Horseshoes (Edited from Wikipedia)

SUMMARY

A horseshoe is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horse's hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toenail, although much larger and thicker. However, there are many cases where shoes are glued.

The fitting of horseshoes is a professional occupation, conducted by a farrier, who specializes in the preparation of feet, assessing potential lameness issues, and fitting appropriate shoes, including remedial features where required. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, horseshoeing is legally restricted to only people with specific qualifications and experience. In others, such as the United States, where professional licensing is not legally required, professional organizations provide certification programs that publicly identify qualified individuals.

Horseshoes are available in a wide variety of materials and styles, developed for different types of horse and for the work they do. The most common materials are steel and aluminum, but specialized shoes may include use of rubber, plastic, magnesium, titanium, or copper. Steel tends to be preferred in sports where a strong, long-wearing shoe is needed, such as polo, eventing, show jumping, and western riding events. Aluminum shoes are lighter, making them common in horse racing, where a lighter shoe is desired; and often facilitate certain types of movement, and so are favored in the discipline of dressage. Some horseshoes have "caulkins", "caulks", or "calks": protrusions at the toe or heels of the shoe, or both, to provide additional traction.

HISTORY

Since the early history of domestication of the horse, working animals were found to be exposed to many conditions that created breakage or excessive hoof wear. Ancient people recognized the need for the walls (and sometimes the sole) of domestic horses' hooves to have additional protection over and above any natural hardness. An early form of hoof protection was seen in ancient Asia, where horses' hooves were wrapped in rawhide, leather or other materials for both therapeutic purposes and protection from wear. From archaeological finds in Great Britain, the Romans appeared to have

1 attempted to protect their horses' feet with a strap-on, solid-bottomed "hipposandal" that has a slight resemblance to the modern hoof boot.

Historians have expressed differing opinions on the origin of the horseshoe. Because iron was a valuable commodity, and any worn out items were generally melted down and reused, it is difficult to locate clear archaeological evidence. Although some credit the Druids, there is no hard evidence to support this claim. In 1897 four bronze horseshoes with what are apparently nail holes were found in an Etruscan tomb dated around 400 B.C. The assertion by some historians that the Romans invented the "mule shoes" sometime after 100 BC is supported by a reference by Catullus who died in 54 BC. However, these references to use of horseshoes and muleshoes in Rome, may have been to the "hipposandal"—leather boots, reinforced by an iron plate, rather than to nailed horseshoes.

Existing references to the nailed shoe are relatively late, first known to have appeared around AD 900, but there may have been earlier uses given that some have been found in layers of dirt. The earliest clear written record of iron horseshoes is a reference to "crescent figured irons and their nails" in AD 910.

There is very little evidence of any sort that suggests the existence of nailed-on shoes prior to AD 500 or 600, though there is a find dated to the A.D. of a horseshoe, complete with nails, found in the tomb of the Frankish King Childeric I at , .

English horseshoes from the 11th to the 19th centuries

Around 1000 AD, cast bronze horseshoes with nail holes became common in Europe. Common was a design with a scalloped outer rim and six nail holes. The 13th and 14th centuries brought the widespread manufacturing of iron horseshoes. By the time of the Crusades (1096–1270), horseshoes were widespread and frequently mentioned in various written sources. In that period, due to the value of iron, horseshoes were even accepted in lieu of coin to pay taxes.

By the 13th century, shoes were forged in large quantities and could be bought ready- made. Hot shoeing, the process of shaping a heated horseshoe immediately before placing it on the horse, became common in the 16th century. From the need for horseshoes, the craft of blacksmithing became "one of the great staple crafts of medieval and modern times and contributed to the development of metallurgy.” A treatise titled "No Foot, No Horse" was published in England in 1751.

2 In 1835, the first U.S. patent for a horseshoe manufacturing machine capable of making up to 60 horseshoes per hour was issued to Henry Burden. In the mid 19th century Canada, marsh horseshoes kept horses from sinking into the soft intertidal mud during dike-building. In a common design, a metal horseshoe holds a flat wooden shoe in place.

