Why were shoes invented?

And yet the barefoot taliban find time and time and time again, from TB's to draft horses that "cannot manage" without shoes, that given a low carb diet and plenty of movement, we can get almost any horse free of metabolic disease to happily go barefoot.

Why were shoes invented? To accommodate the unnatural way in which man chose to keep their horses when they were the "machines" of the day.

Why do they continue to be used? Habit. The perceived need to stud for competition. The wish to give the horse too much access to grass (whether from "kindness" to the horse or convenience of the owner). Massive amounts of undiagnosed metabolic disease. Heavy marketing of molassed feeds by feed companies. Farrier revenue protection. Ignorance. And, in a minority of cases, need.
 
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Because humans have turned into big softies?

Long ago you use to chuck horse out to pasture (or wherever you left them). lol. And round them up when you need them again. You didn't care how many of them died just as long as a good few were left. Thus horses that couldn't manage without shoes died - so they weren't a factor. It was also not a problem if the horse was lame, it could still pull stuff and carry weight (and if it couldn't it would be shot).

In modern times we don't like our horses dying or being lame - so we shoe them.
 
indie999 said:
In india they dont shoe the working horse and quite a pitiful sight! Long feet, lame and just pitiful sight, still expected to work and work.
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I am sure you are correct, that is why charities like WHW set up farrier education in countries like South Africa and other third world countries to educate and train people to look after their animals, but one has to be realistic, these animals are going to have to work in order to feed the families. The people do not realise it is cruel [in our eyes] and not necessary. Education and training is the responsibility of the affluent Western World.
These charities have to be invited by the host countries, and they don't all want westerners seeing what is going on.
 
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QueenofCadance I really think your opinion is flawed. Horses were expensive and well cared for in the past, a man's life and livelihood and that of his family often depended on his horse.
I agree with CPTrayes that the problems of the modern horse are caused through, crap feed, wrong pasture, not enough work, all covered up by shoes.
 
QueenOfCadence said:
Because humans have turned into big softies?

Long ago you use to chuck horse out to pasture (or wherever you left them). lol. And round them up when you need them again. You didn't care how many of them died just as long as a good few were left. Thus horses that couldn't manage without shoes died - so they weren't a factor. It was also not a problem if the horse was lame, it could still pull stuff and carry weight (and if it couldn't it would be shot).

In modern times we don't like our horses dying or being lame - so we shoe them.
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No no horses where a valuable commodity difficult to breed difficult to keep there value was huge during the crusades the value of a destriere ( trained warhorse ) was huge estates where bankrupted by the cost of furnishing a son with the equipment for war.
They shod though need ,metal was expensive difficult to work of course horses died but they would have tried to persevere them .
Horses don't die from not wearing shoes I have a horse who is working hard hacking on roads over hills intensive flat work trainning a little jumping he's sound and with today's great nutrition grows plenty of horn the longer he works without shoes the stronger his feet get he shows no sign of dieing.
Of course he will die one day but it won't be from having no shoes.
 
QueenOfCadence said:
Because humans have turned into big softies?

Long ago you use to chuck horse out to pasture (or wherever you left them). lol. And round them up when you need them again. You didn't care how many of them died just as long as a good few were left. Thus horses that couldn't manage without shoes died - so they weren't a factor. It was also not a problem if the horse was lame, it could still pull stuff and carry weight (and if it couldn't it would be shot).

In modern times we don't like our horses dying or being lame - so we shoe them.
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The flaw in your argument is that in the "long ago" to which you seem to refer, the horses were shod.

Shoeing is not modern. In modern times, we are realising something which the Greeks and Romans seem to have known long, long ago, that - kept in optimal conditions - horses can do a massive amount of work without shoes on.
 
I agree with Pale Rider, I read a heartbreaking article about a man in Sudan recently. He had a sick child and a sick camel, he could either pay the doctor or the vet, but couldn't afford both. Didn't know what to do, because if the child died, he had others, whereas if the camel died, he lost his income and the family would starve. But it was his child FFS! We don't know we're born, really.
 
