As summer gives way to fall, the diets of your clients’ horses change with the seasons. Hoof quality often transitions with it. Once winter arrives in cold climates, protecting the foot becomes increasingly challenging. Horses are often turned out in snow and mud where their hooves absorb moisture. Those with poor hoof quality become a playground for opportunistic bacteria. Improving the nutrition of a horse with compromised horn can play a part in preventing problems heading into the winter months.

The main goals of hoof trimming are to promote the soundness of the hooves and the limbs, support the biomechanical efficiency, and maintain the functionality of the equine foot. During motion, in particular, it is of importance to optimize forces acting on the hoof to maintain structural integrity and function of the equine toe. However, there is no agreement on how to achieve these goals.

After a client invests $40,000 on footing for their arena, it’s hard — maybe impossible — to convince them it’s ruining their horse’s feet. Uxbridge, Ontario, farrier Dave Dawson had a client express concern that their horses were frequently tripping and stumbling.

Human medicine and athletic stores rely on visual maps to recommend orthotics or sneaker styles based on a person’s gait. Pressure plates measure how an individual distributes their weight as they walk or run and converts that data into a graphic interpretation. That information is used to pair the right support or shoe style for specific gait pattern or abnormality to reduce the risk for injury.

This year marks my 55th year of shoeing horses. Techniques have changed several times throughout that career based on subjective evaluation and misleading science. We now live in the age of information (and misinformation), and those who force their opinions on our farriery practices are expanding. Throw in a measure of “how-to” by owners and veterinarians who don’t shoe horses for a living, yet feel the need to tell us how to do it anyway. Fortunately, knowledge will help weed out the stupid stuff.

Even living in rural Iowa, our lives have certainly been affected by the recent COVID-19 outbreak, but perhaps not to the extent of areas where populations are much denser. Our schools are closed, as are many businesses; however, Iowa is not under a stay-at-home order — at least not as I write this in early April.