Articles Tagged with ''Thoroughbreds''

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Performance And Conformation

At higher levels of competition, understanding how a horse is put together becomes increasingly important
It’s natural for hoof-care professionals to focus primarily on a horse’s lower limbs as they work, but a general knowledge of equine anatomy and conformation is also important. This knowledge becomes more critical for those who work on performance horses. The higher the level of performance, the more critical that knowledge becomes.
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Shoeing for a Living

Horseshoeing’s Engineering Puzzle Charms Finger Lakes Farrier

Kirk Smith enjoys the challenge of balancing the horse’s system of levers and pulleys

Horses have been a staple in Kirk Smith’s life long before he started shoeing horses in Freeville, N.Y.

He always had horses while growing up in the small farming town of Clark in northeastern South Dakota. He cut his teeth working cattle part-time as a high school student and later during his summer breaks while attending Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Along the way, he broke and trained horses.


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Research Journal: January/Febreuary 2016

The information, ideas and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Veterinarians in Belgium examined the dorsopalmar and mediolateral hoof balance of five toed-in warmbloods that weren’t lame at the time of the study. They used a pressure plate to assess the symmetry of vertical ground reaction forces as a measure of hoof balance and limb loading symmetry at a walk. Their hypothesis was that toed-in conformation primarily affects mediolateral balance.
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News & Notes

Quarter Crack? Don’t Blame The Farrier

Quarter cracks are relatively common among Thoroughbreds, and while they can take time to heal, they don't necessarily put a horse on the shelf for months, the way a soft tissue injury can. In many cases, the farrier may be blamed when a horse develops a quarter crack as a result of hoof shape, but experts say it's not that simple.
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