While much has been learned about laminitis over the past 25 years, Andy Parks maintains the picture is still incomplete. He told attendees at last winter’s American Association of Equine Practitioners meeting that treatment techniques lag well behind the understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease.

The willingness of the horseshoeing community to rush to the rescue when one of its own or a group of horses are in trouble never ceases to amaze me.

In the mid 1990s, Great Britain’s Farrier Registration Council granted American Farrier’s Association Certified Journeyman Farriers the right to gain full farrier registration and shoe horses in the United Kingdom. Now that move may come back to haunt them.

From 1996 to 2004, the number of horses in the United States jumped by 2.3 million. While this figure includes all horses, it’s unlikely that wild horse numbers have increased much.

You can almost feel the horseshoeing industry shaking on its foundations already.