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[Shenanigans]

Horses wearing mud calks are more than likely running in the mud. Was this study done with horses running only on muddy tracks? Did it study the horses wearing mud calks vs. the horses wearing plain shoes on a muddy track? Your study is fine, but how thorough can it be when most of the time the tracks weren't muddy so there was no reason to wear mud calks? Did you include in your study the amount of muddy tracks vs. the amount of DNF wearing mud calks on a muddy track? My point is that there are more days run on dirt vs mud, therefore your percentage for plain shod horses is going to be much greater wouldn't you say? Also, were you able to prove in your study that the injury the horse received was directly caused by the shoe they were wearing? There are a lot of injuries that are not caused by the shoes. Even though the percentage of injuries to mud calk wearing horses was smaller, were you able to verify how the injury was sustained? Personally, for your study to hold any clout, the study should have been muddy tracks only with mud calks vs. plain shoes. I don't know too many trainers that run a horse on a dry track with mud calks.