Millwater's Farriery: Balance...

   Bee... ay... ehl... ay... ehn... see... ee... BALANCE!

   It's a bit of a tricky thing to grasp, but rather essential if you're trying to keep horses sound...

   Shifting into book page format for the samples from Millwater's Farriery: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare now.  Keep in-mind that the book is designed for cross-referencing, so the words appearing in the entry in boldface italic have their own articles as well.

   Illustrations in the online file have had their resolution decreased from what will be used to print the book.

Balancing the horse's hoof.

(Alternate link if above fails.)

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Millwater's Farriery: Preface...

   Farriery is one of America's last free professions. As such, there are many avenues to learning the trade. A multitude of schools with different course lengths and curricula. Apprenticeships formal and casual. Clinics, workshops, and symposiums. And individual study. Lots of it. All in all, education in the art and science is a unique experience for each farrier.

   So there are always gaps in our knowledge to be filled, whether we're rookies or grizzled veterans. Always something new to learn.

   Millwater Publishing's lexicon project started with The Pocket Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language in 1994. A humble little glossary to help farriers, horseowners, and researchers understand one-another better. Over the many print and virtual editions which followed, it evolved to include more extensive definitions and illustrations. With this, its 10th print incarnation, the lexicon makes the jump to being an encyclopedic dictionary.

   The encyclopedic format is particularly suited to the free-form learning of farriery. Each article is designed to cross-reference with others, so that readers can easily fill in the basics required to comprehend a given topic, or follow on to more advanced information as needed.

   This book is a collection and distillation of the ideas and observations of many farriers I've learned from over the years. Some I've had the privilege of knowing personally. Others, only through their work. The names of several appear within the entries. Many more have made contributions to the sum of hoofcare knowledge which have come down to me without attribution. Famous, anonymous, or somewhere in-between, these pathfinders are recognized and appreciated.

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Millwater's Farriery: Snow Shoeing...

   Sorry I've been awol lately.  Had a retina go and detach on me for no good reason (other than "getting old" says the doctor, whom I might've punched if'n I could have seen where he was!)...  Now recovering from a horrific surgery they tell me was successful.

   Anyway... With the first hints of Autumn chill due to roll-in on the morrow, I thought I'd make the next sample draft from Millwater's Farriery: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare the entry on preventing snowballing in horses' hooves...  Not that we have to deal with this too much here in Dixie.

Snow Pads.

(Alternative Link if Above Fails.)

Millwater's Farriery: Founder Illustrated...

   It is Millwater's Farriery: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare...  So a feature entry article like "founder" is going to get some pictures...

Starting point...  Simplified cross-section diagram of the hoof.

Has been tweaked a bit since this scaled-down version was saved.

A-hoof wall,  B-laminae,   C-horny sole,   D-coffin bone (PIII),

E-short pastern bone,   F-navicular,   G-deep flexor tendon,

H-digital cushion/frog,   I-solar corium.

Dotted line shows the bearing surface extent of the wall.

Changes and rotational forces during founder.

Traditional trim to counter rotation.

Foundered hoof with heartbar and resection.

Dotted line here shows the ground surface of the shoe,

Solar view, full-support heartbar on hoof.

Note that the tip and outer edge of frog are not covered.

Solar view of dynamic heartbar variation with a

Thera-Flex insert and abbreviated shoe.

Note the "window" in the pad to prevent it pressuring the anterior sole.

Flexor relief by wedge shoeing for founder,

as suggested by Dr. Redden in the '90s.

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Millwater's Farriery: Founder...

   I caught a little flack from some folks last week for using a founder image for the link button to the laminitis entry...  I'm just pleased that some folks out there know the difference well enough to complain about it.

   Now moving-on to the entry on founder proper...  It's one of the anchor articles in the book, and will have a lot of illustrations.  The heartbar entry has more detailed info on applying that shoe.  Of course, the anatomy anchor entry and full-page anatomical illustrations in the appendix also support this piece in the encyclopedic dictionary of farriery.

The late, great Burney Chapman and part of his collection

of heartbars and unreasonable facsimiles thereof.

(Photo by me. Kentucky, 1994.)

Founder.

(Alternate link if the above fails.)

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Somebody get Ma Nature a calendar...

   Summer's supposed to be wrapping-up now, right?  That's why I put the final illustration photo shooting off until last...  But here it is, September, and everyone outdoors is still a sweaty mess.

   Oh well... Deadlines approaching. Gotta shoot anyway!

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Encyclopedia of Farriery: Laminitis.

   Getting into the heavier stuff now...  This entry in Millwater's Farriery: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare really just serves to set the stage for the anchor entry on founder, which is more firmly in the farrier's bailiwick than the systemic crisis that sets the mechanical collapse into motion.

Laminitis.

(Alternate link if above fails.)

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