Back in January 2013, Delaware, Ohio, farrier Dean Moshier was invited to be on an online radio show Stable Scoop on Horse Radio Network. In it, he discussed a top 10 list of what most farriers wanted their clients to know. Over the last 3 years, these questions and answers have evolved, mainly influenced by client interactions within Moshier’s practice. He recently delivered this at the Midwest Horse Fair, which draws tens of thousands of equine enthusiasts to south-central Wisconsin every year.

Lameness Occurs The Most Of All Equine Medical Problems

According to federal researchers, lameness has the highest annual incident density of all medical problems in horses, DVM360 Magazine reports. Half of all horse operations with five or more horses have one or more cases of lameness annually. Another federal report estimates lameness incidence at 7.5% to 13.7% annually.

Progress continues in our work to define the professionalization of farriers. A few of us met and discussed many of the processes and permutations of the “Initiative to Professionalize the Practice of Equine Footcare and Farriery” in early March. We’ll meet in late summer, when progress can be assessed and new assignments undertaken.

The interaction that the equine foot constantly has with the en­vironment naturally makes it sus­ceptible to injury or trauma.

Toe cracks come in different forms, but none of them look good. Some cracks are small, others are long up the wall. Some are deep and others are superficial. All of us have heard, “Can you fix that crack?” Some can be corrected, but others will die with the horse. The biggest thing we must learn is what causes the crack in the first place. It’s just as important to know where it comes from as to where it’s going.

Growing up in Ontario, Ian McKinlay learned crack repair from his father J.C., a pioneer in the practice. J.C. McKinlay started repairing cracks in Ontario in the 1960s, primarily with Standardbreds at Toronto’s Greenwood Mohawk Racetrack and his farm. The younger McKinlay told attendees of the March Razerhorse clinic in Denton, Texas, that his late father would be amazed at how farriers have adapted his work in lacing and patching cracks.

Scheduling clients is as high on the priority list only because it enables farriers to do what they really want to do — trim and shoe horses, not to mention make money.

Joint Injections Compared Joint injections using corticosteroids, hyaluronic acid (HA) or a combination of the two are commonly used to treat synovitis and arthritis in performance horses. In this study, researchers compared the efficacy of one type of corticosteroid (triamcinolone acetate, TA) with and without HA for the treatment of lameness, localized to one limb only that responded to a diagnostic joint block. Eighty horses of various breeds were enrolled in the study with follow-up at 3 weeks by re-examining the horses and 3 months by an owner questionnaire. No other medications were permitted during the first 3 weeks of follow-up.