Millwater's Farriery: Project Lexicon...

Project Lexicon... About Millwater's Farriery.

"The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms."

-Socrates.

   Many years ago, when I was stumbling up the path from being a 'guy who shoes horses' to becoming an actual farrier, I started taking the trade journals, attending clinics, and doing the best I could to expand my understanding of art and science. Problem was that writers and speakers often threw around references and expressions, assuming that everyone was already familiar with them. ...Some of us weren't!

   I wire-brushed the devil out of the bottoms of a lot of hooves trying to get them clean enough so that I could see the "dot" that Duckett fellow had discovered, which some magazines mentioned, but didn't explain.

   Then there were the articles and lectures from veterinarians and academic researchers. They like to use a lot of ten dollar words just to show-off. But, when you think about shoeing horses, even simple terms like "up", "down", "right", "left", "front", and "back" can be confusing due to the fact that we look at things from so many different points of view. Sometimes the fancy terminology really was more precise.

   Even 'plain old' horseshoeing language caused confusion. I recall an early contest where there was a rather heated argument between the judge and a contestant over "heel calks", "corks", and "blocked heels"... Then there was a clinic where I found myself exchanging confused shrugs with a few other tarheel farriers as the lecturer explained that "Over eighty percent of the pleasure horses in the show ring speedy-cut at the passing gait."

   By the early 1990s, it had gradually dawned on me that there ought to be a glossary of farriery.   I'd successfully written for several major equestrian magazines by then, so I decided to give it a go.   In 1994 I published The Pocket Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language.  It sold-out pretty quickly, even as better authoring tools became available to me, and a lot of new terms that needed to be included became apparent.  So, the following year, The New Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language was published.

   There wound-up being eight editions of the New Dictionary between 1995 and 2010.   Each featuring new terms, refined and expanded definitions, more and better illustrations.

   Initially, the focus was on the sort of scientific and specialized jargon you can't look-up in Webster's.  But, over the years, I realized that there were a lot of horseshoers with impressive technical knowledge and skills who had somehow managed to skip over some fundamental basics.   I also discovered that many of my readers were other equestrian professionals and horseowners.   So I began expanding the scope of the Dictionary to include the "foundation" terms needed to support the advanced material.

   Terms evolved into topics.   Definitions into articles.   With the tenth print version of the lexicon, it has grown into something new.  An encyclopedic dictionary.  A cross-referenced collection of interlocking entries designed to allow readers to come in at any level from prospective student or interested horseowner to established professional, and go up, down, or sideways as their reference needs dictate.

   It was on the advice of two veterans of farrier publishing that I added my name to the title of the tenth lexicon.  I was a little reluctant.  Even my hubris has limits...   But it ultimately made sense.  The transition to an encyclopedic format, centered on articles rather than mere definitions, meant that the book would reflect my own experience and approaches more than the previous works had.  This will probably elicit some criticism, as I do tend to develop some unusual techniques...

   As I was finishing-up with shoeing a rather tricky therapeutic case, I mentioned to my wife that I was going to have to work on finding a way to explain a "trick" I'd used for an article.

   She said "You can't tell other people how to do that!"

   "Why not? You know it works."

   "Yes," she allowed. "But nobody but you can make it work right."

   I'm pretty sure she's mistaken on that point. But she made me put-in a disclaimer anyway.

...

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Millwater's Farriery: Horseshoe Repair...

   Well, we're now in Thanksgiving week, so the holiday season is fully upon us.  So how about I get a little generous with this entry and post a sample that the equestrian set might find useful...  Especially when they're getting ready for a nice Autumn ride and find ol' Dobbin has done a mischief to one of his shoes!

   This sample from MILLWATER'S FARRIERY: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare is patched-together from several of the books encyclopedic entries, and gives an overview of how to fix that thrown, loose, or bent horseshoe for horseowners.

   Of course, the book is designed for cross-referencing, so you don't quite get the full effect here. And the illustrations are much higher resolution in print (downgraded to keep the online file smaller).

   For starters, here's the "tool kit" all horseowners should have handy for hoof maintenance between farrier calls...

   And here are the sample pages on horseshoe fixing from the book. (.PDF file.)

Fixing Loose & Thrown Shoes...

Alternate Link if Above Fails...

   Wishing y'all a fine feast, and hoping you've plenty to be thankful for.

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Millwater's Farriery: The Frog and Hoof Flexing...

   Happened to have PBS on the other night, and the late, great Victor Borge was on talking about the history of the piano...  In particular, how it was a horribly boring and monotonous instrument until somebody came-along and invented the cracks (between the keys).

