Whitewave, you are correct; minis are NOT allowed to be shown shod in A/R approved shows.
Glad Voodoo has found a solution to possible excess wear on her driving horse's feet that she is satisfied with! That said, shoeing wouldn't be my personal choice, unless there was absolutely NO other choice-reason?I regard shoeing of ANY horse as a "necessary evil". Nails weaken the hoof wall, shoeing with iron likely adds to concussive forces, having shoes on elevates the frog, meaning less likelihood of good ground contact-to mention just three "minuses", IMO. Do I, and have I, had my riding horses shod-Yes, most of them-for all the reasons why shoeing IS usually done!(Though I am very 'big' on keeping it very basic...) And, even though I could probably shoe my mini(s)myself, my personal choice is to utilize protective "boots". Yes, it takes a few minutes to put on/remove them each time--not a big deal, to me. Some of the newer technologies of "painting" on a substance,then shaping it with a rasp, sound very promising to me, and I would love to hear the experiences of those who have utilized them. I realize that people are faced with many different situations when it comes to the surface available to drive on, and that has to be a factor-but keep in mind, any surface hard and abrasive enough to cause excess wear in normal driving activities is also likely to be hard on their legs,concussion-wise--so moderation/alternation of where one drives might be something to keep in mind.
In my situation-the local "dirt" roads are actually quite "gravelly", and hard-surfaced. Though I prefer, with non-green horses, to drive 'outside' in the real world, I sometimes drive in my arena(just the local clay soil, which I keep lightly loosened); I alternate between driving along the highway right of way(again, local soil), and on the non-paved roads. If I'm going to drive on the roads, I put on the Easyboots. After having read about someone who has experimented with using "Shock Tamer" pads w/ Easyboots, I am thinking of cutting an old computer mouse pad into inserts for the Easyboots---?