Each day, American Farriers Journal encounters a variety of articles, social media posts, podcasts and videos that offer a unique look at an aspect of the equine industry. Our favorite content for "This Week" is aggregated here. We hope it offers a useful tip to improve your hoof-care business, expands your knowledge by giving you something new to ponder, or entertains you when you need a break most.   

• Wedges: A Necessary Evil?
• Touch Up Your Hoof Knife
• Tips for Shoeing Long/Overdue Horses
• Laminitic Horse Nutrition
• Understanding the Horse Brain

Wedges: A Necessary Evil?

Wedges are widely debated in the farriery world. Do they help to create better geometric hoof proportions in a broken back hoof pastern axis’, de-loading affected structures? Or do they simply put a plaster on a symptom, perpetuating the adverse biomechanical forces that created the morphology in the first place? Yogi Sharp, DipWCF, a farrier based in Brighton, England, explores this topic in his Equine Documentalist blog.

Touch Up Your Hoof Knife

Farrier Products Distribution offers a quick tip in this video for sharpening the Bloom Forge hoof knife using a green buffing compound and a FootPro Felt Wheel that is 6” in diameter and ¾” thick.

Tips for Shoeing Long/Overdue Horses

Brock, Texas farrier Lee Olsen, CJF, of Olsen Equine shares his tips to make shoeing long/overdue horses easier in this video. Taking out the proper amount of sole is key. Hint: You are going to need a torch.

Laminitic Horse Nutrition

Nutrition can play a role in initiating laminitis, either through precipitating an abrupt change in bacterial flora and releasing an endotoxic shower or directly through a carbohydrate overload. Dr. Clarissa Brown-Douglas from Kentucky Equine Research discusses the important role that nutrition plays in preventing and managing laminitis in this video.

Understanding the Horse Brain

Farrier Focus Podcast interviews Dr. Steve Peters, a neuroscientist who specializes in brain functioning. As a horse brain researcher, Peters has given numerous equine brain science seminars/presentations throughout the U.S. and Canada and performed many horse brain dissections. He and horseman Martin Black co-authored “Evidence Based Horsemanship.”