A pair of canny inventors has launched the world's first running shoes designed specifically for horses.

Animal lovers Louisa and Charly Forstner came up with the novel product after years of fitting steel shoes to their horses' hooves.

The clip-on shoes, called Megasus Horserunners, are made from shock-absorbing plastic materials and claim to make life more comfortable for both horse and rider.

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Inventors have created a set of clip on plastic running shoes for horses which they claim make the ride more comfortable for horse and human alike

Unlike steel shoes they move with the horse's hoof, and can be removed quickly to allow horses to strengthen their tendons and ligaments.

A set of four shoes can be pre-ordered for £175 ($219) from horserunners.com and they can be shipped to the UK.

'Megasus Horserunners are the first clippable running shoes for horses, a non-permanent hoof protection that is as easy to put on as it is to take off,' said Mr Forstner.

'They're just like your running shoes without any iron or nails.

'Our high performance fastener system allows you to easily clip the Megasus Horserunners on and off at maximum convenience for both, horse and owner.

Austrian inventors and animal lovers Louisa and Charly Forstner came up with the novel product after years of fitting steel shoes to their horses' hooves while out for a ride

Unlike steel shoes they move with the horse's hoof - and can be removed quickly to allow horses to strengthen their tendons and ligaments

MEGASUS HORSERUNNERS The shoes were designed by a pair of Austrian inventors and animal lovers. Megasus Horesrunners are made from plastic and clip on to the horse's metal shoes. Their makers claim the shoes are durable and provide protection and stability for the animal's hooves. They also claim that the clip on shoes can help to strengthen the horse's tendons and increase mobility. A set of four shoes will set horse owners back £175 and the shoes will be shipped from July next year. Advertisement

'Our horses have had to wear immobile iron shoes for more than 2,000 years. Science call horseshoes a 'necessary evil'.

'The time is ripe for a healthy and comfortable hoof protection for horses, which transforms their movements into poetry

'Megasus Horserunners are the result of long-standing research and study of horse hooves for twenty years.

'We found the common understanding of the functioning of the hoof to be wrong.

'People still think that hooves are rigid and stiff only able to move a few millimetres on a horizontal plane - this is simply not the case.

'As early as 1998, we proved the existence of vertical hoof movements and published our first study in the renowned science magazine GEO.

The revolutionary clip-on shoes, called Megasus Horserunners, are made from shock-absorbing plastic materials and claim to make life more comfortable for both horse and rider

The makers claim the plastic design reduces shock and vibration on the animals' hooves (pictured left) as well as increasing stability on uneven terrain (picture right)

'When fixing the hoof with rigid material such as iron, tendons and ligaments will become immobilised - a feeling comparable to wearing a cast.

'Megasus Horserunners are flexible and allow all three-dimensional natural hoof movements on any type of terrain.

'Flexible doesn't mean soft, as the hoof itself isn't soft. It means that the hoof protection should only move under the weight of the horse.'

Mr and Mrs Forstner, from Furstenfeld, Austria, have raised just under £150,000 ($188,000) through crowdfunding website Kickstarter and are expecting to ship their new product in July next year.