Why we shoe horses, and how to determine whether your horse needs them or not

Protection - The Beginning of Horseshoeing

When we domesticated horses some 5000 years ago, we removed them from their “natural” state, and placed them in an “unnatural”, man-made one. With the demands we make of horses, we have created challenges to keeping them barefoot.

Since the dawn of the domesticated horse, it has been shown that these humans demands often exceed the horse’s ability to generate sufficient hoof to replace the wear.

Gengis Kahn had an army of people who used reeds woven into “sandals” as footwear for their cavalry horses. Every cavalry horse required hoof protection in order to be able to perform their duties.

Centuries later, in 1898, William Hunting wrote in his “Guide to Horseshoeing” that “If horseshoes were not required, no businessman would go through the trouble and expense of shoeing their horse”.

Today’s horse isn’t required to perform the duties of the military horse or the merchant’s horse, but there are plenty of abrasive surfaces that excessively wear hooves beyond what is healthy. Additionally, the working life of a horse was 4 – 5 years, at which time the horse was “retired.” Today, many horse owners ride horses in their 20s and 30s.

Increase Traction

Horseshoes can be necessary when people wish to ride or work their horses in conditions that require more traction than a bare hoof can provide.

Some examples are: riding over snow or ice, or participating in disciplines where high speed, tight turns, and potentially slick terrain increase the risk of slipping and falling (three-day eventing, polo, barrel racing, cross-country, racing, etc.).

Horseshoes can improve your horse’s ability to “grab” the ground and prevent slips.

Specialized horseshoe nails can be used to provide traction on ice and in mud.

There are also a variety of shoes with built in traction (rim shoes), and there are drive-in and screw-in calks that come in various shapes and sizes for every imaginable surface you would ride a horse on.

For more information on traction, read our article “Understanding Traction”.

Decrease Traction

In disciplines such as Reining, a reduction in traction is required to prevent the horse from injuring itself when performing certain movements, such as the sliding stop and the spin.

In other instances, a reduction in traction can be beneficial to protect the joints of working horses: a young dressage horse experiencing hock pain would benefit from a plain stamped shoe that creates very little traction while providing protection.

Hoof Health and Quality

A healthy foot, on an average saddle horse, should have a minimum of 15 mm of sole depth (5/8”). The larger breeds need closer to 20mm of sole depth. Sole depth is measured from the bottom of the coffin bone to the end of the foot/or appliance.

If your horse has thin soles and/or short feet, some appliance must be applied to lift the sole off the ground. Feet lacking sufficient sole depth are prone to a variety of concussion related issues even if they are not ridden hard.

The coffin bone and coffin joint will be able to absorb the excessive concussion only for so long.

Shoes will add 8 to 10mm to the natural sole depth of the horse.

Concussion Relief and Comfort

Horses such as police and carriage horses spend long hours working on hard, paved surfaces. These horses will need concussion relief. Synthetic shoes, aluminum shoes, or pads can provide comfort and concussion relief for these animals.

Protection Against Damage

Horseshoes can protect the sole from bruising, particularly when a pad is applied. They will also protect the hoof wall over rocky and uneven ground, and lift the sole. This added elevation can reduce the risk of trauma from the ground, and from objects that your horse may step on.

Horseshoes will also prevent the hoof from cracking and chipping.

Correction of Hoof Irregularities

Many conformation faults can create an unbalanced foot and limb. Most conformation irregularities cause one side of the foot to carry more weight than the other, creating issues of unequal weight distribution on the foot.

This causes flares, hoof wall separation, and uneven loading of the joints of the limb.

These issues (if caused by conformation and not poor hoofcare), can only be addressed by therapeutic horseshoeing, where the application of a specialized shoe improves the ability of the hoof to support the limb.

Deep cracks in the hoof wall are another issue that may require stabilization and relief from the stresses that caused the crack, which is a goal that can easily be achieved through therapeutic shoeing.

Other diseases of the hoof such as white line disease, laminitis, and founder, may also require a therapeutic device applied to the feet.

Concussion Relief and Comfort

The horse’s hoof has a 25% moisture content.

In a very wet environment, the bottom 10- 12mm of hoof on the ground surface will absorb moisture and become higher in moisture content, while the remaining hoof stays at 25% .

The sole has a 33% moisture content, but becomes soft and saturated well beyond that percentage in wet environments.

Excessive moisture over a period of time, will create softer hooves and soles. The softer the feet, the more those structures will be worn away in movement.

Soft hoof walls will separate easily, allowing bacteria and fungus to invade the white line.

Shoes can help to elevate the feet and limit the amount of moisture the horse stands in regularly.

Easing and Improving Movement

Horses with soft tissue and/or some bone issues can have therapeutic shoes applied to improve movement by addressing breakover, protection, and lateral, medial or caudal support (outside, inside or back of the hoof).

Horseshoes can also be used to increase animation or influence the arc-of-flight of the hoof, if desired.

Therapeutic Reasons

Therapeutic horseshoes can relieve stress on tendons and ligaments to allow them to heal. These shoes are designed to change the angles of the hoof to engage/disengage different tendons and ligaments, or to prevent the horse from bearing weight on an injured foot altogether.

Asymmetrical shoes can also be applied to help injuries or lameness in horses ridden in soft arenas.

Therapeutic shoes can be customized to fit your horses needs providing the support required to preserve or protect to aid in healing, but to alleviate pain as well.

Many lamenesses, diseases and injuries to the lower leg and feet will require shoes of some type. Problems like podotrochlear apparatus issues (formally navicular disease) or heel pain, cannot be successfully resolved or helped without shoes.

Additionally, many post-surgical horses require specialized shoeing or “hospital plates” if the lower leg or hoof were involved in an injury.

Does My Horse Need Shoes?

To determine whether your horse needs shoes or not, there are many different factors to consider.

It is important to understand that the need for shoes is not determined just by how much a horse is ridden, but also by the horse’s overall health, conformation, living conditions, and the owners wishes and expectations.

Most healthy horses with decent conformation and who are lightly ridden, do just fine barefoot and may go their entire lives without ever needing shoes.

Horses with conformation well-suited for a specific discipline, and who are kept on a short 4-5 week hoofcare cycle, have been able to excel at the highest performance levels while remaining barefoot.

On the other hand, horses with less ideal conformation, or who have suffered injuries or prolonged neglect, may never be able to remain sound without shoes, regardless of how much or how little they are ridden, or how well they are being cared for in the present moment.

The need for shoes should be determined on a case-by-case basis. No two horses’ situation is the same, and because one method yielded a certain result in one horse, it does not mean that it will work on all horses.

To determine whether YOUR horse needs shoes, you must take an honest look at your horse’s overall conformation and health, and determine what your goals and expectations are for that particular horse.

Both shoeing, or not shoeing a horse will involve different sets of compromises.

Shoeing a horse might be more expensive and “unnatural”, but it might allow you to get more use out of your horse without compromising on its comfort.

Keeping a horse barefoot might be cheaper and more “natural”, but it might influence your ability to utilize your horse over certain terrains or in certain disciplines.

Regardless of what you choose, beware of any group or school of thought that speaks in “absolutes” about this topic.