Arabelle said:
I don't know if you saw the fantastic programme with Griff Rhys Jones about the drovers route from Skye to Stirling, when they took the cattle to market (not sure if it was shown in England).

Anyway, on the rough, stonier tracks the cattle started to get footy and were, in fact, fitted with shoes to enable them to keep going and get to the market.

So shoes were obviously invented so that people could travel with their animals over rough and challenging terrain, back in the day when you wouldn't go 'he's a wee bit footy, I'll pop him in the stable for a while'.
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a bit off topic, but yes i watched it! i am from skye, so it was quite interesting... picking put continuity etc...! all of his "little detours" were actually big detours! :D the farrier featured was my farrier... he kept his starring role quiet, and i nearly fell off the sofa when i saw him! :p
 
My 'Barefoot' Clydesdale once she started working daily went footsore, she was being worked on summer hard grass - no roads or nasty sharp surface.

She has lovely feet that have been well cared for all her life - I've owned her since she was 6 months old and had come off the hills - she is now rising 9.

To do more than wander around her paddock she needs to be shod.

I always thought that it was the Romans that introduced shoing to horses and to be honest I think horses were far healthier 40 years ago prior to composit feeds and obsessive feeding of supplements!
 
I don't think Xenephon mentions shoes, although he does describe a desirable hoof conformation.

The Spanish conquerers of the New World took horses with them, and shoes so that was early 1500s. I studied the earliest picture in the National Gallery to see if the horse had shoes on, but it was difficult to tell!
 
I agree that horses seemed to be healthier a few years ago (can't quite remember that far back though), but then we didn't expect them to work 365 days a year, they had holidays without shoes which will have done them the world of good.
Now we try and keep them going all year on over fertilised cattle pasture and processed food, I'm convinced it contributes to the amount of lameness problems we seem to suffer.
 
cptrayes said:
Shoeing is not modern. In modern times, we are realising something which the Greeks and Romans seem to have known long, long ago, that - kept in optimal conditions - horses can do a massive amount of work without shoes on.
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But Greeks and Romans had hipposandals, so knew that barefoot wasn't best ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipposandal

"The necessity of protecting the horse hoof was recognised by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and written about by Xenophon"
 
maggiesmum said:
I agree that horses seemed to be healthier a few years ago (can't quite remember that far back though), but then we didn't expect them to work 365 days a year, they had holidays without shoes which will have done them the world of good.
Now we try and keep them going all year on over fertilised cattle pasture and processed food, I'm convinced it contributes to the amount of lameness problems we seem to suffer.
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I reckon horses 40 years ago worked a darn sight harder than they do these days - it was nothing to do an hours steady trotting, on the road, every day. We rode to shows, did not have surfaced arenas and rode out on hacks more than we do today. We rarely hard fed horses on grass, and we rarely saw laminitis except in the odd native pony. We had school horses in their 20's.

TBH how many of you truly graze horses on over fertilised cattle paddocks. Just about every paddock I ever grazed my horses on were cattle paddocks. Horse owners are notorious for not looking after the quality of their grazing.
 
Every livery yard I've been on in the last 10 years was either ex or current farm land that grazed cattle, not all fertilised at the time but the ground had been heavily fertilised in previous years.
This kind of monoculture just doesn't suit horses, I agree that the other part of the problem is that lots of horses just don't do enough work.
I still think feed companies produce too much processed sugar rich food, it's not easy finding unmolassed feeds!
 
Jen_Cots said:
But Greeks and Romans had hipposandals, so knew that barefoot wasn't best ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipposandal

"The necessity of protecting the horse hoof was recognised by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and written about by Xenophon"
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They knew what we know.

That given the wrong food, the wrong environment under their feet, and/or the wrong amount of exercise, that a substantial proportion of horses cannot work without shoes.

But they needed their horses to work like machines. They WERE machines.

