From the category archives:

Horse Owner Tips

The Future of the Hoof Care Industry – a Mixture of Good News and Bad News

August 23, 2010 3 comments

The future will bring the foot care industry a combination of good news and bad news.
The good news is that farrier communication will be better and easier. Publications, the internet, conventions, summits, sponsored clinics and general sharing of knowledge make learning faster and easier. The bad news is that unsound ideas will be spread faster [...]

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Foal Hoof Care

June 3, 2010 0 comments

Assess the foal’s limbs soon after birth. Most mild limb deformities can be helped by stall rest that limits exercise. Many problems are due to lack of cartilage and bone maturity and will improve with time if the affected areas are not stressed. If there is more than a 5- degree deviation in the limb, [...]

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How to Manage Foals for Soundness

May 18, 2010 2 comments

Foal limb soundness begins before a foal is born. It involves considerations of nature (genetic) and nurture (environment). Genetic factors include inherited conformation and behavioral traits from the stallion and mare. Environmental factors include physical space in the mare’s uterus, nutrition, training and disease prevention.
Choosing a mating that has a good chance of producing a [...]

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FAQ #16 – Can you tell me what to look for when looking at the heel?

April 22, 2010 1 comment

“Doug, I attended your Horse Expo seminar this past March in Lincoln and really enjoyed your lecture.  I never thought that I would have to bring out notes from what you talked about in such a short amount of time, but we ended up having a horse go lame on us this spring.  We saw [...]

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The “Shoeless Experiment” Cripples Horses by Doug Butler

March 26, 2010 17 comments

More than one hundred years ago farriers were confronted with the same problems as farriers are facing today. The “shoeless experiment” was then proposed as a one size fits all solution by “the barefoot people.” (See page 2 of William Hunting’s, The Art of Horseshoeing, published by W. R. Jenkins in New York, in 1898).
It [...]

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