This experience contributes certain special personal qualities I bring to this research, including an empathy for horses and an understanding of shoeing needs and practices, as well as a compassion for the horses. This, combined with an ambition to develop better products and practices for horses and equine performance and with my above-mentioned investment and experience, will enable me to approach this research with a very strong foundation and commitment. While no specific inciting incident inspired this research proposal, ongoing questions as to the proper use of aluminum horseshoes and effects on horse health definitely provide an impetus (Crisan et al., 2009; Huguet & Duberstein, 2012). Determining how to best avoid hoof-related health problems and how to best improve performance has long been a subject of debate and investigation amongst equine practitioners, and this pursuit is the definitive aspect of this research, as well (Koepisch, 1996; Balch et al., 1997). Current analysis make sit clear that aluminum...

A very tentative hypothesis that can be made at this time is that aluminum horseshoes will be found to promote hoof health when used in a wide variety of applications, and will also improve performance in many.