How many horses in your practice battle palmar foot pain, riding that razor edge between working soundness and days off? Pain originating in the palmar or rearward section of the foot isn’t a very specific diagnosis, but it certainly affects a lot of horses — and thereby a lot of farriers.

Dandi had been lame on and off for 3 years. He was over 30 years old, but his exact age was unknown (at least to me). I was called in on this case at the suggestion of the farrier who was working at the barn where Dandi was stabled, near Pearl City, Ill.

Collateral ligament (CL) injuries of the distal inter-phalangeal joint (coffin joint) are a fairly common injury among certain classes of athletic horses.

When dealing with excessive stress on the deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT), H.H. Florian Buchner has found that farriers can sharply reduce the amount of tendon force and navicular compression by applying heel wedges to horses with these concerns.

SINCE IT’S INTRODUCTION, there’s been little neutral ground on the subject of Natural Balance shoeing.