shock absorbing pads

[mmmcrae@juno.com (Marie M McRae)]

I had occasion the other day to be at the farrier shop which is part of
the Cornell Univ Farrier School. (My farrier had to cancel and so I took
my horse to Cornell for his reset  -  great resource !! )  Because of the
recent thread on ridecamp I asked about shock absorbtion of shoes.  The
Master farrier, Mike Wildenstein,  showed me a  titanium/aluminum shoe
which he says is the best shock absorber  metal.   Very lightweight,  but
soft, so they won't last for very many miles.  
He said that they did an informal study, using the treadmill, of pressure
testing with various pads and the honeycomb pad (made by Thorobred??)
came out with the highest shock absorbtion rating, with Shock Tamer
second.  He also said he has reset the honeycomb pads 6 or 7 times before
they disintegrate.  He doesn't shoe too many distance horses but does a
lot of very big (read heavy) event horses and hunter/jumpers.
His study is not published, but the Shock Tamer folks had a formal study
done at the Tufts Veterinary School in MA which showed significant
absorbtion of concussion with their pads.  If anyone would like
information on that study they may contact Alfred Fox at 508-443-8078.


Marie McRae
around the corner from Cornell
in upstate NY

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