Nearly 80 years have passed since Colonel Waldemar Suenig was Master of the Horse at the Court of King Alexander of Yugoslavia yet his words echo what a growing number of people are saying today.

"There need be no haste about shoeing, though the height of the walls of the hoof should be adjusted every six to eight weeks and the bearing edges, which wear away irregularly, should be rounded off with a file. The blacksmith must also remove horny pieces of the frog that are half loose, under which dirt and decay can often find lodging. "

"No shoeing of any kind is required if the owner of the horse is lucky enough to be able to exercise it outside the riding hall on soft, springy forest paths or fine, sandy meadow land. Such terrains cause very little wear of the hoof. Pebbly ground should be avoided."

"Crossing macadam roads to reach bridle paths does not harm the hooves at all, and footing is more certain without shoes than with ordinary summer horseshoes. The only thing that increases wear on the edges of the hoofs and frays them is sharp-edged gravel, especially when the transition from the bottom edge to the hoof wall is not rounded off with a file. Light crescent horseshoes are all that is needed if the front hooves wear away faster at the toe than elsewhere."

"There are numerous advantages in delaying the shoeing of young horses. During the period of growth, which is far from complete when the corner incisors begin to articulate after the end of the horse's fifth year, the mechanism of the hoof can function more freely when unencumbered by the "necessary evil" of the horseshoe. The hooves "breathe" better when they are in direct contact with the ground. "

"Uncontrolled capering when the horse is led or worked on the lunge - bandaged or not - is also less dangerous, for a hoof weighted and armoured with shoe and nails is much more destructive than one in its natural state, even though some savants may claim that the clash of shod hooves never causes bony excrescences. "

"At the beginning, the hindquarters may swing out to one side, especially on the lunge. When that happens, a shod hoof can cause all sorts of damage, producing coronet or pastern bruises in spite of hoof pads and guards; these bruises may become chronic all too readily and remain with the horse as 'enlarged fetlocks' for the rest of its life."

"If you let your horses go unshod, you must be prepared to encounter much shaking of heads (especially by the blacksmith and his friends). Nor are all horses equally adapted to this. Congenital hardness and consistency of the hoof horn, which vary with breed and country of origin, play an important part. Horses that have grown up in rocky mountain terrain, as well as horses that have a high percentage of oriental blood, almost always have highly resistant, ringing hooves that resemble hard rubber. But here, too, there are exceptions that prove the rule. "

"I can remember thoroughbreds, Trakehnens, Anglo-Arabs from southwest France, and horses from the regions of Lublin and Kisber, all of whom had gone unshod for years; I rode them only cross country and in the riding hall, to be sure, and when I had to take the road, I carefully selected only asphalt roads, making sure to avoid rubble-stone."

"The real saddle horse that is ridden on all sorts of terrain and the horse that is expected to do precision jumping over difficult obstacles on smooth grass naturally require protection and support in the form of horseshoes appropriately shaped, and they need screw calks at the heels of all four shoes. These calks recently proved their worth with the German military team at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. According to the head of the team, General Viebig, the Hestal hardened steel screw calks deserve part of the credit for the fact that the German team was the only one that completed the cross-country test on the second day of the competition without a fault."

Waldemar Seunig