Will horseshoes give a horse better traction ON PAVEMENT or will they cause a greater chance to slip??
Shoes on pavement will cause a horse to slip unless they have borium or some type of caulk put on them. Plain shoes are EXTREMELY slippery on pavement!
^^^^This.
Those dime store slick shoes without borium, is asking for trouble and a vet bill. Try and cross a creek full of rocks with them - the horse can easily go down.
When I was hard trail riding I used St. Croix Rim Shoes and borium head nails in every other nail hole.
I think the answer is “yes.”
“Slip” occurs when two surfaces move easily against each other. While the surface of the shoe is fixed the surface is works on constantly changes. So, again, it’s not a “one size fits all” solution.
Use of “abrasives” on shoes makes good sense when the horse regularly works on surfaces that are “slick” to plain shoes. It’s not without some risk of its own but on balance can be a good idea.
G.
Shoes + pavement = slipping. I always do borium if I have shoes on a horse- between pavement, rock face and dry grass I’d rather not take the chance
Long slip marks all over rocks and pavement where horses regularly travel will answer that question for you.
My barefoot horses do great. <beg>
You want controlled slippage on shoes with traction. Horse needs a shoe with a fraction of “give” as the traction takes hold on pavement or rock faces, otherwise the impact of hoof stopping hard, travels on up the leg from hoof.
Traction is always added to the shoe. Borium, Pin Studs, etc. Plain caulks on keg shoes do not add traction on pavement, though helpful on dirt. Plain steel shoe is rather slippery on both black top and cement pavements.
We use horses on pavement a lot, have moved on from borium to the pin studs in the shoes. Borium just grabbed too hard, stopped the hoof on pavement NOW, so the rest of impact. motion, kept traveling up the leg. Does add more wear-n-tear to the leg over time.
We use the pin studs now, set in the shoes and stick out about 1//8" past the shoe. Not a big caulk type grabbing device, but they do a great job for us. There is fractional slippage, which reduces the stopping force on leg, when pin studs hold the hoof to the pavement. You won’t see the slippage, but it is there, working for you. Horse is not actually slipping much, microscopic amounts, certainly not enough to fall. We think the horses legs benefit from that fractional slippage and it makes them much longer lasting in uses. Our horses get in a lot of miles getting fit, competing, being enjoyed. They get used on into old age, still sound, happy to get out and go.
The pin studs sharpen with use, the softer material wears to keep exposing the hard carbide crystals in the stud as the horse moves.
We don’t ever use Drill-Tek which is similar to Borium but with larger carbide crystals. Those big crystals are REALLY grabby on pavement, hard stops to the hoof each stride. No slippage at all in that kind of traction. Yeah it lasts, but horse life of use will be shortened with that hard hoof stopping.