   That reminds me of an aspect of the equine hoof.  Specifically, the frog.  There are so many theories and myths about the frog.  How it acts as an extra heart. (Nonsense, directly anyway.  It hasn't got a lot of blood capacity.)  How it must bear weight for healthy hoof function. (Tell that to the countless 'desert-footed' horses who go rock-solid decades without frog loading from beneath.) Etc., etc...

   One question folks don't seem to ask is why does the hoof have a frog in the first place?  Why didn't Nature just make the whole hoof a continuous case of hard material like the wall?  Why make part of the hoof out of relatively soft and vulnerable material?

   The answer I see is that the hoof didn't so much need the frog, as it needed the hole the frog covers.  That 'missing' pie slice out of the hoof is like the cracks in the piano keyboard.  If the hoof wall was an unbroken circle, it could scarcely flex at all.  It would have to either withstand all the stresses in full sharpness of impact, or suffer structural failure.  In fact, I have too often observed that, when the rear of the hoof is immobilized through improper shoeing, the wall tends to crack right down the toe.

   Something's gotta give, so Nature installed a flex-joint by taking-out that wedge of horn at the back of the foot.  But she couldn't leave the 'guts' of the foot wide-open, so she put on that leathery cover... The frog.  While she was at it, she made the skeleton in the posterior of the hoof out of cartilage, to allow that flex-joint to be used to good effect.

   Of course, just because design allowance has been made for flexing under stress, that doesn't mean more flexing is always better.  The springs on a car are supposed to cushion the ride, but you don't want every bump in the road to cause the vehicle to bounce like a pogo stick.  And, while bridges are designed to yield a bit to the wind, sometimes the concept can go a little too far.

   Likewise, a healthy hoof doesn't (and shouldn't need to) distort a whole lot under normal conditions.  Many of the things people do to 'encourage' hoof flexing, like soaking and dressing, just cause structural weakness.  Think of the hoof as spring steel, not silly-putty.

   The notion that having the frog on the ground in necessary for 'expansion' and proper hoof function doesn't really hold water either.  Heavy draft horses almost always have big, loading frogs. But many of the soundest light horses have fast exfoliating horny frogs that never load against firm ground.  Trimming such a horse's heels down to the bulbs to try and get the frog on the ground will only create a broken-back axis and ultimately lameness.

   The frog can be recruited to bear considerable load when needed.  In fact, when we get hooves that have OVER-expanded (which is to say collapsed and pancaked-out), pushing the middle of the foot back up via frog pressure from a heartbar shoe is an effective way to intentionally contract the foot back into shape.  Precisely the opposite of the "frog pressure creates expansion" assertion.

   As a general rule, farriers attach horseshoes to the anterior hoof wall, which is in-turn attached to the rigid coffin bone, leaving the posterior, cartilage-supported, part of the hoof to flex as needed.

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Millwater's Farriery: Down and Dirty Bar Shoes to Git-er-Done!

    The first thing a horseshoer in this day and age might ask is  "Why would I even want to fabricate bar shoes when there are godzillion prefab bar shoes to choose from?"

   Well, it wasn't that long ago that we didn't have such a great selection.  And, the way things have been going lately, you never know how many of your favorite shoe manufacturers might go the way of the dodo, or at least be driven to streamline their offerings in times to come.

   But, even while there are prefab bar shoes available, there are some advantages to making your own.  One is simple inventory.  If you keep a supply of several different bar shoes in five or six sizes each, it adds up to a load of shoes pretty quick.  More stuff to haul around in your rig or to eat up space in your shop.

   Another advantage to making your own bar shoes is nailing.  Most horseshoers have a favorite keg shoe they use more of than anything else, and nailing this shoe becomes fast and accurate second nature.  Switching to another make of shoe, especially on a horse who may be sore (which is why he needs the bar shoes, right?) will make precise shoe placement and expedient application that much harder on the squirming, unhappy critter.  If the bar shoe were based on your favorite keg shoe, it'd be easier.

   Fitting prefabricated bar shoes can also be somewhat difficult, especially with heartbars, which are hardest to shape well with the tongue plate in the way, and tend to be needed in cases where a precise fit is even more essential than usual.

   Like a lot of horseshoers, I first started making bar shoes by selecting a keg shoe a couple sizes larger than the horse would normally wear, then turning the heels in to forge-weld them together.  This approach had some serious shortcomings.  Keg shoe stock gets thicker and wider as sizes go up, so the resulting bar shoes would be excessively heavy.  The nail holes would also be shifted too far back, and set too coarse.  And, if the horse already took the biggest size of keg shoe in the box, there were no bigger ones to make bar shoes out of.

