Alu ,steel or bare foot which is better

Most of the plastic here has a metal insert ,you get glue on shoes ,but if you going plastic you might as well go barefoot
You cant just take of shoes and away you go there is a process involved to get the feet hard and functioning properly again ,and horses with very bad feet take even longer etc
On my travels overseas people always ask me why we put shoes on good feet ?
Some more to think about
If your hoof functioned properly and pumped the blood back up to the heart the way it was designed to do ,the heart itself would have less work to do thus allowing for a lower heart rate which would definitely give you an advantage over shod horses,imagine how many liters get pumped over an amount of strides and multiply that by the times the hoof makes contact with the ground per 1000 m ,, bearing in mind that there is only 1 foot on the ground at any given time in a gallop,, you going to save your heart a LOT of unnecessary work (
The shoe also stops when it makes contact with the ground ,,stopping the hoof from sliding inn ,,if the hoof was able to slide in an extra inch ,you would lengthen the stride thus reducing the amount of strides per race once again an advantage over shod horses,having a bad starting gate pic would mean nothing to a barefoot horse as he will finish the race in the same amount of strides ,,having a longer stride
Traction would not be a problem as the weight involved would not allow for loss of traction eg the downward force of a 450kg horse on a single hoof is enormous ,in fact traction would improve as the horse can now feel where its putting its hoof down ,which a shod horse battles to do because of lack of circulation numbing the hoof

...Gary good luck in your quest in running horses barefoot.....the Vets will love you.....the farriers will love you even more.....:S

Muhtiman
The shoe was not designed to protect the hoof it was initially designed to raise the hoof of the ground so that the horse did not stand in its own waste
The horse places its feet down, the rear slide in more so than the front then the horse pushes forward ,,not up that is why the jockeys seem motionless when the horse is flowing freely,there is no twisting action of the hoof to cause wear what so ever ,the TB has as many tibules in its feet as any other horse ,that is why ponies seem to have harder feet as they are normally smaller with the same amount of tibules
Do you think a horse that goes up and down the beach would need shoes or that ran around a grass paddock
If what you say is true then you would only need a toe piece and not a full shoe
Yes steel shoes can be replaced over again especially good quality ones ,the more silica in the metal the softer the shoe thus making it last longer I don't think you would get a discount though as it is normally quicker to fit a new shoe as to cleaning an old one
The shoes are cheap its the nails that cost a fortune (the person that can manufacture a good quality nail here is SA would be an instant millionaire as everything is imported )
If you wanted to save money on shoeing then pay the farrier directly as 99% of the time the farrier bill is inflated ,you would be amazed at how much the farrier actually charges for a full set and how much you being charged

This is not a quest to get horses to go barefoot I am trying to see what the owners know about shoes etc
The Vets hate horses that are bare foot as they have far less problems
The farriers would not mind either way as its quicker to trim a horse than shoe it ,,if you had no work that might be a problem
There is just about ZERO chance of someone agreeing to go barefoot ,,believe me I have tried ,,you might get 2 owners to agree and the rest not ( The owners of a single horse)
The trainers that have their horses unshod or babies unshod are way ahead of the rest that just want full sets all the time
Its funny that the horses that kick and are dilly :S have NO problem without back shoes

.....oh and I thought we put straw and wood shavings in a box to stop a horse from standing in its own waste....:.....silly me.....:S

They do now ,,they didn't when they made the shoe
The only reason your horse has so much bedding is because it would get capped hocks from lying on the concrete
And that is why they DONT put straw or shavings down where there is rubber matting and the horse still stands in its own waste on rubber matting
Please believe me the way the price of shavings is going your horse will be standing on concrete very soon

Muhtiman I would love to know of one horse in the world that is shod weekly

harry hotspur Wrote:

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> Muhtiman I would love to know of one horse in the
> world that is shod weekly

Yes it is not common but given the right muhti got some that were showing abnormal hoof growth and a trim in the early stages was almost weekly....adjusted the dosage and formulation and got clip down to twice a month.......the rapid growth was not healthy as the zinc and chromium in the product did not allow for calcium to deposit fast enough to improve bone density.....one has to be cognisant of what is in the various feed supplements that are available as some have side effects in that they over simulate metabolism and lead to other problems.

nice post, and, very interesting to me....thanks Gary horse......(tu)(tu)

The primary reason horses-in-training are shod is because sand work on a daily basis wears away the hooves faster than they can grow back. This applies specifically to the front where the 'over-wear' takes place. If you observe what goes on behind the scenes you will see there are champion horses from champion yards that are only shod in front and not behind at all.. until race time.

Barefoot is best and front shoes are a necessary evil. Of course there are many that will disagree and some trainers swear by 4x shoes at all times. At the end of the day, evolution has been at work a lot longer than racehorse trainers, farriers and vets. The more you take away the external forces that naturally strengthen every aspect of the breed (see Woelf's Law), the weaker it will become.

Horses are not shod weekly or bi-weekly, that is nonsense. The average would be about every3/4 weeks, depending on hoof growth and racing engagements. The average for non racehorses is 5/6 weeks. Most racehorses would be shod a day or two before running but if they were shod the previous week and the shoes are fine, they would normally be left on. If the horse has steels on and the trainer wants alis for a race it would be done a day or two before running. A shoe on a horses foot does provide a bit of grip on grass, therefore that horse might be at a slight advantage to an unshod horse. The problem with barefoot is also that the hooves tend to break up easier and the horse could go a bit footsore where the ground is hard or stony.