In about 1984, a farrier and equine vet from U.S.A. demonstrated a revolutionary new shock reducing shoe at the Morphettville Racecourse facility called the Seattle Shoe. Race-horse owners, trainers, jockeys, vets, horse-shoe distributors and of course all farriers were invited to this great event. Prior to the actual shoeing, a film was shown describing the shaping of the base plate, the fitting of the aluminium shoe section and nailing on of the whole item, as well as American horses in track work wearing the shoes.
The demo was to be held in the race-day saddling enclosure, but as the poor horse (which had raced) was by itself, it became very fractious. All proceedings were moved to the stall area, another horse was brought along and it was given some a.c.e. and after much time the job was finished, the horse was saddled and pace worked a lap of the track.
On completion of the workout, one of the distributors of the shoe ran out on to the track and spoke to the jockey. The horse had leg problems, and the boy was its regular race and track rider, and returning to the saddling enclosure, the boy was asked "how did it feel", and he replied, "never better!"
It was later noted that the person that ran onto the track to greet the rider, slipped him a $50 note.
One of my trainers present remarked "you wont see
this shoe on any of my horses", but the owner of Royal Fire bought a pair
of the shoes and insisted that they be put on him.
The result was that when the horse was walked on the concrete around the stall
area, the hollow sound of the shoes frightened a lot of the other horses tied
in the stalls. Royal Fire wore the shoes in track work for a further 5 weeks
and pulled up sore, was spelled, and he never raced again, the result of re-occurring
joint problems.
I do not know how many horses wore these shoes, but they weren't as successful as the manufacturers claimed.