Wearing Horseshoes….

I was musing the other day about how often we hear expressions about horse shoes being symbols of good luck…A generalization is that if a horseshoe is hung as an adornment on a house it should be mounted so it looks like a “U” shape rather than an “n” shape.

My thoughts then wandered to querying different kinds of horseshoes, knowing only that different materials and customized adjustments are used for both specific uses and for hoof or gait correction.   A Google™ search returned that there are two distinct styles –

“An open heeled shoe is rounded over the front of the hoof,

but does not cross in the back.

A bar horse shoe is a closed shoe, wrapping

around the entire hoof and back of the foot.”

Similarly, in the fashion world of women’s’ shoe styles which may be referred to as a sling-back or a pump. Gentlemen sport sandal-styles either an open back or dress-type shoes styles. Athletic shoes of many kinds are designed and intended for more specific use.

At a young man’s recent graduation from elementary school, the intended dress code was white shirt, dress pants and dress shoes for the on-stage presentation of certificates. My own grandson reluctantly acceded to his parents’ insistence and reluctantly donned dress shoes to complete “the look”.

Mom and Dad were both horrorstruck and thunderstruck, too late to intervene, when they observed their son striding across the stage. The designated footwear indeed had been surreptitiously switched to the young man’s preferred style!

I feel hopeful that this fellow has an ample supply of horseshoes, preferably of the racing kind. He will need all the luck he can muster to circumvent any repercussions.

The possibility now of summertime hobbles to correct his gait may prove without question that a wiser choice would have instead been to wear bar-style horseshoes.