Horseshoes are objects made to protect horse hooves from wear and tear. They are usually made of metal, but there are some made of plastic and even rubber. They are exclusively worn by domestic horses, and are worn to prevent hooves from splitting on sharp rocks in rough terrain.
All horseshoes are famously u-shaped and are attached to the hoof via a series of nails. Due to the hoof essentially being an extra thick toenail, the horseshoe nails don't penetrate any of the nerve endings in the animal's foot, making the experience only mildly uncomfortable for the horse at worst. However, a nail that is inserted too deeply in the hoove can still injure a horse, especially if it accidentally bends while shoeing the hoof, and although the holes created in the process heal, bacteria can be deposited in them due to dirt, which can lead to infections. But not all horseshoes are nailed to the hoof as in some cases they're glued instead.
Since horse hooves constantly grow out, a horseshoe will fall off once the hoof grows to the point it starts fraying apart. Because of this, it is recommended to shorn the hoof in such events, essentially an elaborate nail trimming, before refitting a new horseshoe.
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- In both fiction and real life, horseshoes are a common symbol of good fortune and are kept around even by non-ranchers as a lucky charm.
- In the Monster Musume Anime it is seen in Episode 10 that golden horseshoes are a form of currency in Centaur culture, although this has not yet been confirmed as canonical for the manga series, as Centorea pays with normal money in Chapter 21, the chapter on which the episode is based and no other chapter mentions that Centaurs pay with horseshoes. Regardless of this, horseshoes are still worn by most Centaurs on the hooves in their original purpose, although at least Cheron does not wear horseshoes in Chapter 70, while in the cases of Nico, Meamil and Nighdrem their hooves were not shown at such angles to confirm whether they were wearing horseshoes or not.
- Centorea's horseshoe set once set off the metal detector at the Okayado International Airport when the Kurusu household left to visit the Lamia Village.[1]
- Most of Pegasania's accessories have horseshoe designs on them.
- Each of Kimihito's homestay girls has a symbol to represent them and in the case of Centorea, it's a horseshoe. Centorea's profile symbol in her text messages is also a horseshoe as seen in Volume 18.
- A popular pastime in rural areas is horseshoes, which is essentially a simplified ring-toss game where players compete to be the first to toss a full set of horseshoes around a wooden stake in the ground.
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