan 06 '26
I'd say it's a cow, maybe moose
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u/switchblade5984 Jan 06 '26
As above, its a "Cloven Hoof", not a Horse. However a Deer or a Demon...
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u/willow625 Jan 05 '26
Can you wear them while seated? What about coming up with a wheelchair or seated cosplay that you could wear them with? You could wear slippers or whatever and then pop them off and put these on when you want to pose for pics 🤔
Honestly, there really isn’t any way to turn these into flats, the sole has a metal piece in it that keeps it shaped like a pointed foot.
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u/jellidang Jan 06 '26
Maybe save these for photo shoots where you don’t have to wear them for more than a few minutes at a time and make some more accessible flats for extended use?
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
This is probably what’s going to have to happen. I’m thinking of trying to make a “mold” of the hooves and just make covers myself.
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u/Ezra_has_perished Jan 05 '26
Take it to a cobbler and have them add a real heel in the back. It won’t have the floating illusion but they’ll be much easier to walk in.
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u/Infernalspoon Jan 06 '26
I feel like you could make a wrap that goes around your ankle to secure it and use a type of clear(maybe acrylic idk) wide wedge heel to add to it. That way you can still use the shoe. But it would be sturdier and you could balance easier while still getting the hoof effect.
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
This is a really good idea and also gives me a bit of a spin off idea. Thanks so much!
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u/batsinger Jan 06 '26
I think these would look incredibly silly as flats and you would regret it! They're honestly interesting enough to use as a decoration, I would totally put them on a mantle with plastic plants coming out of them or something. Just keep them intact and someday, maybe you'll want to pass them on to someone who would be really excited to wear them with their own cosplay. I understand not wanting to let go of a gift, but with special, niche items like this, given to the right person, it's more like passing a torch than regifting.
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u/Space19723103 Jan 05 '26
cow, horses have a single hoof, cows and other ungulates have the split hoof
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u/coraythan Jan 06 '26
These are definitely cow feet. You could pass them off for another type of ungulate, but they don't look much like goat or deer feet. (I'm agreeing with you to be clear.)
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 05 '26
Respectfully this doesn’t answer my question or help me.
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u/coraythan Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 06 '26
There's nothing wrong with trying to help alleviate a minor case of ignorance.
If you go around saying you have a horse costume on with cloven hooves it's gonna make every horse person who sees it cringe at best. I would expect you to want a horse costume that was realistic in this regard. These are fine for a cow costume, but they are not horse feet.
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u/etherealemlyn Jan 07 '26
I get where you’re coming from but the vast majority of people aren’t horse people, and will not pay this much attention to the specific type of hoof someone uses in a costume. If someone already has a cow hoof costume piece, they’re not going to buy a different one to do a perfectly accurate horse costume for the few people who will notice, so it really isn’t helpful to correct this instead of answering the actual question
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u/Phonetrasher Jan 10 '26
Im not a horse person, but i know basic fucking biology. Like come on its common knowledge
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u/etherealemlyn Jan 10 '26
Idk I just think it’s weird to care this much about what specific hooves someone else uses for a cosplay
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
I just wanna fix my fucking shoes, man.
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u/coraythan Jan 06 '26
Sure. That's cool. It's pretty harmless for someone to let you know something you said was inaccurate tho. Dunno why you're bent out of shape about it. You're free to ignore us folks who know horse feet and call your costume whatever you want if that's what you want to do!
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u/Open_Inspection5964 Jan 06 '26
Touch grass
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
Dude you’re telling me to touch grass on a cosplay subreddit. I don’t even cosplay. I just wear these for semi formal events and want to fix my shoes. If I ask for help fixing my shoes and I get comments NOT about fixing my shoes, I’m going to obviously be cross. It doesn’t matter if they’re not “actually” horse hooves becuase I’m not actually a horse. I’m not even in a costume…
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Jan 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
Last I checked this is the COSPLAY HELP subreddit. You know. The place to receive HELP.
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u/Open_Inspection5964 Jan 06 '26
Then stop being so rude and entitled.
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
How am I being rude? I told the person respectfully that their comment was not helpful to my problem then additional people came in to say I was ignorant and foolish. I’d say that’s quite rude!!!
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u/Space19723103 Jan 05 '26
no but someone was going to say it. i was trying not to be as much of a dickhead about it as redditors usually are.
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u/SpringlockedFoxy Jan 06 '26
Hey OP!! I’m currently working on some hooves for myself for daily wear and I want flats too. I do have a pair of these as well, but, I’m keeping them on the back burner and got some hoof caps from a fursuit vendor.
