Urethane Shoes?

[ADreamOfLiberty]

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?

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[UR20Z]

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?

- YouTube

W YouTube możesz cieszyć się filmami i muzyką, które lubisz, przesyłać oryginalne treści i udostępniać je swoim bliskim, znajomym i całemu światu.

www.youtube.com

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.