Sore shins (bucked shins, metacarpal periostitis) are usually the result of various combinations of the following: too much, too soon (aka, too far, too fast), hard training/racing surfaces and the use of toe grabs in race plates. Of these factors, only the use of toe grabs will be considered in this essay because that's the only factor which can be affected by a farrier (race plater) like myself. Ask Tom Ivers about training methodology. He'll probably mention bone density and some other esoteric stuff, but this essay has to do with mainly with the use of toe grabs and their effect on the structures distal to the carpals.

A plater doesn't get to choose what kind of shoe a flat racer wears. A plater can only suggest that grabs might be detrimental, he can't grind them off without permission lest some brilliant trainer decide there's a plot afoot to sabotage his barn from the ground up. Most race trainers are satisfied with the status quo and evidently figure that embracing the cumulative foolishness of their craft is safer than independent thought. Can you tell I'm not too high on the average trainer's ability to determine the correct shoe for flat racers?

The following will be considered heretical by most trainers and even a few veterinarians: There is no valid reason to have a toe grab on a front shoe!!! After forward motion is established, horses don't pull with the front, they push with the hinds. The function of the front end is mainly to keep the horse's chin out of the dirt: it is strictly supportive, it has no propulsive function in forward movement. When it comes to running fast, a horse is strictly a rear wheel drive model. Why then do trainers insist on nailing a grab on the front? Damned if I know, probably because everybody else does and Daddydiditthataway, the biggest cripplers of horses in the business.

You can show them the old lay-your-hand-on-the-anvil-with-your-fingers-extended-and-your-arm-
straight-and-walk-forward-then-make-a-fist-and-do-the-same-thing deal until the world looks level. They'll do it, nod knowingly and tell themselves, "It must be some kinda trick. Daddy didn't do it thataway so they can't be nothing to this physics business."

When compared to bare feet or half-rounds (same toe length), forcing a horse to drive a grab into a racing/training surface causes undue stress on the shins, the articulating surfaces of the phalanges, the carpals and the suspensory apparatus. Most of the time, the weak link in this chain is the periosteum (bone covering) of the shins; QED, the common malady of bucked shins. Toe grabs in front shoes are also directly or indirectly responsible for chip fractures, saucer fractures, slab fractures, bows and blown suspensories.

Tradition dies hard.

Will grinding the grabs off the front shoes help prevent bucked shins in young horses? Of course! How about using half-rounds? You bet! Titanium flats? You betcha! Why doesn't everybody do it? Because tradition (aka, stable stupidity), not science, rules life on the backside. Most trainers are afraid to grind off the grabs because that would make them the only one on the shed row without grabs and if they run back - and invariably a trainer is going to chase 'em in with one he thought he could win with - then all the shed row pundits will say, "See, if you hadn't of ground them grabs off, your horse woulda been a gallopin' winner."

Does anybody ever wonder how smart we are? How many horses have been imported as hard- knocking, aged runners from Argentina and Chile, only to buck shins when they were first exposed to our shoeing methods? They've run on dirt, so that's not the reason, and sixes and sevens aren't supposed to buck shins: Why do so many South American horses buck shins as soon as somebody nails on grabs? If one chooses to ignore the fact that few of these horses ever had the dubious benefit of our shoeing methods before coming north, the incidence of bucked shins in aged South American horses is one of the Great, Unexplained Mysteries of the Twentieth Century. If you ask the same question about horses imported from England or France that hit the main track and buck shins, you will quickly be told, "They only run on grass over there." True! It's also true they also don't run in grabs over there.

In my experience, toe grabs are the biggest single factor in the incidence of bucked shins! If an owner wants fewer shin problems, they might insist their gutless trainer use queen's plates (proprietary rim shoes) or, better yet, ground-off grabs on the front end of their runners (With a little wear, this makes a nifty aluminum half-round with a steel wear plate). There is simply no logical reason to use any kind of a grab, including a levelgrip (a proprietary shoe which consists of a grab that runs from heel to heel) on the front end of a race horse. The best thing that could happen to horses racing in North America would be an outright ban on anything protruding more than 1/16th inch below the ground surface of the shoe.

Fair for one, fair for all.