Why do horses need shoes unless they are ridden of hard surfaces wild horses don't have them?

Question

Why do horses need shoes unless they are ridden of hard surfaces wild horses don't have them?

Answer 1

wild horses don't run on constructed roads nor have to carry/pull extra weight; they don't need to be shoed.

domesticated horses need to be shoed becaue they do work.

Answer 2

They don't. Generally unless horses are regularly on hard surfaces such as concrete or rocks, shoes are unnecessary.  Most horses do best with simple trimming every 6-8 weeks.

Putting shoes on the horse inherently weakens the hoof every time. There are, however, a wide variety of hooves from compact, hard and slow growing which is typical of wilder horses and some arabians and these do very well without shoes even with some use on rocks and hard ground. Other horses have hooves that do poorly even for a short time on harder ground so these horses would need shoeing if they are used even only a little on these surfaces. Overall, however, most horses don't do enough work on hard surfaces to warrant shoing but the blacksmith industry isn't going to tell them this.

Answer 3

Shoes protect the hoof from chipping and breaking.  Horses with poor quality hooves need them, and horses that are ridden frequently on stone and hard surfaces also should have them.  Some shoes are also therapeutic and used to correct a variety of hoof problems that can occur.  We have a mare that broke the coffin bone in her hoof and she was given a shoe that was was circular to prevent her hoof wall from expanding when she put her weight on it.  The shoe acted as a cast by keeping her hoof rigid.