steel shoes for few racehorses

Question
hello, may i know why few horses require steel shoes during the race? even though these shoes are heavy, most of the horses won races at our local racetrack. doesn't the aluminum shoe work for those horses which run with steel?

Answer
Hello Rohit,

The material a shoe is made from is less important than the type of shoe. So the steel shoes may offer more traction for the horse than the available aluminum shoes offer. In this case the steel shoe might be preferable. Also, not all steel shoes are heavier than aluminum shoes. There are shoes called ultra-lites that are about half the thickness of a regular steel shoe. These shoes can be lighter than some aluminum shoes. So it becomes more about how the shoe is made and less about the material used to make the shoes.

Paul