THE NEED FOR HORSESHOES

Many changes brought about by domestication of the horse have led to a need for shoes for number of reasons, mostly linked to management that results in horses' hooves hardening less and being more vulnerable to injury. In the wild, a horse may travel up to 50 miles per day to obtain adequate forage. While horses in the wild covered large areas of terrain, they usually did so at relatively slow speeds, unless being chased by a predator. They also tended to live in arid steppe climates.

The consequence of slow but nonstop travel in a dry climate is that horses' feet are naturally worn to a small, smooth, even and hard state. The continual stimulation of the sole of the foot keeps it thick and hard. However, in domestication, the ways horses are used differ from what they would encounter in their natural environment. Domesticated horses were brought to colder and wetter areas than their ancestral habitat. These softer and heavier soils soften the hooves and have made them prone to splitting, making hoof protection necessary. Consequently, it was in northern Europe that the nailed horseshoe arose in its modern form.

Domesticated horses are also subject to inconsistent movement between stabling and work, they must carry or pull additional weight, and in modern times they are often kept and worked on very soft footing, such as irrigated land, arena footing, or stall bedding. In some cases, management is also inadequate. The hooves of horses that are kept in stalls or small turnouts, even when cleaned adequately, are exposed to more moisture than would be encountered in the wild, as well as to ammonia from urine.

The hoof capsule is mostly made from keratin, a protein, and is weakened by this exposure, becoming even more fragile and soft. Shoes do not prevent or reduce damage from moisture and ammonia exposure. Rather, they protect already weakened hooves. Further, without the natural conditioning factors present in the wild, the feet of horses grow overly large and long unless trimmed regularly. Hence, protection from rocks, pebbles, and hard, uneven surfaces is lacking.

A balanced diet with proper nutrition also is a factor. Without these precautions, cracks in overgrown and overly brittle hoof walls are a danger, as is bruising of the soft tissues within the foot because of inadequately thick and hard sole material.

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Physical stresses requiring horseshoes

Abnormal stress: Horses' hooves can become quite worn out when subjected to the added weight and stress of a rider, pack load, cart, or wagon.

Corrective shoeing: The shape, weight, and thickness of a horseshoe can significantly affect the horse's gait. Farriers may forge custom shoes to help horses with bone or musculature problems in their legs, or fit commercially available remedial shoes.

Traction: Traction devices such as borium for ice, horse shoe studs for muddy or slick conditions, calks, carbide-tipped road nails and rims are useful for performance horses such as eventers, show jumpers, polo ponies, and other horses that perform at high speeds, over changing terrain, or in less-than-ideal footing.

Gait manipulation: Some breeds such as the Saddlebred, Tennessee Walking Horse, and other gaited horses are judged on their high-stepping movement. Special shoeing can help enhance their natural movement.

Racing horses with weakness in their foot or leg require specialized horseshoes.

HIPPOSANDAL

The Hipposandal is a device that protected the hoof of a horse. It was commonplace in the northwestern countries of the Roman Empire, and was a predecessor to the horseshoe.

The necessity of protecting the horse hoof was recognized by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and written about by Xenophon. An early form of hoof protection was seen in ancient Asia, where horses' hooves were wrapped in rawhide, leather or other materials for both therapeutic purposes and protection from wear. Elsewhere, various methods were employed to trim the hoof into a hollow form and give it as much hardness as possible. Gradually, protection items started to appear, first with the soleae Sparteae , a sort of leather hoof boot, later improved into the soleae ferreae that featured metal studded soles similar to contemporary military boots.

