To shoe or not to shoe?

Now, my English class has been studying Hamlet lately, and I think sometimes we stumble upon things at the perfect time. Had I read this poem three days ago, I wouldn't have been able to fully appreciate this gem- but I happened to find it on the same day that I read Hamlet's third soliloquy.

To those of you who are not avid students of Shakespeare, I'll fill you in on the context: Hamlet's third soliloquy is the famous "To be or not to be". It is, in essence, "to live or not to live", and through the entire speech, Hamlet mulls over the conundrum of suicide. Should he kill himself? Why, or why not?

Interestingly enough, I've stumbled off a paraphrase of Shakespeare's "To be or not to be": A mule's soliloquy on a subject as important to him as suicide was to Hamlet.

"To shoe, or not to shoe: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler for the horse to suffer the stones and pebbles of outrageous pathways, or to wear boots despite their many troubles, and by persisting end them? To bruise, to limp; No more, and without limp to say we end the footache and the thousand ouchy steps that hooves are heir to. 'Tis a hoof condition devoutly to be wished. To boot, to try. To try, perchance to fail. Ay, there's the rub: for with that boot with gaiter what rubs may come when we have shuffled off the forged shoe must give us pause. There's the ease that makes simplicity of such long rides; for who would bear the rubs and breakage of the boots, the wasted time, the proud horse injured, the pangs of dislodged gaiters, the ride's delay, the many dollars spent and the stones."
-the February 3, 2010 post on www.braysofourlives.com

In case your brain shut down three lines into the Shakespearean English, I'll give this summary: Is it better for a horse to brave tough ground barefoot or deal with the problems that shoes cause? To a horse, I would imagine this would be a much more pressing issue than Hamlet's puzzle of life or death.