Surely we ought not, in this and age, to be thinking of our horses as things to be kept sound with a band of steel, if they can be kept sound without by improving their management?

There are some horses, (very few is my opinion and most of those metabolically diseased in some way) , who can't work barefoot. But there are lots and lots of owners who do not have the luxury of being able to give their particular horse what it needs to work barefoot. I predict that over the coming years many of those owners will find livery yards offering barefoot friendly livery, and many others will decide that the new breeds of boots are better than 24/7 shoes.

A lot of work on tough surfaces is not a reason for a horse to need shoes. Inconsistent levels of work may be and so may feet compromised by a high carb diet or standing around in ammonia waiting to be needed for the next battle. Some or all of those probably applied to the horses that the Greeks and Romans shod.
 
One must also remember that fashion/one -up -manship played a part in the use of shoes on horses. As others have said,iron was an expensive metal so in early times the rich would have shoes on their horse to show off their wealth and status. This could be where the term 'well shod' comes from.
 
Pale Rider said:
QueenofCadance I really think your opinion is flawed. Horses were expensive and well cared for in the past, a man's life and livelihood and that of his family often depended on his horse.
I agree with CPTrayes that the problems of the modern horse are caused through, crap feed, wrong pasture, not enough work, all covered up by shoes.
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Good horses were expensive, but workhorses were at market value, in 1962 I could have bought a tenement flat in Ibrox [Glasgow] for £500, and a horse off the streets for £30 to £50 [a months wages for a working man].
A small country estate [800 acres], and a really good hunter would have set me back maybe £150,000 and £280 respectively. An artisan earned £8 per week.
 
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I wouldnt know where to start, but theres references to them in the quaran, and some Babylonian King had one with nails buried with him AD600 something. One web site describes the military horse in Rome, with references to the invention of the Roman Road as we know it, and some ancient arabic tribes used to wrap their horses in hide to protect them from wear, and there is also reference to horses originating from dry steppe, roaming 50 or 60 miles at an amble in the course of 24 hours to feed, with only short bursts of speed needed, which is why the hoof dosent suit soggy mud, and other sites who describe the breeding of horses as the reason why they needed to be shoed. I'ts one long long list of why's and wherefores, but what I didnt realise is how old the actual invention was, and the huge upsurge in use during the crusades. My farrier mentioned it was a celtic invention and some websites seem to support this, although It would be a brave person to identify some of the sources as horseshoes! A bit like time team when they find a wall and an archeologist says its a temple! It really has made interesting reading.
 
Pale Rider said:
Roads have been in existance thousands of years before shoeing, no horses were worked harder or covered more miles than Greek or Roman horses, non of which were shod.
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John McAdam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Loudon_McAdam
Developed modern road construction in the 18 century, when there was a lot of movement due to economic development [the agricultural revolution], before that, roads were just paths over suitable ground, going from village to village, potholes were very common.
When you are riding/driving on a country road five metes wide, with a camber in the middle, this is his legacy.
 
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cptrayes said:
There are some horses, (very few is my opinion and most of those metabolically diseased in some way) , who can't work barefoot. But there are lots and lots of owners who do not have the luxury of being able to give their particular horse what it needs to work barefoot. I predict that over the coming years many of those owners will find livery yards offering barefoot friendly livery, and many others will decide that the new breeds of boots are better than 24/7 shoes.
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I find when I take my horses shoes off for winter, they manage fine. Might be a bit footy, but not a problem. When I try and work them the feet began to split. Thus I often think of barefoot for field ornaments, the tough footed and the preserve of idealists.

If I could I would as it costs money to shoe, but then I don't feed hard feed and have no intention of creating an ardous routine as time is money. So it suits my lifestyle, and I have no problem with keeping farriers in jobs.

I cannot see the idealist livery yards becoming a reality, land is shrinking and with individual turnout, what you suggest would be highly expensive and unlikely to ever be the norm.
 
