Shoes; a lesson from the horse world

Today a mom asked in my online parenting group about using second hand shoes for kids. What did the other mothers think? Okay or not okay? Many budget conscious mothers spoke up to say they definitely used hand me down shoes. So first let me confess I am in love with thrift store clothes. Goodwill is where most of the items in my closet come from but second hand shoes, especially for young kids, is not a good idea.




Most shoes people wear quickly develop a wear pattern to the sole and the arch begins to subtly shape to the foot of the wearer. Race horses in America start their careers way too young before their bones and joints are fully developed. Growing bones need proper alignment of joint surfaces. Even a 1/16 of an inch on the bottom surface translates up the legs into knees, hip sockets, spine and in humans head alignments.  From my years in the horse world I can tell you no horseman would reuse horseshoes worn by another horse. Why? Because it is imperative to protect the bones and joints of these young athletes.

Can you see the shiny smooth wear pattern at the toe of this shoe? It is unique not only to this horse but to the hoof it came off. All 4 shoes of a horse will have a different wear pattern. It shows us exactly where the body weight of that leg rolls over the toe of that exact hoof. If you were to put this onto another horse or even back onto the horse it came from but on a different hoof it would begin to force the horse to break over at THIS spot rather than the horse's natural break over spot spot created by the alignment of it's bones. This translates into every joint surface up the whole system causing the joints to wear unevenly, puts stress and strain into ligaments trying to stabilize joints and muscles trying to move bones that are subtly out of alignment.

Here is a human knee joint, the juncture of the top leg bone and the bottom 2 leg bones. Do you see the perfect fit? How the bones nestle into one another exactly? Notice the smooth surfaces versus the rougher places. Smooth surfaces are the place where 2 or more bones move against each other. There is a fluid filled joint space between these smooth surfaces. This distributes the load as evenly as possible and keeps friction down as the bones move. Having an equal joint space across the entire surface is optimal for life long use of joints. Now imagine shoving a penny under the left side of the bottom bone. What do you think that might do to the joint space?

Here is another lesson from the horse world. No horse breeder EVER puts shoes onto foals unless there is a severe deformation of leg or hoof at birth. Our bodies, like their's, were designed to be barefoot on an ever changing surface. This allows for shifts and readjustments throughout our bodies throughout our day. Shoes are a static surface. They do not offer the full range of mobility our feet need to have, especially growing feet. This is why I dearly love all the cute little soft leather moccasin styles of shoes for little walkers.

Our feet are a way more complicated engineering design than a horse's hoof. There are 3 bones in the equine hoof. One bone is stacked directly over the large bottom bone. The third is a little wedge that provides a bit more surface area support for the top bone as it moves. There are 26 bones and 33 joints in the human foot! It is an amazing movable suspension bridge which can support our entire body weight just on the toes of 1 foot while moving us through space.

If we put our feet in uneven shoes all day, day after day, it forces our body to deal with a static uneven surface. Imagine a calf growing up on a hillside and always standing and walking facing to the left on the hill. Not good over time for anyone but especially kids, or adults with various pain syndromes. Good thing kids have enough sense to take their shoes off as often as possible. :)

To see how our dynamic foot system works in 3D