…and I’ll give you two reasons not to.
There are so many arguments why a horse should be shod – but really they are all excuses. And there is no excuse for this continuing mediæval practice.
In most western countries there are laws protecting animals against cruelty, unnatural and unnecessary practices – and yet none seems to want to put these laws into effect when it comes to the welfare of horses and ponies.
In France, Article L214-1 of the Code Rural states that:
“All sentient animals must kept by their owners in a condition and environment appropriate to their species”
In Great Britain, the Animal Welfare Act (2006) states in Section 9, Subsection 2:
For the purposes of this Act, an animal’s needs shall be taken to include—
(a) its need for a suitable environment,
(b) its need for a suitable diet,
(c) its need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns,
(d) any need it has to be housed with, or apart from, other animals, and
(e) its need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.
and yet in all these countries, horses are still shod and kept in boxes.
Even more worrying is the situation in the Netherlands where there still is no actual Animal Welfare Act or similar and the equine sector itself has been asked to draw up guidelines in relation to equine welfare.
There are indications of European animal welfare legislation but as with most things in Europe, it will either be watered down or, worse still, deemed inappropriate in certain countries either because they find it “inapplicable”, “unenforceable” or “goes against cultural heritage”.