So I know practically nothing about horses except that I'm vaguely terrified of them in real life. Since it seems as if there are a couple of people in here who know something about them, I figured I'd post this here.
I have a point in my plot that has horses wearing "sneakers" basically to keep their hooves quiet on cobblestones. Now, normally, these horses have shoes and all that, but I'm wondering if any of you have any suggestions on giving them sneakers. The quasi-era for my novel setting is post apocalyptic proto-victorian, so no plastics, but any other materials would probably work.
Any ideas on how I can make my horses sneaky? Also, this would probably have to be something that could be taken off easily as well as not have a detrimental effect on the horses themselves. Even if this is fiction, I don't think we need to go around injuring animals in the name of science. :)
Thanks!
-Kitty
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18,138 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 13 22
I know nothing about horses, but why not just tie up their hooves in fabric?
or Snuggies? ;)
84,046 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 14 06
See, that's what I was originally thinking. But I'm wondering if there would need to be additional padding to lessen the impact and thus the noise. They're going over cobblestones, so it's going to be louder than normal.
42,000 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 14 10
Talk to Mooneyes in our region. She owns a few horses herself and would probably know what to use.
50,184 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 14 19
or Snuggies? ;)
Burlap?
Several layers, maybe. I don't think you can pad it too much without screwing up the stability of the horses' footing, though, especially on something hard like cobblestones.
----------all original text licensed OWL [ http://owl.apotheon.org ]
84,046 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 14 47
Several layers, maybe. I don't think you can pad it too much without screwing up the stability of the horses' footing, though, especially on something hard like cobblestones.
That was one of my fears. I wasn't sure how well horses would do with too many things on their hooves. The carriages use two horses to draw them, so both horses have to work in concert without too much stumbling and dying.
78,387 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 15 02
I would go with leather because it can be shaped and sturdy and thick if need be plus it would be able to be laced up the back to make it easy to put on and take off. I think leather would even be able to muffle the sounds and still be easy of the horse for balance. Horses are pretty resilient and can walk over surfaces you wouldn't expect, so I would think they would be ok in some kind of shoe that wasn't metal.
----------Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow
84,046 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 15 18
Thanks! That might actually work really well, especially if I was to use some sort of padding between the leather and the horse's hoof. Ah, the irony of trying to write believable fantasy. :)
25,111 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 15 31
Well mocasins are an easy thing to make and well fitted. Little knitted boots are something I have seen done for various different animals (I've even though of doing it for my cat in the winter :-) ) And you can have some kind of drawstring around the top so that you can tighten/loosen for easy removal. Maybe even something knitted over somthing leather, giving padding and sound proofing. Hope that helps at all
-----------Sage
So many words!
50,184 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 18 46
I imagine stumbling and dying would probably really sabotage the desire to be quiet, so yeah, you don't want too much stumbling and dying.
I don't know why I didn't think of leather. That would actually be perfect. Maybe a sewn two-layer leather cover. You wouldn't want extra padding inside, I think, because then you'd be throwing off their footing a bit. A thick, relatively tough piece of shaped leather across the bottom of the hoof, however you manage to get it held in place, would be good. It would also potentially be usable more than once, unlike a burlap wrap, but it would require someone planning ahead enough to have something made if you want a reusable bootie.
Horses can handle somewhat uncertain footing pretty well, such as rough trail on a slope or gravel, as long as they aren't going too quickly -- but putting wads of padding under their hooves is probably not something to which they'd adjust very easily.
That's just my two cents, mind you, and I'm far from a horse expert. I await the word in this thread from someone who has owned horses. I know there are a few in the Fort Collins group, somewhere out there.
----------all original text licensed OWL [ http://owl.apotheon.org ]
52,310 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 18 54
They actually do make sneakers for horses. There's a new trend to train mini-horses as assistant animals because they live so much longer than dogs do and can be trained to do basically the same job and can carry more weight. They wear sneakers so that they don't slip and fall on tile and linoleum in buildings. I know that Patricia Cornwell has put a lot of money into the mini program and I believe that she has a link on her website about the program, which may give you a starting point.
If you can't find anything there, you can try EZboots, which are plastic/rubber boots that just snap on to a horse's hooves as an emergency replacement for a lost shoe or for barefoot horses. Those I know you can find on Google.
----------Shawntel
http://.gundiva.blogspot.com
http://gundiva-talesfromthetrail.blogspot.com
http://gundiva-lyonsroar.blogspot.com
52,310 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 18 57
Here's a link to the EZ boots and if I can find the link for the mini's I'll pass it along.
----------http://www.easycareinc.com/
Shawntel
http://.gundiva.blogspot.com
http://gundiva-talesfromthetrail.blogspot.com
http://gundiva-lyonsroar.blogspot.com
52,310 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 19 01
Here's the link to the guide horses, you might be able to find the info for horse sneakers there...they've got a picture of a mini in sneakers. Hope this helps...
----------http://www.guidehorse.org/
Shawntel
http://.gundiva.blogspot.com
http://gundiva-talesfromthetrail.blogspot.com
http://gundiva-lyonsroar.blogspot.com
84,046 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 19 06
That is simply too adorable for words. Thank you so much for the links!
-Kitty.
52,310 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 19 08
Last one, I promise...
http://www.guidehorse.org/sneakers_horses.htm
This is the link that takes you directly to the sneakers (and a cute pair of cowboy boots).
----------Shawntel
http://.gundiva.blogspot.com
http://gundiva-talesfromthetrail.blogspot.com
http://gundiva-lyonsroar.blogspot.com
84,046 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2009 - 19 12
Thank you so much. This was exactly what I was looking for. Incidentally, you also just helped another NaNoer who was wondering what his bipedal hooved main character would wear on her feet. ^_^
36,492 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2009 - 18 29
We had neighbors down the street who had two minature horses. One of them had a bad hoof, so they bought them Sketchers at Build-A-Bear workshop. I swear it is a true story, though I never would have believed someone would put sneakers on a horse if I had not seen it personally. Does that help?
41,891 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2009 - 20 40
Burlap muffles the sound without needing to be real thick. It's not the thud of something heavy on the cobblestones that's so noisy, but the shoes or hooves themselves ringing out as they strike. Burlap dampens that noise and ties on relatively easily.
----------~shmoo
~~~~~~~~
Municipal Liaison, state of North Dakota and Dickinson, ND, 2009
Municipal Liaison, Fort Collins, CO, 2007, 2008
NaNoWriMo winner, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
17,395 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2009 - 22 45
Back in the day when riders needed to be sneaky and keep hooves muffled on cobblestones, they would just wrap the hooves up thickly in burlap. It wasn't detrimental to the horse, as long as they weren't running in them, and it would make things a bit slippery, but they would be taken off as soon as they didn't need to be sneaky anymore.
----------39,421 / 50,000
nov. 9, 2009 - 09 10
Or, if you want, if the characters are doing this to be sneaky and they don't have the materials on hand, they could just pull the shoes. You have to have a file and some pinchers to pull them off, and probably want to make sure you point out the horses have good feet, but most horses go without shoes. With horses that I have with good feet, I've ridden them at shows and trail rides with no shoes. But they have to have thick soles.
84,046 / 50,000
nov. 9, 2009 - 19 12
This is long-term sneakiness, so I think my characters (actually minor characters who have decided to be clever) would have come up with an overall sneakiness plan for the horse and carriage ensemble. I think they'd want to keep the horses' shoes on simply because they're primarily city horses and I am under the impression that cobblestones and pre-asphalt city streets wreak havoc on horses' feet.