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    Re: [RC] [RC] horseshoe technology: Easywalker - April Johnson


    Thanks for your reply, Rob.

    My interest in these shoes is not in the shock absorbing quality, however, anything that DOES decrease the shock to the feet and legs is probably a good thing, in my opinion.

    My interest in the shoes is for saving wear and tear on my horse's hooves while doing lots of miles. He is barefoot right now and, yes, I trim him myself. And no, he's never been lame because of it. He's an excellent barefoot candidate. However, I am not a barefoot advocate, just looking for what's best for MY horse.

    I like the idea that these easywalker shoes appear to allow normal hoof mechanism. And I'd like to try them out for myself and observe them.

    So you think my farrier would have to have the kit in order to put these shoes on correctly? And how do those sizes work?

    Thanks,
    April


    From: Rob <haksaw@xxxxxxxxxx>


    Ok,
    They look really cool, pretty colors, obviously different synthetic
    compounds vulcanized into one unit. Kind of similar to the popular
    running shoes being sold to humans in today's market. Flexible no doubt
    seeing the lack of any metallic compound embedded within the synthetics.
    Nails must be clinched with a special clinching / countersinking tool.
    May flex enough to allow dirt, gravel, and other debris to become lodged
    between the shoe and the hoof, possibly inducing gravel abcesses of the
    white line. Shock absorption qualities? Who knows? Here's some old data
    from FlexStep, remember those? The shock absorbing horseshoe that came
    out around 1983? They wired a horse with aircraft strain gauge, placing
    the sensor between the shoe and hoof,  then measured the force of the
    impact the hoof received over a variety of surfaces at different gates.
    They discovered that a horse galloping on hard packed dirt received a
    greater impact than horses galloping on macadam. This impact was 310 G's
    per hoof and it lasted for a duration of 1.4 msec. This happened every
    time the hoof hit the ground. Translated, that equaled a 310,000 pound
    impact to each hoof on a 1000 pound horse. The FlexStep shoe reduced
    this impact by 7% to 15% depending on the horse. At 15% the impact fell
    from 310,000 pounds per hoof to 263,500 pounds per hoof. A decrease of
    only 46,5000 pounds. Not too much considering that the shoe itself added
    almost 0.75 inches of length to the hoof due to it's thickness. My
    personal findings in this field have been this, anything man made nailed
    to a hoof in a sufficient enough quantity, That will significantly
    decrease impact, Is very impractical if not impossible. Mainly due to
    the size of the numbers your working with here and the quantity of
    material need to make a drastic difference. Here's what I think to be a
    fair analogy, It's kind of like me giving you a piece of rubber to hang
    around your neck to cover your chest with while allowing me to shoot you
    with a high powered rifle round, which will only hit with a 2498 pound
    impact. That piece of rubber probably won't significantly deaden the
    impact enough to prevent any damage to your body. Personally I'd prefer
    a 0.375 inch thick steel plate covering my chest. You may try to argue
    that a hoof isn't traveling 2753 feet per second nor does it have a
    ballistic coefficient of 0.304, none the less, a 310,000 pound impact is
    far greater than a 2753 pound impact, and a piece of rubber won't make
    much difference when things start colliding with this much force.


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