For Want of a Shoe a Triple Crown Was Lost

To begin: my husband and I have owned and raised horses since we were both kids (we are 62 and 67 now) so that is a pretty long time.

Although we raised Quarter Horses and Appaloosas, we did have one AQHA racing horse "Ship of Lightening" whose sire was "Ship Deck" out of "Top Deck" who went back to "Man of War" in his fifth generation, (I am sure I have left a generation out).  Our Quarter horses were out of range mares sired by "Question Mark" a beautiful Palomino racing horse. (An AQHA foundation stud).

We used to attend Quarter horse races, but other than riding a few horses out of the gates to see how they would react, we never raced them.

One thing we did was shoe our own horses.  I figured out the angles the hooves should filed to correct toeing in or out and stuff like that and my husband did the laborious part of trimming, rasping, fitting the shoe, nailing it on, clipping the nail off, and clinching it over before finishing it off to look good.  That is back breaking work; just try holding up a 1200 pound horse who is leaning on you, you'll see!

Well, it turns out that during the race for the third leg of the Triple Crown, Big Brown (who I still insist is a bay) was not as bothered by the quarter crack which had been repaired with glue, as he was by a loose shoe on his right hind foot.

His trainer had been speculating that since the quarter crack had been fixed and was sound, the uninspiring race Big Brown ran must have had something to do   with the track itself.

Horses are pretty savvy creatures.  The exceptions are the "hot" horses that get such a rush from the thrill of competition that they will attempt to continue a race even after breaking a leg (the saddest example for me was the great filly "Ruffian" who had to be put down after a race against all colts).

Big Brown had a saner disposition and must have somehow clipped his hind shoe.  The trainer received pictures through the mail from a photographer showing the shoe hanging. 

A most unusual occurrence must have happened; when BB put weight on the loose shoe the nail was forced back into his hoof, but not aligned  with the original hole. This would definitely feel different and "not right" to an intelligent steed like Brown.  

After the race when the trainer assessed the right hind shoe he felt it had simply loosened and did not realize it had been hanging loose during the race.

So today it has been made public that as the old saying goes "for want of a shoe" a Triple Crown was indeed lost.  At least it wasn't the horse that was lost this time.  Sorry for ever doubting you big guy.