Perhaps no one would notice this but me….BUT…a new promotion for the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games (to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park, first time outside Europe) is using horseshoes to mark off the years. The promo launched last month, with one year/horseshoe crossed off, while three years/horseshoes remain.Their choice of horseshoe style intrigued me. I don’t think that St. Croix/Mustad or Diamond is a sponsor (yet) but there is a lineup of one or the other company’s basic toe-and-heeled shoe.
I had to chuckle because it is not likely that a single horse in the World Equestrian Games would be shod with that shoe. Meanwhile, the hilly country of Kentucky is surely home to a lot of trail/pleasure horses that would be wearing those shoes.
The farrier world missed a great opportunity here. The shoes chosen for the graphic could have been the specialized shoes you’d see on eventing, jumping, endurance and reining horses that will be competing at WEG in 2010. Not to mention driving, dressage, and vaulting shoes (if there is a vaulting shoe!).
Although, by 2010, who knows what types of shoes the sport horses will be wearing—or if they might all be barefoot or booted or laminated or glazed!