   For a number of years, I got into the habit of forging all of my bar shoes from bar-stock.  This was quite an improvement over using an over-sized keg shoe.  But it could be a bit of work, especially in the busy season.

   One Summer evening, while I was catching up on some forge work in the shop, the wife came out and said we'd had a call from a customer whose mare was in eggbars, one of which had been lost out in the pasture, and needed us to swing-by and fix her up a few days ahead of schedule.  Knowing we'd be pushed for time the next day, and being ready to come in from the shop that evening, I decided to try a short-cut.  I grabbed two pair of my favorite keg shoes (St. Croix Rim Lites), used my V-hardie to cut off one pair right behind the toe-nails, and riveted the cut-out toes across the heels of the whole shoes to form the "O" shape.  One welding heat to just lightly tap the first joint together without buggering-up the other side.  Second welding heat to fully weld and shape the other side. A third heat to finish-up the first side.  In no time, I had a pair of eggbars ready to go.

   When I applied them, I discovered that these eggbars were easier to make final cold-fitting adjustments on than my handmades, and were all-around quicker and easier to get on the horse.  And, once the horse had polished them up a few days, the horseowner thought they were prettier than my hand-forged irons.  (Kinda' hut my feelings, that!)

   It wasn't a great leap to figure out that, by inserting the cut-out toe across the heels of the whole shoe, but facing the other way, I could whip-up straightbars just as easily for performance horses who needed a bit of extra support and stability, but would likely step-off eggbars.

(Worn shoe.)

   Of course, this left me with a bunch of partial shoe branches lying around.  Then it occurred to me that, if I crossed 'em, welded them together, hooked out the "heels" a bit, and punched rivet holes, these would make great frog plates for heartbars.  This is particularly handy, as horses in need of heartbars are often in no shape to stand around having their feet messed with for very long.  This way, I can just cold-fit a pair of keg shoes in a jiffy and let the horse go rest while I forge-weld in the pre-made frog plates.  When we go back to the horse, all I have to do is fine-tune the plate pressure and nail-on.

   They may not be as impressive as contest-winning handmades, but the horse is just going to grind the things into the mud and manure anyway.  When it comes to getting the job done, these humble bar shoes are as good as any.

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Millwater's Farriery: Default Horseshoeing...

   Okay.  Obviously no real farrier shoes every horse the same way.  Each animal is an individual with different conformation, soundness issues, and performance needs.  But most farriers do evolve a baseline shoeing approach, then adapt from there to suit the case at hand.

   I developed a preference for rim (full swedged) shoes early-on.  They provide good traction on a wide array of surfaces without the ligament and joint punishing effects of calks.  When the St. Croix Rim Lite came onto the market, it soon became my 'go-to' keg shoe, and remains so despite about a zillion fancy new shoes that have been introduced since. (Although I do use some of these on occasion.)

   The St. Croix Rim Lite has some pretty handy features.  One of which is that it is... well... light.  I've always tried to keep shoes as light as would get the job done in a practical manner, and this shoe is just about right.  Thick enough to last for one reset on most horses who actually need shoes.

   The shoe also has a sort of rolled outer edge, especially at the toe.  This makes it work like a hybrid of rim and half-round shoes.

St. Croix Rim Lite horseshoes...

Center = Fresh out of box.

Left = Shaped for typical fore w/ rockered toe.     Right = Hind shaped.

   Something most don't notice is that the St. Croix Rim Lite isn't a true rim shoe out of the box... It's a barrel shoe, with the outer edge being more pronounced than the inner.  But, if one hammers the hoof-facing side of the shoe while leveling, the inner edge gets pushed down to the anvil face, level with the outer.  This leaves the hoof side of the shoe sloped away from the sole, making it easier to apply the shoe without needing to trim away extra horn to prevent sole pressure.

   Front shoes I usually fit plenty full from the heel quarters back, well-boxed to prevent being stepped-off.  Unless there is a particular reason not to do so, I like to fit front shoes on riding horses* with rockered toes.  This improves efficiency of movement, decreasing stress on the hoof capsule, as well as the tendons and ligaments of the foot and limb.  It also provides much the same utility as a clip, keeping the shoe from being driven-back on the hoof.

