SEPT. 17 ISSUE ANSWERS: Horses do not always need shoes. Horses were normally walking on soft ground. A couple thousand years ago the Romans, who depended on horses, decided that roads can be paved with hard surfaces such as stone or cement. This was a problem for their horses. It took many years to solve this problem. The modern horse walks on a single hoof. This hoof material is made of the same substance as human fingernails. Just like humans, the hoof grows and has no nerves like our human finger nails. Humans trim their nails and a horse’s hoof would naturally wear down if walking only on the soft ground. Since modern horses live in a human society, nature doesn’t always take care of this natural growth/ware process. So owners and farriers, (who are paid to solve this problem,) trim some horse’s hooves. The hoof has an arched shape with a “frog” or soft center which also helps in the horse’s circulation. If the center of the hoof becomes filled with foreign material, the farrier cleans and examines the hoof. Since the hoof has been growing, as a result of inactivity in the barn, the shoe might need reshaping. This is done