Maximum Hoof Power Dear Cherry, My horse is always losing shoes. An occasional lost shoe is a fact of life. In most cases, a lost shoe is not the farrier's fault, so there is no reason to directly or indirectly blame the farrier.
Some horses are more prone to losing shoes than others.
The average in this study was 1.33 shoes lost per horse per year. One of the ironies of lost shoes is that the better a horse is shod, the greater the chances might be for him to lose a shoe. Some people mistakenly judge the quality of a shoeing job by how long the shoes stay on. In order to shoe a horse so the shoes stay on at all costs, a farrier would have to sacrifice expansion and support, two ingredients that are critical to a horse's long term soundness. Without expansion and support a horse is at greater risk of developing navicular syndrome, under-run heels and other conditions that lead to lameness.