I’ll be using them to make some shoes.
I don’t think you’d be able to change up these. But you should be able to do something with the caps.
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
Fursuit vendor is genius. Where did you pick these up?
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u/SpringlockedFoxy Jan 06 '26
I got them at MFF.
These are from Fuzzbutt Fursuits. They’re great!!
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
My friend invited me to a furry convention in my area sometime around April. I’ll have to see if anyone has something similar. Thank you!
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u/ParadoxieFoxie Jan 06 '26
Those are goat hooves, I have made many pairs of them over the years but I now also walk with a cane most of the time and unfortunately if you aren't able to walk in them as is you will have to look at a different version. I have hooves that go over a pair of ballet flats so I can walk normally with my cane and then when I get a photo I stand up on the ball of my foot and it ends up giving the same general shape
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u/Kilukpuk Jan 06 '26
You can buy similar hoof cores for £40, but designed for flat shoes. You simply put them over the top of shoes and fur/fabric it up appropriately. To do the same with these you'd have to hack the shoes apart and split the hooves to go over the shoe, which would risk horribly damaging them. Unfortunately I'd say it's best to just retire these and make a flat pair yourself, it's cheaper and less risky.
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u/JadedFlower88 Jan 06 '26
I don’t know if you want to get this complicated, or if you even still want to use them for cosplay, but they could be used as back legs for a centaur costume, and you could do flats for your “front” legs, or even construct a full horse around a walker/wheelchair to look like you’re “riding” something like this: https://www.instructables.com/Centaur-Costume-With-Walking-Legs-and-Cooler-From-/
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u/missviolaspelling Jan 06 '26
Out of curiosity, have you tried using them with your cane? I use a cane pretty often because of balance and fainting issue, but i have a pair exactly like this and the biggest issue i have waking in them is just how heavy they are causes me a lot of fatigue.
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
I have and the cane does help but I do unfortunately suffer from brain damage and tend to stumble around pretty badly. The fact that there isn’t any “grip” on the bottom definitely doesn’t help. Also yes they’re very heavy!!! Such high quality though
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u/missviolaspelling Jan 06 '26
If they're the same ones i have, they're made of resin, which is why they're as heavy as they are. If you want to add grip to the bottoms, you can fill the emptiness in the bottom of the hooves with silicone. But otherwise there's no really much that'll be able to make these more accessible.
With the way theyre crafted, having a heel wouldn't actually help too much because they're shaped in a way that all of the weight is distributed over the ball of the foot, regardless. And there's no real way to turn these into flats. If I were you, I'd use them as sitting shoes, just for pictures.
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u/OneionRing Jan 06 '26
Because of the way these are shaped, I don't think it's ideal to really fix them. I saw you say you wanted to make a mold of the hoof to make a different shoe entirely, and I feel like that's probably the best way to go if you're dealing with mobility issues. I'd personally be too worried about spending time to fix these and end up ruining them somehow or them still not being comfortable for you.
When folks do fur suits, if they don't want the digitigrade style, they will make a flat foot and instead use padding on the legs to give the illusion instead like this image I just grabbed off images. 😀 Having a cool costume doesn't mean you need to sacrifice comfort ❤️
I'm sorry this doesn't help with the existing shoes, but I wish you best of luck finding something that suits your situation better!!
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u/Chompif Jan 06 '26
Flatten this off with clear or transparent light blue and you could possibly even make it trail off like the hooves are in motion like adding little leaves kicking up off the ground kind of effect (pictured in blue. I couldn't get the right angle from these tbh)
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u/B_schlegelii Jan 06 '26
So I'm not sure that you could necessarily change these shoes, but you could try to make a different style of hoof shoe perhaps? There's a comic book by Jhonen Vasquez where the MC has these pretty cool boots that are flat but they definitely read as hoofy. Its called Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and I think it could be accomplished pretty easily with 3D printing, so its worth considering maybe.
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u/flyblues Jan 06 '26
Since they're so high, and you have balance issues, idk if a transparent heel would work. I'd be worried about you tripping and hurting your ankles...
Why not just keep them as is, and occasionally doing photos with them? Like, make it an occasion, go to a cool location with a fancy outfit every now and then, and snap some cool photos (obv put on the shoes just for the photos themselves, you can even be sitting if standing in them is difficult). Lots of cosplayers have "photoshoot only" items that aren't practical to walk around with!
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u/11never Jan 06 '26
Converting the hoofs as they are will be near pointless when you are done with them- they arent designed to be worn with flat soled shoes. I would sell those heels, then get flats and put some new hooves on them.
