Farrier Takeaways

• With its varied and demanding career, the Western performance horse is susceptible to a variety of soft tissue injuries. A farrier’s shoeing prescription plays a major role in the treatment and recovery of these animals.
• In soft tissue injuries of the distal limb, closely adjacent structures to the primary injured ligament or tendon may also be affected. Diagnostics, including MRI, ultrasound, radiography, or bone scans, can assist in identifying all the structures affected by an injury.
• As an animal progresses from injury to recovery, farriers should change their shoeing prescriptions gradually over time in order to transition the horse from the most therapeutic shoes to normal shoes. No prescription is permanent, and farriers should adjust and redirect at each shoeing.