Farriers continue to use horseshoes for the same reasons they have for hundreds of years — to protect the hoof, provide additional traction, improve performance and to correct gait faults or alleviate conformational issues.

The reasons for shoeing remain the same, but the choice of materials, types and styles available on the market is greater than ever.

There are still farriers who can build shoes from bar stock that are real works of art — better, actually, as they are also fully functional. There always will be a place for these craftsmen and their skills. But there’s also a reason that more of the very best of these masters at the forge and anvil use manufactured shoes as a big part of their everyday shoeing. It simply makes sense.

Modern manufactured horseshoes are available in a variety of materials, in any style where there is a sufficient demand, are of excellent quality and are economically viable.

Materials

Before we get into shoes for specific disciplines, let’s back off a little and take a look at the market from a little distance. We’ll start with what horseshoes are made from, then move on to general purposes and designs.

Steel shoes. The vast majority of horseshoes are still made of steel. There are a number of reasons. Steel shoes have a long history of successful use. Gerard Laverty, the retired farrier instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia, notes that shoeing horses with steel is a discipline that has been highly…