Urethane Shoes?

What do you guys think? Fad or future? More work than it's worth? Does this mean no cleaning necessary? What about issues with growth?

New? Hardly. Look up "Smooth-Walker" shoes. Or the Chambers shoe. Chambers shoes have been around for *AT LEAST* 40 years, Smooth-Walkers came out shortly after the patent on the Chambers shoe expired. Chambers shoe is named by/for Dr. Bill Chambers DVM, developer of the shoe, and current owner and CEO of Mackinac Island Carriage Tours, Inc. He hand-poured the first set sometime back in the 50s in a shed next to the family home and barn on the corner of Market St. and Cadotte Avenue, and started the process of refining them to what they are today - a great shoe for a horse working on pavement.

Both Chambers and Smooth-Walker are QUITE conventional - The difference between them and a normal steel shoe is that they both have a steel "core", with a rubber/polyurethane mix molded around the core. About the only thing you can't do with 'em is "smoke" the foot like you can do with a steel shoe. And reshaping them beyond spreading them open (which requires a special tool) or mashing them shut is done stone-cold, for reasons that should be immediately obvious. They're prone to picking up rocks when the rocks are the right (or should I say wrong?) size to get wedged in, and it's sometimes neccesary to pull the shoe to get rid of the rock, they can hold so tightly. They're all-but-completely worthless on anything but pavement or good solid gravel - slicker than snot on a doorknob on wet grass, leaves, or to a lesser degree mud.

The things that the vid covers aren't anything more than a variant of an EZ_boot cross-bred with "glue-on" shoes. They MIGHT catch on with the "more money than smarts" crowd, but aside from therapeutic uses, my money says they're going to be a niche item.
 
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