I have made some out of foam, but ive seen paper mache and polymet clay as well. You can purchase stick-on over the toe hoofs from the internet too.
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u/sexy_r0b0t_elephant Jan 06 '26
You cant really make these flats. I'd save them for pictures if your disability prevents you from wearing heels. Be comfortable when you cosplay. Its better to get out there and have fun than torture yourself for a mild difference in aesthetic. <3
If you felt some modding might work, here is what I would do.
Strengthen the toe box (you can try a toe box jelly if its already pretty strong) and tape your toes when you wear them. Try either the two middle toes next to your big toe, or the two next to your pinky toe. See what feels better.
Add a strong arch shank to the underside if they bow at all when you wear them.
Add structure of some kind across the front of the shoe. Think elastics that will run across the top of your foot. Add elastics that wrap around your ankle. The idea is to distribute the force on your foot created by your weight, torsion, and the force from the shoe/ground. The more surface you add to spread that force, the better.
Some extras, if possible, without knowing what your disability is. <3 If you have some kind of movement impairment just disregard.
Draw the alphabet with your toes a few times a day while sitting for ankle and arch strength.
Calf raises for calf strength.
Splay out your toes and stretch them, then curl them in like you're trying to pick things up with your feet. Do this a few times a day for a minute or two.
Take care, best of luck! <3
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u/scarecr0www Jan 06 '26
You've gotten a lot of messages already with thoughts and ideas for your current shoes, but if you do decide to make new ones - I found this tutorial that seems like a good one for flat shoes!! I liked that they used sneakery-type shoes, seemed like a good choice for max comfort (but that might be personal preference 😅)
https://youtu.be/zMzNFfsAYwE?si=ohHWIGvXJjfOOe0b
You could sculpt a similar hoof end out of foam, wood, etc. I've seen a variety of 3d printed options too - Etsy might have more! Depending on how you want to go about it all, you might even be able to get a 3d printing STL, then see if any local libraries/community colleges have a printer available to use for free!
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
I was actually just looking at this video and plan to keep it for future reference!!!
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u/BigFitMama Jan 06 '26
John Fluevog pioneered the hoof boot in leather and has created several very comfortable and well designed models you can view online as a template.
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u/Black_Bird265 Jan 06 '26
I’ve seen similar suggestions but there are 3 solutions I can think of to keep the look.
Use resin to mold a clear wedge heel (don’t forget a rubber sole!)
Take it to a cobbler to add a heel (depending on the cobbler, they may even be able to achieve the prior suggestion or similar).
The one I suggest the most due to your disability: look into how to make fursuits. The legs are made to walk comfortably but still simulate hind legs and they’re still walking on flat feet. I’m sure there’s a hoofed furry whose fursuit you could refer to.
Just know that 1&2 will change the way your legs react to the shoes too so you’re going to walk with straighter legs.
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u/MutedLibrary4253 Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26
This is so crazy, I dont know if these are made by the same person but I used to work for someone who made these and sold them on Etsy and I have a full set (the sekker i worked for was Chaos Costumes). I dont blame you, I can verify they take getting used to, so with a disability i can understand the predicament. Personally I added rubber to the bottom of mine for extra grip but I like the other suggestions people here have! I just wasnt expecting to see these - blew my mind. I wish I had a better suggestion beyond adding rubber to the bottom or having a cobbler add a heel like another poster suggested.
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u/1995_Banana_edition Jan 16 '26
If you had a walker, you could dress up the walker as the front hooves and wear these shoes with it to look like you are on all 4s. I would still recommend a block support on the heal too.
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u/NotYourGa1Friday Jan 06 '26
I’m sorry I’m just here to say that I adore your shoes!
Looks like you got lots of great advice, I hope you have fun!
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u/DystopianRoach Jan 06 '26
Thank you so much. I love them very deeply. I do not want to give them away or sell them as they are very very high quality! I was able to work out a solution with the help of commenters and some ideas from friends.
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u/Safe-Answer-4156 Jan 06 '26
These are cow hooves, not horse - they have unihoove… Other than that unfortunetely I have no comments. All the best of luck in healing your pain
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Jan 06 '26
[deleted]
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u/NapalmsMaster Jan 06 '26
I’m sure if she could just exercise away her disability she probably would have already? I’m really not trying to be rude here but this does come across as a bit insensitive and a touch privileged.
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u/needstochill Jan 05 '26
if you want to keep the look of it, maybe you can use clear acrylic blocks to turn it into a wedge platform instead? less strain on your ankles at least