losing shoes
 

I guess it's not uncommon for horses to lose one or more shoes during a race ? What is the effect of losing shoes during a race ? I read somewhere that Sir Barton, i believe used to lose shoes every race, sometimes all of them .

I've never seen comments in the charts indicating a horse lost a shoe .

horses have lost them and won, and lost them and lost. it's not necessarily uncommon. st trinians lost a shoe in her loss to zenyatta, of course we all know about big brown having a loose shoe still partially attached during the belmont. you'd have to think it would have an adverse affect in that case.
all it takes is an overreach by the horse, or a clumsy step, and off comes the shoe.
sir barton had what they called shelly hooves, not hard to believe he'd lose them. some horses use glue ons these days, rather than having nails driven into the hoof walls.

Depends. Lose the shoe, you lose traction. When the shoe comes off it can take bits - or big hunks - of hoof wall with it, causing damage, significant pain (like ripping back your toenail). It changes the balance thus the efficiency of the stride. With each shoeless stride the sole and frog of that foot now strike the ground a bit differently, that can bruise the sole and cause pain which increases during the race. At the moment the shoe comes off, it can "trip" the horse a bit, cause muscle strain/pull, ligament damage. The shoe itself can rarely bang against an ankle, fetlock (or even another horse) as it comes off. Trailing horses can step on the shoe (and the nails sticking out of it) in the track, be injured by the flying shoe.

I remember Bluegrass Cat quickly wobbling in 2nd in the Tampa Derby missing a shoe . A buddy of mine had a horse lose a shoe 1/2 way through a race . We wondered why he lost 3 lengths at the 1/2 dropping to 6th but still came back and finished 2nd .

I wonder what happens to the cast shoes ? I hope they are removed when the track is harrowed .

Hooves of interest, including Big Brown:

http://hoofcare.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

While we are talking about shoes, I was talking with Julio Felix the other day and he was telling me that horses have started dancing more on the polytrack up here because it has been so hot, and their shoes have absorbed the heat and it stings the living hell out of them.

When it was 95 degrees here, he said it felt like 115-120 out there, said it is absolutely noticable when you walk out of the paddock and take a step on the track, like walking into a sauna

well,, i never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense. has to be like walking on hot sand...another issue not taken into consideration i guess.

That fake stuff is awesome!

I lost my shoes in the Belmont Stakes once. Byk knows the story but I should probably keep it hidden.

Two Zito horses lost shoes in the Derby in the same year.

It was the Smarty Jones year when the track was a wet mess.

I believe The Cliff's Edge lost one and Birdstone lost two .. or maybe it was Birdstone lost one and TCE lost two ... but, either way, one of them lost one and the other lost two shoes.

Does that guy still call in to Byk's show once a week and complain about how the type's of shoes horses are wearing is ruining the sport?