David posted a pic of the pad set up on some horses working the cobbles. I m asking that he repost his pic in this thread and we can discuss the pros and cons ,if any of that set up as we understand(or not understand )it........sans the translation. Thanks in advance Ray
My take was Ray the cobbles were slippier than grease on a brass door knob. The pads were leather of car tyre and I think that the heel probably settled between the two cobbles each stride. there joints and general condition looked good comparred with some of the places I have been.
David, a # of years ago some Amish used a similar set up as that, but the shoe was 3/4 or so in length,similar to the theory of a flip flop set up that is used by the standardbreds, they also applied carbide to the toe for traction. it was cut and milled from thick rubber belting. the set up you showed appeared to be extending beyond the ground surface of the shoe but over the heels and elevating them considerably. Leather would be fairly expensive ,I would think and the old tyre might be slippery on cobbles when wet, just thinking out loud, I d like to know how it was attached. Thanks Ray
I would of liked to pick them up but these guys were not aproachable, even for me ray. I think leather may of been cheaper here.
I would suggest that the leather was on the shoes to reduce noise when the horses are moving, if it was for traction the shoes would have "turn downs" on the heels, the shoes would last longer that way.
im not defending their protocol, they hadn't thought of toe wear just an easy and detrimental way to obtain traction instead
Marc, I never gave noise a thought, but have you ever been asked to quiet down a horses hoof sounds? I not being a joker, I do know that cobbles can be slippery when wet and that from historical perspective governments do like to preserve the pavement, I just have never encountered the noise aspect, and was wondering if you or anyone else has. Ray
Your point is valid ray and is most likely to be the main reason. I was thinking back to a few stunt horses I used to shoe and they asked me to shoe with rubber shoes as the council were trying to reduce noise during a street parade.
I think the heels sink in between the cobbles then as the heel lifts it pulls the cobbles up or damages them....Who's going to go to Prague next to find out?
I never thought of that, some years ago I was told that some large city mounted patrol stopped using rubber coated shoes because they were too quiet, .they were scaring the crap out of people when the horses walked up behind them on the streets. ray
I was discussing options for a carriage horse with the owner/driver and he was not having rubber shoes as the "clop clop" sound got him fares.
I still think it is to fit the cobbles, noise used to be an issue in London when the horses used to deliver milk early morning and they used to pad the shoes to quieten them. I think the two factors for these shoes were grip and preserve shoe life with a replaceable tread. The cobbles may wear but cobbles are like ice bergs, you can only see 10% of them, the rest is in the ground.
The shoe that is shown in Ben Sturman s avitar is similar to shoes that I have seen for cobbled streets here. I have some somewhere that have a cloth insert instead of the rope, that I got with a load of artifacts when I bought out the stuff at the Holyoke Street Railway ,in Holyoke MA. . I tell this because ,that I know of the street cars ran during the day,the bread and milk purveyors early morn. Ray
you know these guys better than I , check with them, maybe they like a little hair,maybe not while your at it ask them the how and why of the pad set up. Ray
