This article has a very specific audience — farriers like myself who find themselves working on young stock and horses who have a poor understanding of the trimming and shoeing process.

It can be frustrating when you’re trying to explain a hoof-care problem to a client and they just stare back at you blankly.

Future research is more likely to find a pharmacological cure for systemic laminitis than for overload weight-bearing laminitis, maintains equine veterinarian Larry Bramlage. The surgeon with Rood and Riddle in Lexington, Ky., defines systemic laminitis as a disease process that liberates enough mediators within the body to trigger the separation of the hoof wall.