   One complaint about keg shoes in general is that most of them are designed so that the fourth nails back are behind the widest point of the hoof, especially when the shoe is shaped for a front foot...  Fortunately, there's no rule requiring farriers to use every nail hole.  I often go with six (on riding-size horses), and omit the rear holes.  In other cases, I'll use seven nails, including the medial fourth hole.  The way I shoe, few horses will pull shoes while going forward.  But they will sometimes step on the medial heel quarter of one front shoe with the other front hoof while stomping or shuffling around.

   On most horses I apply the Rim Lite more-or-less with a flat perimeter fit to the rear hooves.  Usually rather long at the heels for extra support, like a more subtle form of extended heels.  Horses produce their forward impulsion by driving off the toes of the rear hooves, so it is generally counterproductive to ease breakover too much in the hinds, especially in performance horses.  But for animals with short-body, long-legged conformation, it may sometimes be wise to fit a squared and/or set-back toe, sacrificing a little drive power to avoid damage to the front feet from forging or overreaching.

   As with fores, I often go with just the front six nails in hind riding horseshoes.  When I opt for seventh, it's usually the lateral heel nail.  This seems to counter most problems with horses who tend to torque the foot and shift the shoe side-to-side.  I rarely find clips necessary with flat Rim Lites on horses with reasonably normal limb conformation.


   * Draft horses working in harness are a different story in both the way they move and shoeing needs.

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Millwater's Farriery: Distractions...

   Hey all,


   I've been a bit scarce on the Internet lately.  Trying to get everything caught-up and a bit ahead in preparation for being laid-up after another danged surgery.  And the weather hasn't been helping.

   If anyone has any topics they'd like to see addressed on the blog, or Encyclopedia sample entries they'd like to request, please feel free to let me know.

   Meanwhile, a 20% discount is available on the Millwater's Farriery HARDCOVER through 2/23/12...  Just enter "SWEET" as your discount code.

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Millwater's Farriery: On the Road Again... Not.

   Well, a lot of the boys are getting home from the International Hoof Care Summit in Cincinnati. Shan't be long before they're packing-up again to hit the American Farrier's Convention in Mobile.

   I don't get to travel to these things like I used to.  Used to be a frequent flier to the Bluegrass Laminitis Symposium, AFA, GPF, and even BWFA national conventions, and various other clinics and events.  I do miss it sometimes.  Learning from some of the great minds in the profession, both in the formal settings and, perhaps even more beneficial, in the many informal discussions between and after the lectures and presentations.

   Spending days soaking-up wisdom and techniques from Burney Chapman, Grant Moon, Edward Martin, Simon Curtis, Gene Ovnicek, and so many other farriers... Learning about the cutting-edge research and theories from Doc Redden, Jaime Jackson, and many other vets and horsemen...  Always had me coming home with a new enthusiasm for the profession, albeit perhaps a little too eager to try the latest thing on horses in my own practice.  Fortunately, I eventually learned to temper that impulse.  (Which in itself is something I try to convey to folks who get carried-away with the study, technique, or guru du jour.)

   Of course, it was always hard to get away for cross-country trips.  Seems like horses have a psychic ability to know when their farrier is out-of-state so they can throw shoes.  It's frustrating for horseowners to call and be told their shoer is thousands of miles away when they need him NOW.  But their patience is rewarded with a real farrier who knows more about horseshoeing than how to lop-off a bit of foot and mount the horse on iron.

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Millwater's Farriery: K.I.S.S.

   Hey! Hope everyone has had a great holiday season, and good start to this New Year...

   Now back to business. ;)



   There was a time, not all that long ago, when horseshoeing in many parts meant pulling a plain shoe out of the keg, opening or closing it a bit, hooking the heels in, nailing the sucker on, and lopping-off whatever hung over the edge...  If you wanted to get fancy about it, you could stick a sheet of leather or plastic between the shoe and hoof before nailing-on, or maybe even put the shoe on backwards for a 'bar shoe'...

Yes...  The 'good old days' kinda' sucked.

   The last quarter century has brought us to the opposite extreme.  Some farriers pride themselves in turning out hand-forged horseshoes that are gorgeous works of art.  Others love to use the latest modern products to assemble high-tech horseshoe packages worthy of Star Trek.  A lot of guys do a bit of both.

   Horseshoe fabrication skill is a wonderful thing.  And many of the newer products and materials can be very useful in some situations.  But I do think we sometimes have too much of a good thing.  Especially in times like these, it may not be wise to go with fancy (and often expensive) alternatives just because we can.  Especially when simpler approaches may work as well or better.