Jen_Cots said:
I find when I take my horses shoes off for winter, they manage fine. Might be a bit footy, but not a problem. When I try and work them the feet began to split. Thus I often think of barefoot for field ornaments, the tough footed and the preserve of idealists.
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I am not totally disagreeing, but I see loads of horse and ponies who are in a field on rest basically, they are not fed a barefoot diet, but the feet are allowed to flare, and I think that if they were brought back in to work then they would immediately go lame and probably have split hooves.
My routine is to feed once a day, and ride out on a tarmac road 20 to 30 mins per day, not very arduous.
 
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Jen_Cots said:
I find when I take my horses shoes off for winter, they manage fine. Might be a bit footy, but not a problem. When I try and work them the feet began to split. Thus I often think of barefoot for field ornaments, the tough footed and the preserve of idealists.


I cannot see the idealist livery yards becoming a reality, land is shrinking and with individual turnout, what you suggest would be highly expensive and unlikely to ever be the norm.
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Sorry Jen, I'd have to say that you did not have the right advice when you tried to ride your horses without shoes on. Your most likely problem was that their feet were too long, which is one of the commonest causes of splits. As regards the footiness there are a number of reasons for that - they were given work they were not ready to do at that stage/they were eating the wrong food/they have undiagnosed metabolic issues/their feet were waterlogged, and a few others.

If you ever want to try it again I suggest that you enlist the help of a good trimmer who understands how important nutrition and the correct work are to working a horse without shoes on (it might be a farrier).

Barefoot friendly livery yards with track systems and restricted grass turnout are becoming more common already. It takes less land than a normal system, as you can track the outside of the field and make hay from the middle, so also saving money.
 
Wow, lots of really interesting infomation on here! I agree with tigertail, I'd heard/read somewhere that shoes were used as a weapon on the battle field.

I've just gone the barefoot route with my cob, lots of previous posts about it so I won't bore you ;) but the Rockley blog for yesterday (Friday!) made for very interesting reading, it was about human barefoot runners and the benefits of being barefoot for them. Worth a look if you have a few minutes to spare.

Personally I've found it interesting that my cob is now sound but his feet arent perfectly symmetrical by any means, and yet he's done 47 + miles of roadwork in under 3 weeks, and is still sound! :D Fed the right diet and managed carefully I don't think all horses need shoes. I think it's a management choice and fair enough to those who choose to manage with shoes. I can't because for my boy it means lameness returns, but I agree that it is easier in some ways! Maybe not cheaper, but definitely easier.

FWIW I'd love to be on a barefoot friendly yard with track systems *develops dreamy look and gazes off into the distance :D
 
bikerchickone said:
Wow, lots of really interesting infomation on here! I agree with tigertail, I'd heard/read somewhere that shoes were used as a weapon on the battle field.

I've just gone the barefoot route with my cob, lots of previous posts about it so I won't bore you ;) but the Rockley blog for yesterday (Friday!) made for very interesting reading, it was about human barefoot runners and the benefits of being barefoot for them. Worth a look if you have a few minutes to spare.

Personally I've found it interesting that my cob is now sound but his feet arent perfectly symmetrical by any means, and yet he's done 47 + miles of roadwork in under 3 weeks, and is still sound! :D Fed the right diet and managed carefully I don't think all horses need shoes. I think it's a management choice and fair enough to those who choose to manage with shoes. I can't because for my boy it means lameness returns, but I agree that it is easier in some ways! Maybe not cheaper, but definitely easier.

FWIW I'd love to be on a barefoot friendly yard with track systems *develops dreamy look and gazes off into the distance :D
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47miles in 3 weeks is 2.23 miles a day...... horses (and ponies) need much more than this. This is why the track system works so well.... If you want to graze at a track system come and live in New Zealand!!!
 
We took horses off natural pasture and bred natural traits out of them then asked them to do other than what nature intended. As my over bred tb still lives on man sown pasture and carries me about he still needs his shoes.
 
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