The hipposandal, which appears in the Celtic-Roman area north of the Alps around the mid-1st century AD, was the next step in the development of hoof protection, where the sole of the boot was made of metal. It included an oval-shaped cup of thick metal that enclosed and protected the hoof, complete with a fixation system. The device was fastened to the hoof by metallic clips and leather laces. Like the Soleae Sparteae and

4 soleae ferreae, the hipposandal increased ground adherence of draught animals, thereby giving them better traction, and protected the hoof on rough ground. To further improve traction, the bottom of each hipposandal was grooved.

There is speculation that the were the first to nail on metal horseshoes. The nailed iron horseshoe first clearly appeared in the archaeological record in Europe in about the 5th century AD when a horseshoe, complete with nails, was found in the tomb of the Frankish King Childeric I at Tournai, Belgium. In Gallo-Roman countries, the hipposandal appears to have briefly co-existed with the nailed horseshoe.

CHILDERIC I

Childeric I (c. 440 – 481/482) was a Merovingian king of the Salian and the father of , who would unite the Franks and found the Merovingian .

CLOVIS I

Clovis (466-511 AD) was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of royal chieftains to rule by a single king and ensuring that the kingship was passed down to his heirs. He is considered to have been the founder of the , which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries.

Clovis was the son of Childeric I, a Merovingian king of the , and Basina, Queen of , and he succeeded his father in 481, at the age of fifteen. He conquered the remaining rump state of the Western Roman Empire at the Battle of (486), and by his death in 511 he had conquered much of the northern and western parts of what had formerly been Roman .

Clovis is important in the historiography of France as "the first king of what would become France". His name is Germanic, composed of the elements hlod ("fame") and wig ("combat"), and is the origin of the later French given name Louis, borne by 18 kings of France. Dutch, the most closely related modern language to Frankish, reborrowed the name as Lodewijk from German in the 12th century.

Clovis is also significant due to his conversion to Christianity in 496, largely at the behest of his wife, Clotilde, who would later be venerated as a saint for this act, celebrated today in both the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. The adoption by Clovis of Catholicism (as opposed to the of some other Germanic tribes) led to widespread conversion among the Frankish peoples, to religious unification across modern-day France and Germany, and to Charlemagne's alliance with

5 the Bishop of Rome three centuries later and the consequent birth of the early Holy Roman Empire.

THE MEROVINGIAN DYNASTY

The Merovingians were a Salian Frankish dynasty that ruled the Franks for nearly 300 years in a region known as in Latin, beginning in the middle of the 5th century. Their territory largely corresponded to ancient Gaul as well as the Roman provinces of Raetia, Germania Superior and the southern part of Germania. The Merovingian dynasty was founded by Childeric I (c. 457 – 481), the son of , leader of the Salian Franks, but it was his famous son Clovis I (481–511) who united all of Gaul under Merovingian rule.

After the death of Clovis there were frequent clashes between different branches of the family, but when threatened by its neighbors the Merovingians presented a strong united front.

During the final century of Merovingian rule, the kings were increasingly pushed into a ceremonial role. The Merovingian rule ended in March 752 when Pope Zachary formally deposed Childeric III. Zachary's successor, Pope Stephen II, confirmed and anointed Pepin the Short in 754, beginning the Carolingian monarchy.

The Merovingian ruling family were sometimes referred to as the "long-haired kings" (Latin reges criniti) by contemporaries, as their long hair distinguished them among the Franks, who commonly cut their hair short.

THE CAROLINGIAN DYNASTY

The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the various clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian" derives from the Latinized name of Charles Martel: Carolus. The family consolidated its power in the late 8th century, eventually making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary and becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the throne.

By 751, the Merovingian dynasty, which until then had ruled the Germanic Franks by right, was deprived of this right with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, and a Carolingian, Pepin the Short, was crowned King of the Franks. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first emperor in the west in over three centuries. His death in 814 began an extended period of

6 fragmentation and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the territories of France and Germany.

The area of West Francia, that was eventually to become known as France, however, grew in prosperity under the Carolingian Period due to economic activity brought on by greater international trade.

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