Inserts

[smf]

I was watching/ listening the Woodbine feed today. Dan Loiselle would announce as shoe notes "inserts worn on the front for #2....."

Inserts is a new one on me. Anyone know what that is? Can't be stickers/ caulks/ nails/ bar shoe...can it??....

Just a note..., after I payed attention to the runners he noted, they all seemed to show very little.

[Observer]

This is a little off the wall, but let me go there to explain first. In bad winters where we had a lot of snow, sometimes the blacksmiths, at the owners requests, would put these special inserts that would go between the horse's hoof and shoe, effectively covering the entire base of the hoof. These special inserts kept snow out, because otherwise snow, especially good packing snow, would ball up just like snowballs in the horse's feet .. a dangerous situation.

Maybe these inserts are along the same lines? But, maybe the effect for racing is to protect a horse's frog instead? The frog is the part of the base of the hoof that looks like a carved out V.

But, I also do know of some yellow inserts that do get put between the horses hoof and shoe, but they do not cover the base of the hoof, they just fit right along the shoe. These inserts have a shock absorbing quality and have been used on top horses by some top trainers, including Lukas. I know I saw a close up photo of a horse's front hoof where you could actually see the thin yellow strip between the shoe and hoof, but I can't remember the horse .. pretty sure it was a Derby winner for Lukas though.

[smf]

Observer,

Thanks for that detailed response. Both are plausible in that there was snow on the ground there (video) and it looked cold as hell Friday, much colder than Saturday. The 2nd possibilty you gave, I'll start noting the runners and check the pp's to see if they're stakes quality runners.

Thanks!