By Bill R. Bludworth "The use of a horseshoe is at best a necessary evil - no matter how well applied, it prevents the normal functioning of the hoof." Dr. Karl Douglas Butler Jr.,
noted author on horseshoeing. The first simple horseshoes were made from woven grass, reeds and animal skins. Genghis Khan fitted his cavalry with rawhide shoes that were stretched over the hoof, wetted and allowed to dry to a hard, tough covering. It is suggested by historians that the Chinese civilization was the first to have used iron shoes with nails, about 2,000 years ago. In order to understand the use and application of horseshoes, it is necessary to understand the structure of a horse's hoof. The hoof is composed of five different parts: the wall, the sole, the frog, the periople (including the bulbs) and the white line. Of primary importance is the hoof wall, which bears most of a horse's weight and is the part of the hoof that is visible when a horse is standing. The sole acts as a protective cover to protect the coffin bone (the bone inside the hoof). The frog's consistency and shape make it an effective surface for cushioning blows and reducing slippage. The frog will usually shed twice a year. The periople is a narrow ring of tissue located just above the coronary band and next to the hair line of the coronet that protects the coronary band. Fast growing hoofs are usually of higher quality than slow growing hoofs. A younger horse's hoofs grow faster than those of older horses. For instance, a foal's hoofs will grow at the rate of .6 inches per month, a yearling at .5 inches per month and a mature horse at .33 inches per month. The hoof grows outward, i.e., downward, from the coronary band which is at the juncture of the hoof and skin. The coronary band is the primary source of nutrition for the hoof wall. Hind hoofs grow slightly faster than front hoofs in younger horses, but the difference diminishes as a horse matures. Many factors influence hoof growth in addition to age, such as nutrition, climate, physical condition and exercise. Most professional horseshoers recommend trimming a shod horse's hoofs every six to seven weeks and resetting the old shoes or setting new ones if the old shoes are worn thin. There are old beliefs that white hoofs are weaker than dark hoofs. According to Dr. Douglas Butler Jr., a noted horseshoeing expert and author, there is no significant difference in strength or hardness between dark and light colored hoofs. Butler says that horseshoes are unnecessary under ideal conditions where growth of the hoof equals or exceeds the wear on the hoof. On the other hand, a horseshoe can be a beneficial tool to protect the hoof from excessive wear, to provide traction and to correct, or influence, the stance and gait of a horse. A person who is skilled at shoeing horses is called a "farrier." This name was derived from either the Latin ferraius, which means a worker in iron, or the French ferrer, which means to shoe a horse with iron. Of course, in the days of the Old West, the job of shoeing horses fell to the town blacksmith with his forge, anvil, hammer and red-hot iron.
Many well-trained farriers today make use of the old hot forge methods of making horseshoes from scratch, starting with a piece of cold, straight, flat bar. Most horseshoes used today are called keg shoes or cold shoes. These are machine-made shoes which, not too long ago, came in wooden kegs weighing 100 pounds. There are disadvantages to the use of keg or ready-made shoes - nail holes are punched in a fixed position near the center of the web and are perpendicular to the flat side of the shoe which goes against a horse's hoof. The problem this creates is that it makes it difficult not to "quick" a horse that has thin hoof walls. "Quicking" is much like tearing a fingernail into the quick. By using a custom-made shoe, a farrier can position the nail holes closer to the outside edge of the shoe and slant them at an outward angle in order to miss the quick, which is the sensitive area just inside the white line of the hoof. "Cowboy" shoes are those made in a compromise pattern rather than different patterns for the front and hind hoofs. The front hoof is usually more circular than the rear hoof, which tends to be oblong. The parts of the horseshoe include the toe, heels, outer rim, inner rim, web, branches, crease or fullering, and nail holes. The toe is the front area of the shoe that is toward the head of the horse. The branches are the sides of the shoe, and the heels are at the back ends of the branches. The nail holes are in the crease, which is a groove cut in the bottom or ground side of the web. There are many different materials used in horseshoes. Most are mild steel. High-carbon steel, much harder to shape than mild steel, is used occasionally when longer wear, such as on abrasive surfaces, is needed. A horseshoe may be made to last longer and to provide a better gripping or non-skid surface by the addition of borium. Borium is a mixture of a very hard material, such as tungsten carbide, which is combined with a mild steel filler and is applied in a molten state to weld itself to the bottom of a steel shoe. Thin aluminum shoes are used on race horses, while thick aluminum shoes are used on jumping horses. Rubber shoes sometimes are used on horses which spend a lot of time on pavement, such as mounted police units which patrol city streets. Rim, or barrel racing shoes, have a crease all the way around the web with a higher, or thicker, outside rim than inside rim. A polo, or turf shoe, also has a crease all the way around, but has a higher inside rim. A shoe with a sloping inside border tapering to a sharp edge at the surface of the hoof is called a concave, self-cleaning, mud or snow shoe. Sizes of shoes vary with the size of the horse. Ready-made shoes range in size from No. 0 for ponies to No. 8 for draft horses. Most saddle horses will be in the No. 2 size range. Good stance and healthy hoofs are key indicators of a healthy horse. A horse with bad "posture" and cracked and crooked hoofs most likely will have more than just foot problems. Taking care of a horse's feet gives it a head start on being healthy.
The Principles of Horseshoeing (1974) The Principles of Horseshoeing II (1985)
Farriery - A Complete Illustrated Guide (1977) Drawings by L. Sadler
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