You can see the Liverpool Avalon Farrier in the background of Exchanges! It is next to the elementary school. It caters mostly to citizens that have horse-like hooves, like centaurs, ipotanes, and horse-legged satyrs, but it’s not just limited to them. Any hoofed creature can go and get a little TLC on their lil toes there. Natural shapeshifters like bugganes don’t have much use for them, however, as any changes made to their feet would be undone the moment they shapeshifted. Not all horse-hoofed creatures get horseshoes, either. It’s a personal preference
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The Kickstarter for my 4th Book has launched! Go get it!!!!! I’m really excited about this dang book, it’s gonna look really amazing!
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Steel horseshoes are very slippery on hard surfaces, and would be brutal on wooden floors, but even bare hooves would be damaging to finished floors. It’s surprising how little horseshoes have changed in the last thousand years. There are shoes with rubber bonded to them for traction on paved surfaces. I’d imagine for indoors use, they’d use something like companion horse tennis shoes. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/459085755735990907/ Of course, a farrier is needed even for those who decide to go barefoot, because they still need their hooves trimmed once a month. Satyrs might be able to manage it on their own, but for centaurs it’s kind of a pain.
As a farrier, this reader question makes me So Happy
Presumably they do noise-reducing plastic and rubber horseshoes, and can make or measure for hoofboots. I can also imagine that there are the usual troubles with some kids and foals…
Tarquin: Muu-uum… I don’t wannaaaa…!
Lucia: What, you want your hooves to get more and more uneven and misshapen until you can’t walk any more? Just be quiet and don’t fidget and it’ll be over before you know it.
Tarquin: Well, can I have the composite shoes with the day-glo go faster stripes?
Lucia: No, dear. You definitely don’t need shoes yet. Your hoofboots do you just fine.
Tarquin: They’re my sister’s hoofboots!
Lucia: They’re yours now, Tarquin – they’re black and they’re unisex and there’s nothing wrong with hand-me-downs. And speaking of your sister- Penny, don’t lean on the poor farrier – keep the weight on your other legs. You’re not a little foalette any more.
Penelope: *looks up from her mobile phone, cocks an ear towards Lucia* Did you say something, mother?
>:=)>
Oh, and in the UK, it’s “primary school” not “elementary school”.
Teacher: …and you are in Year 5 rather than “5th Grade”, there is no “Show and Tell” here, and we use the abbreviation “No.” for “number”, rather than a hash.
Colin: *points at drawing of Lorne’s mug insouciantly* But Lorne Lyon still has a mug with “#1 Lorne” on it at our home, miss! *calculating smile* Is it worth a gold star to change it?
Teacher: *is gnawed by her antipathy to Americanisms* …Yes.
Colin: *erase erase erase* *change* :-) *goes fullform* *receives a gold star on his work, and one on the middle of his beak* X->
>:=)>
Heckin’ yeah. There’s a few studies out there that metal shoes are not the best–no flexibility. Someone who can use words and phrases would’ve probably pointed that out a lot earlier.
Teacher: “Oh, and when there’s classwork or an exam and you PUT THE DATE ON IT … !!”
[remembers English teachers at German school being all insistent on Queen’s English but then happily dictating “May 15th, COMMA, nineteenhundredandsome” whenever pupils were prepping the blank paper sheets for a written exam]
Three are also hipposandals! (Hippo being ancient Greek for horse)
They serve the same purpose as horseshoes but are tied to the leg, like sandals, instead of nailed to the hoof.
Modern hipposandals look just like tiny running shoes with velcro straps and rubber soles.
https://luntfort.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/images-11.jpg
Are there any bat totems in the skin deep universe?
Recommended: Donna Barr’s comic, “Andri’s Christmas Shoes.”
Hard to find now, but collected in “Horsebrush and Other Tales.”
This comic can also be found at Indyplanet. Look for “Stinz.”
Thank you! Not only do I get my question answered, I get a cryptid I’ve never heard of: ipotanes! I don’t think I’ve seen one in the comic, let alone a full profile of one to compare to a satyr…
You might think of ipotanes as bipedal centaurs. They’ve been in Greco-Roman mythology for a long time. In fact, it was supposedly ipotanes who taught Bachus/Dionyses to drink!
I know you’ve probably said it before, but what are the rules on clothes when shifting? And what if you’re wearing something species specific (like horseshoes)? What happens to them when you change back?
From what Kory has said, clothes are designed for the midform. In fullform, they get stored somewhere (TA-DA! Magic!) and in human form, they are resized and reshaped as necessary to hide tail holes, slots for the wings, etc. (TA-DA! Magic!)
(Before anyone brings up the subject of Michelle’s shirts, that’s WHY she had to cut holes for the wings and/or tail. She probably bought them at the mall or something… they were not designed with her midform or fullform in mind.)
Are there any underwater Avalons?
Answer:
https://www.skindeepcomic.com/reader-questions/february-reader-question-23-2/
Ooh, ipotanes is a new one on me, thanks! Also, yay, Centaurs(ish)! :-D
YESSSS IPOTANES EXIST
Just realized this, but is the farrier the location of those HappyCow back scratchers?
https://www.skindeepcomic.com/reader-questions/february-reader-question-30/
you know they make velcro rubber based shoes that strap over the hoof like running shoes.