Attention is often paid to forging temperatures, hammer blows and anvils, and rightly so. There are other aspects of forging that are equally important, yet don’t get as much consideration. “A lot of people have problems because they’re just all over the place,” Sacramento, Calif., farrier John Williams told attendees at a late summer forging clinic at The Horseshoe Barn. “They’re just spread out all over their anvil. They throw their stock up there, any old place, and then they just take their hammer to the stock.”

They’re everywhere. Every time you turn around, someone’s nose is in a smartphone. In fact, you probably have a holder or two who do little but text, check social media or surf the Internet the entire time you’re under the horse.

Is the practice of grooving beneficial when managing a quarter crack? Conventional wisdom seems to indicate that it does. However, Bed­minster, N.J., farrier Bob Pethick had doubts. So when a client, who happened to be a veterinarian, bought a Quarter Horse with a bleeding quarter crack and a displaced heel quarter on the front foot, the Hall Of Fame farrier was presented with an opportunity to experiment.

Over the past 28 years of my shoeing career, clients, veterinarians and other farriers have asked three common questions about hoof angle. What is the ideal hoof angle? What angle do you like the front hooves? What angle do you try to achieve for hind hooves, etc.?