   I was using glue-on shoes back when that meant riveting a rim pad jig-sawed out of a polyurethane sheet to an aluminum or steel shoe, then using a paint-stripper heat gun to weld tabs around the perimeter to be affixed to the sanded hoof with glorified crazy-glue.

   Fortunately, both the shoes and adhesive applications have improved since then.  They can be quite useful in some cases...  But they are expensive and time-consuming to apply.  They also have functional drawbacks, either being prone to easy pasture loss (especially in muddy conditions), or encapsulating/sealing far too much of the hoof wall, preventing it from "breathing".

   Despite having the glue-on option in my arsenal, I've learned over the years that it is possible to securely affix shoes to some of the most disastrous looking hooves with good old-fashioned nails.  Maybe having glue-on shoes handy has kept some of the newer guys from developing the particular skills it takes to hook solid nails through 'wishful thinking' hoof wall.  But a lot of the hooves that prompt folks to say "there's no way you can nail a shoe to that" wouldn't even be a challenge to some of us graybeards. 


   On a related note, we have modern hoof repair products like Equilox and Equithane, which sure are an improvement over the auto body and wood filler putties we used to resort to.  These newer adhesive/repair materials are often used to glue on shoes these days.  But again, they are expensive, and can be a bit of a hassle to employ, especially in less than ideal field conditions.  And sometimes they work too well... Sealing-in bacteria that turn into nasty infections.  Deft nailing technique, and a willingness to let the foot be a little rough-looking until a damaged bit grows-out, often make hoof fillers unnecessary. 

   A cousin to the modern hoof repair materials is the pour-in pad approach that is all the rage these days.  Must admit that it is kinda' nifty, and has practical application in a few cases.  But I'm not a huge fan of pads in general.  When they are called-for, conventional pads (Shock-Tamers are my favorite) with Sole Pack will do the job beautifully with less fuss and expense... And you don't have to worry about Dobbin' taking a foot away before the goo sets-up!

   Another "new" product that we were using many years ago is synthetic shoes, both polyurethane and rubber.  These actually worked just fine, and aren't outrageously expensive or troublesome to apply.  But, unless you plan to ride or drive on pavement a lot, they don't offer significant advantage over conventional shoes.  And replacing a single lost shoe can be a problem, especially if the horse is away from home at the time and the horseshoer who has to pinch-hit doesn't stock unorthodox shoes.

   That problem also applies to really exotic shoes like the Slypner system, which I used quite a bit of when they first came out twenty years ago...  Composite stainless steel "base plate" horseshoes with removable urethane wearing treads that could be changed by the owner.  (Flat, calked, and studded versions for different activities and conditions.)  They certainly look modern, and work okay.  But are a bit pricey and can be a real PITA to apply, especially if the horse has off-pattern hoof shape or tricky walls.  (You have to use the provided nails, which can be hard to 'steer' through the wall.)  Most clients didn't find switching Slypner treads to be much easier than switching threaded stud calks.  Frankly, must jumpers and lower level eventers do well in concave shoes with jumping-type welded jar calks, which don't need to be removed for turnout or casual riding.

   One thing I'm bound to catch a bit of flak for is my decision to focus on 'down-and-dirty' practical horseshoeing techniques and illustrations rather than high craftsmanship handmades in Millwater's Farriery...  Trust me, it's not because I'm unable to forge pretty specimen shoes.

   Like a lot of guys at the time, when I first started making bar shoes, I just used a keg shoe a couple sizes bigger than what the horse normally wore, turned the heels in 'til they overlapped, and forge-welded them together.  Since keg shoe stock gets wider and thicker as you go up in sizes, this made for excessively heavy bar shoes.  It also resulted in the nail holes being too coarse and too far back.

   These problems were solved when I started forging all my bar shoes from bar stock.  Got pretty good at it.  Had a lot of horses going on my fullered, hand-forged bar shoes there for a while...

   Then, late one Summer evening when I was wrapping up a long stretch of shop work, the wife came out to tell me that a mare I was supposed to reset the next week had lost one of her eggbars in the pasture where it was unlikely to be found.  Since this mare would trash her thin-walled hoof if left shoeless any length of time, I knew I'd have to get to her the next day, despite the busy Summer schedule.  But I certainly wouldn't have time to forge her a new pair of shoes in the field, and I was already worn-out for the day and didn't feel up to turning the shoes from stock that evening.  So I just grabbed two pair of #1 St. Croix Rim Lites, cut the toes out of one pair, then turned 'em around and jump-welded them across the heels of another.  Presto! Eggbars.

