Exploring ways to limit damage caused by horseshoes on paved roads, commissioners in Daviess County, Ind., want its Amish community to try an alternative to steel shoes, according to the Washington Times Herald.
The plan to buy five sets of Megasus Horserunners was not well received.
“We took the idea to the safety committee meeting,” says Daviess County Highway Supervisor Phil Cornelius. “The response felt kind of vague. The gentleman we talked to did not think we needed five sets to evaluate them. He thought two would be enough. It did not feel like a ringing endorsement.”
Daviess County officials say the shoes need a good trial on the roads.
“The more paved roads we get [in the Amish community], the greater the necessity for something like this,” Cornelius says. “We’ve been talking a long time on ways to run offense instead of defense on the horseshoes. We need to slow down the damage to the roads or alleviate it. We can do all we we can to the road, but at the end of the day, the road that holds up the best is concrete. That is the very worst thing for the horses. They can’t get traction on it and we don’t want to create an unsafe situation for them to make our road last longer.”
After conducting some research, they settled on Megasus, a shoe that is affixed with a Velcro-like tape, which is glued to the hoof wall.
“Commissioner Michael Taylor has been researching for quite some time and found these shoes called [Megasus Horserunner],” Cornelius says. “They’re made in [Austria]. We want to find five people willing to run them on their horse, pull their buggy and get feedback from them.”
The shoes are on back order and will not arrive until August.
