Knowing what causes lost shoes can help you take steps to prevent them. A healthy hoof is dry and hard with a smooth, solid surface free of cracks. Excess moisture can make hooves soft and weak and can cause them to crack. Soft, cracked hooves often cannot hold nails securely enough to keep a shoe on. Avoid turning horses into wet environments like irrigated pastures, creeks, ponds, wet stalls, and muddy pens.
Frequent bathing can also contribute to soft, weak hooves.
What it can do is interfere with a horse's timing and balance causing him to step on the edge or heel of a shoe and pry it off. Other heavy or deep footing, such as sand, snow, or even long grass, can also alter limb movement and result in lost shoes. It is more difficult to keep shoes on horses that inherit or develop poor quality hooves having thin hoof walls and weak horn. Talk to your vet and farrier about feeding a supplement such as Farrier Formula to improve the quality of your horse's hooves. Shoes with a rounded edge on the ground surface, like some rims shoes have, can reduce the risk of lost shoes.