     The horse certainly didn't care.  She went as well as ever.  In fact, the conversion shoes were a little lighter than my handmades.  I wondered what the owners would think of my little "cheat", or if they'd even notice...  Turns out they did... And thought the new shoes were prettier than the handmades I'd been using!  (Bit of a blow to the ego, it was.)

   So, if the horse was happy, the owners were happy, and the job was a bit easier on me, why in the heck would I go back to using handmades?  To impress other farriers?  Heck, I don't work for them!

   While all the fancy shoes and materials are great options to have, and can be literal life-savers in some cases, the most practical and effective shoeing solution for the widest array of corrective and therapeutic problems is actually a correctly fit, conventional horseshoe, properly applied to a well prepared hoof.  

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On Farriery...

   Okay.  Following the various equestrian communities lately, I've noticed some troubling notions about farriery that I'd like to address...

   SHOEING SHOULD NOT MAKE HORSES SORE.  Okay, to err is human.  Anyone can misread a foot now and then.  But it is not normal or acceptable for previously sound horses to be sore after shoeing or trimming.  If someone tells you otherwise, they don't know what in the hell they're doing.  (Note that making major adjustments in balance, such as trimming a severely overgrown hoof back to some semblance of normal, can cause ligament soreness if the horse isn't rested for a couple days afterward.  That is a different matter entirely.)

   IF A HORSE CAN'T GO BAREFOOT ON MODERATE GROUND, HE IS NOT SOUND.  A freshly shod horse should be able to have his shoes pulled and immediately go on normal ground without being tender-footed.  If he can't, the foot has been over-trimmed and the sole is too thin.  Shoes on sound horses are supposed to be an enhancement for heavy use, severe terrain, or high performance, not a necessity for light use on turf.

    NO HORSE SHOULD ROUTINELY BE SORE AFTER EVERY TRIM.  Some horses have weak, sensitive feet and thin soles, and are easier to make tender than others...  But a competent farrier should recognize such feet and trim accordingly, or, at the very least, realize that he over-trimmed after the first time and preserve more horn mass thereafter!  If trimming results in soreness, too much was taken-off.  Period.

    THE FARRIER NEEDS YOUR INPUT.  You can tell the farrier about the horse's history (especially laminitis issues), tendencies, past problems, and the kind of use you intend to put the him to.  This information will help the farrier tailor the work to the animal's individual needs.

   A FARRIER DOES NOT NEED TO BE TOLD HOW TO DO HIS JOB.  If you feel the need to give the farrier specific instruction on trimming and/or shoe application, you need to either get a better farrier or buy some tools and do it yourself, since you obviously know how better than the professional expert you hired.

   YOUR VET, TRAINER, RIDING INSTRUCTOR, AND STABLE MANAGER ARE NOT EXPERTS IN APPLIED FARRIERY.  Yes, vets have tons of formal training, but almost none of it has anything to do with trimming and shoeing the equine hoof.  He has no more business giving shoeing instructions than the farrier has dictating colic surgery technique.  Trainers are notorious for buying into fads... Wanting to believe that their horses lost because the competition had magic shoes rather than admitting the other guy had a higher quality horse with better training who would have won even with cinder-blocks strapped to his feet.

   SHOEING JOBS THAT LAST 12 WEEKS ARE NOT A BRAGGING POINT!  It is actually not difficult to apply shoes in such a way that they will stay on a long time.  But doing so is usually not good for the horse.  Shoeing for long intervals encourages shoers to take away as much horn as possible without spilling blood (to get a head start against the extra weeks of growth before the next shoeing) which weakens the sole arch and precipitates the collapse of the foot into chronic "thin soles".  Shoers will also fit the shoes short and tight at the heels, usually with the heel nails placed behind the widest part of the foot.  This can result in corns as the heels overgrow the shoe and the load starts to grind against the sole.  This fit exacerbates the tendency of the bearing surface to shift forward as the hoof grows out, stressing the flexor/navicular interface and the anterior laminae.  Most horses need a 4-6 week shoeing cycle.  And no, that's not just shoers trying to get more work.

   NOT ALL HORSESHOERS ARE CREATED EQUAL!  So many people complain that they've used multiple "farriers" with poor results.  But I know how a lot of horseowners choose their shoers.  Back when I was in the Yellow Pages (before switching to referal-only), I'd come home almost every day to find messages on my machine from people wanting their horses shod.  More often than not, when we returned the calls, they'd already got someone else.  Or they couldn't wait until we had an opening.  Or they developed a speech impediment when we told them our rates...  If you're selecting a horseshoer based on the fact that he's got nothing better to do than answer the phone in the middle of the day, and is in so little demand that he can come out on short notice and is willing to shoe for beer money, you are not likely to get a top-quality professional farrier.  Being the handy "barn shoer", looking good in jeans, and being buddies with the vet/trainer/etc. are also less than impressive evidence of competence under the horse.

   LOOKS AREN'T EVERYTHING.  Form follows function, so usually a good shoeing job will be nice-looking.  High, even, smooth clinches.  That sort of thing...  But too often horseshoers get carried-away trying to make the foot look "perfect", even to the point of doing structural harm.  "Cupping" the sole... Trimming away horn to create apparent concavity... Actually weakens the solar arch and promotes the devolution of thin, flat soles in the long run.  Everything taken from the bottom of the foot leaves that much less protection.  The goal is to keep the horse sound.  Not to make the bottom of the foot look like an idealized plastic model.


   FARRIERS SHOULD BE UNSURPASSED AT HOOF TRIMMING.  We tend to focus on forging skills because fire, sparks, heavy tools, smoke, and bending steel to our precise will are just plain awesome...  It wasn't that long ago that the ability to turn a decent shoe was a rare thing, helping to separate the real farrier from the backyard shoe-horser...  But trimming horses to go barefoot makes up a large portion of the typical farrier's trade.  And, for all the emphasis on forging fancy therapeutic and corrective shoes, the majority of practical therapeutic and corrective shoeing is applying fairly ordinary shoes onto properly trimmed hooves.  The bulk of farriery is about recognizing what the individual needs and balancing the hooves accordingly.  A good barefoot trimming specialist may be able to do it as well, but nobody should be able to do it better than a fully competent professional farrier.

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...

Millwater's Farriery: On the Barefoot Movement...

...versus the "Traditional Farrier Trim"

   Not all horses need horseshoes all the time.  In fact, some horses can do everything their masters require of them perfectly well barefoot, and may never need shoes at all.

   The economic reality of today is that there is a shortage of truly competent farriers, especially when it comes to those available to 'small time' horseowners.

   These to factors create a niche for the hoof trimming specialist.  Competent trimmers to handle some of the horses who don't need iron, freeing-up the farriers to focus primarily on those that do. And saving the horseowners from having to rely on Cheap John horseshoers for trim work.

   So, just to be clear: I don't have a problem with some horses going barefoot, or with competent trim-only services.  (a.k.a. Barefoot Trimmers.)

   A bit over a decade ago, there was a wave of anti-horseshoeing zealotry inspired by the much-vaunted Strasser barefoot trimming approach.  To their credit, barefoot enthusiasts appear to have become somewhat less militant, and to have moved away from Strasser in favor of much more sensible trimming models in recent years.

   But there's still an anti-horseshoeing vibe out there.  In equestrian forums, people feel the need to be apologetic about having their horses shod.  Starting posts with "I'd really prefer to have my horses barefoot, but..."   And heaven forbid anyone suggest shoes as a solution to any hoofcare problem, as someone will usually feel obligated to jump-in and claim it's crazy to expect shoes to fix problems they insist were created by using shoes in the first place...  Or to push their favorite barefoot guru's protocol and/or shoeing alternative, despite it being an iffy and cumbersome way to do what appropriate shoeing could accomplish immediately.

   One thing that really rubs me the wrong way is the implied claim that Barefoot Trimmers have some sort special approach that is dramatically better for shoeless horses than the "traditional farrier trim"...

   The supposition being that farriers trim all horses as if we were going to fit them with shoes...  Flat, and with relatively low depth of foot.

   I spent my formative years in the coastal lowcountry, where a large percentage of horses go barefoot.  The humidity and moisture tended to keep hooves a little soft, and the ground was sand, black sod, clay, and limestone.  Abrasive, rather than rocky. 

   Early-on, I noticed that the barefoot horses with the best feet coming in for trimming didn't have flat bearing surfaces.  This was especially noticeable when someone had worked the horse enough to need shoes due to excessive wear.  Even after trying to flatten the foot to receive the shoe, I'd still wind-up with some daylight between shoe and hoof through the quarters, and a bit alligator-mouthed at the toe. 

   The non-flat, worn surfaces of bare hooves weren't too mystifying.  One problem a lot of rookie horseshoers have is accidentally "gutting the quarters" when they're trying to rasp the foot flat.  The structure of the hoof makes it easy to grind-away the quarters...

  It's also obvious to even a greenhorn that horseshoes typically wear thin at the toe first...  So the fact that worn, bare hooves had gutted quarters and beveled-up toes made perfect sense.

   It also didn't take long to observe that the non-flat bottomed hooves generally looked pretty good, even when due for a trim, while hooves trimmed neat and flat quickly split and peeled.  It's not great for business to have hooves look way worse a week after trimming than they did a week before you did them.

   So, when trimming horses to be left barefoot, I developed the approach of doing the main trim with three nipper passes, each done with the reins swung slightly to the outside, making the cuts at a bit of an angle.  One pass, heel-to-toe bend on one side of the hoof.  Another on the opposite side, then the third across the toe.  After rounding everything up with the rasp, this left the horse standing on four spots of the wall on each hoof.  One on each side of the toe, and one at each heel buttress.

   In mechanical terms, this trim reduces breakover resistance both when going forward and moving laterally (which is why I got less chipping and peeling), while maintaining good overall depth of foot thanks to the four loading spots holding the sole up off harder ground, so the horses weren't sore-footed.

    Fast-forward to the early 1990s, when I met Ric Redden and Gene Ovnicek, and attended symposiums featuring their Four Point and Natural Balance trimming approaches.  Gene, like Jaime Jackson, had taken an interest in mustangs, and had used his observations to guide his trimming technique.  The Four Point and Natural Balance protocols corroborated what I'd been seeing and doing all along...  And expanded my understanding of why it worked.

   Around that time, I was interacting with some of the elder statesmen of farriery. (Somehow, I had a lot more elders back then.  Funny how that works.)  Several of them told me the same thing.  They'd been doing bevel-based, three-pass, Four Point, Natural Balance trims for barefoot horses for decades.  It never occurred to them that it was really a 'thing'.  It's just the way that worked for them.

   Checking the leading farrier school textbook from over a quarter century ago, I find that extensive beveling, starting with using the nippers at an angle, is instructed under "trimming to go barefoot".  Even my 1898 textbook emphasizes the need to preserve extra horn and aggressively round-off the walls on horses who will be going without shoes.

   So, if the "traditional farrier trim" is flat and short, same as if the horse was going to be shod, it must be a pretty darned new tradition!

   I know that there are some horseshoers out there who do every foot the same way, whether shoes are going-on or not.  A decent Barefoot Trimmer would certainly be better for the horse than going with such a shoer.

   But the notion that Barefoot Trimmers have had some sort of divine revelation that showed them how to trim horses better than competent farriers is just an insult to generations of professionals.

   You see, when Barefoot Enthusiasts tell veteran farriers to go read-up on the teaching from the latest guru, we roll our eyes not because these approaches are wrong, but because you're trying to teach grandma how to suck eggs!

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Okay Bargain-Hunters...

   Millwater's FARRIERY: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare is out, and to get things rolling, we have some promotional deals you can take advantage of...

   There are promo copies of the trade paperback available on eBay with starting bids (and Buy It Now options) well under the Amazon list price.

   The 25% off discount code ( YPLFZ3CT ) is also still working on direct orders.

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Millwater's Farriery: Official book launch...

Now that Hallowe'en is wrapped-up...

MILLWATER'S FARRIERY:

The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare

Encyclopedic Reference for Professionals, Students, and Horseowners.

is

Available NOW!

Trade Paperback $22.50

Hardcover $50.00

Amazon (Paperback) $22.50

*** Special Launch Discount ***

Use code YPLFZ3CT at checkout on the Trade Paperback for 25% off.

(Works only on the direct link. Not on Amazon.)

For more information see http://www.MilwaterPublishing.com/

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Millwater's Farriery: Countdown has begun...

Stay tuned...

- 30 -

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Millwater's Farriery: Navicular and Eggbars.

   A double-shot sample from next year's Millwater's Farriery: The Illustrated Dictionary of Horseshoeing and Hoofcare, combining the related topics of navicular disease and eggbar horseshoes.

   Terms within the entries printed in italic boldface have their own entries in this encyclopedic dictionary.  Illustrations here have been reduced in resolution compared to the printed version.

Navicular and Eggbars.

(Alternate link in case above fails.)

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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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Encyclopedia of Farriery: Negative Palmar Angle.

   Here's a term I've been seeing used quite a bit here lately...  Almost to the point of being a buzz-word.

Negative Palmar Angle (NPA)

About as extreme "NPA" as it gets...

(Alternative Link if above fails.)

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Farrier Encyclopedic Draft: Underrun Heels...

   Related to the previous entry on LHLT.  Short, but important, as it's one of the more common, and misunderstood problems we see in hooves...

Underrun Heels.

(Alternate link if above fails.)

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