I've been lucky enough to be involved with horses most of my forty-six years, starting at a riding school, mucking out for rides and doing a paid job at livery stables in my teens just to be near any sort of equine, training for BHS exams, competing in various disciplines and teaching. These days I'm happy to tootle about on my aged eventer, doing a bit of dressage, giving the occasional lesson and taking life more sedately.

Throughout this time lameness as been a commonplace thing, almost routine. It's part of horsey life. In my training much emphasis was placed on dealing with unsoundness, learning the difference between windgalls and splints, how to treat strained tendons and apply poultices, the list was endless and I'm sure it has been the same for most riders. However, the more exposure I've had in recent years to specialist lameness farriers, their research, remedial and preventative techniques, the more I have come to wonder if we, the general horse owning and riding population, are accepting unsoundness as the inevitable norm when we should be taking a more pro-active role in prevention?

Equestrianism has changed drastically over the last century. "Working" horses in the original sense have all but disappeared - we no longer see animals hauling coal, ploughing fields or delivering our milk and letters. Horses were high mileage and nearing the end of their usefulness at twelve, and old at fifteen. The majority of horses and ponies are now kept purely for leisure and pleasure. They are treasured possessions and rightly so. Most owner riders are amateurs who work hard and frequently make sacrifices to provide for their expensive upkeep and welfare, time with them is often short and therefore precious. Science has changed and improved nutrition to such an extent that our horse-keeping grandparents would struggle to identify the contents of the average modern feed-bowl, and the range of supplements available now would probably leave them speechless. Consequently, horses tend to work less, live longer and be subject to the same weight control issues as many modern humans, myself included!

Exercise routines have changed vastly too, with lunging and school work often featuring heavily, especially during winter months when time and daylight are at a premium, resulting in a much higher percentage of work involving circles and school figures on artificial surfaces rather than long hours of fittening and leg "hardening" on roads considered essential by my generation and previous ones before the horse was thought anything like ready for faster work or schooling. All these things add stresses and strains to horses joints, tendons and ligaments which nature did not take into consideration when drawing up her blueprints for their legs and feet.

Another side effect of these changes is the lengthening of time between farriers visits. One hundred years ago necessity dictated that working horses were generally shod every two to three weeks. Long toes, low weak heels and medial lateral imbalances were unheard of because feet were kept short, farriers had it drummed into them to cut heels level and consequently feet were properly balanced because lame horses meant clients loosing income and taking their business elsewhere. Today a more usual shoeing interval would be every six to eight weeks (unless you are hunting three days a week), with the less enlightened sometimes taking delight in being able to "get away with" up to twelve weeks. Every millimetre of extra growth is adding to the effort required to get the feet off the ground and straining the support structures to a greater degree. Is it any wonder that they stretch and snap as often as they do?

All this brings me to wonder at some peoples reasons for choosing a particular farrier. "You ought to use my guy, he's so much cheaper than yours and much quicker" is one I have heard often, most recently from a fellow livery. Being middle-aged and pedantic, I feel the need to analyse that reasoning:

My farrier takes an hour at the very least to shoe my horse, taking time to discuss how he is going, watching him move, mapping and rebalancing the feet, shaping the shoes, nailing on, finishing and watching him again to ensure he's moving properly.

In contrast, my stable-mates farrier has never asked to see her horse move, He whizzes round all four feet in a flash and is back in his van a maximum of thirty-minutes after arriving. Inspection of the feet show high heels that have been trimmed to differing heights (causing a medial lateral imbalance), frogs which have been trimmed with a knife to "tidy them up" and have no contact with the ground and are therefore unable to function correctly, and the front portion (from the widest part of the foot forward) to be a much longer distance than the back portion (from the widest part of the foot back) showing the foot is out of balance, causing toe landing and subluxation of the joints.

Okay, so he's £15 a set cheaper but which of us is getting better care and value for our hard earned money? Her farrier has to shoe more horses in a day to make a living and by doing so he is forced to cut corners, a situation I have no doubt is common with many in the profession. Her horse may be sound now but constant repetition of these issues will most likely add up to long term damage and the shortening of the horses active life.

The Not So Well Shod Foot

The Not So Well Shod Foot

The Well Shod Foot

The Well Shod Foot

I blame my farrier entirely for my foot obsession. Well in truth that's not entirely fair. The fault is ultimately mine. Having introduced several friends with unsound equines to his particular brand of well researched and applied techniques, I was bowled over by the results he was achieving with animals which had been written off by their vets as pasture pets. "You need a website to explain these issues" I declared with the zeal of a newly converted religious fanatic and there was my undoing. "Okay" was the response "but you get to organise it" and the idea of www.equinefootprotection.co.uk came into being. Before I knew it I was accompanying him on his rounds, "riding shotgun" as he calls it, looking at interesting cases, taking photos and listening to stories from grateful (and often tearfully grateful) people whose lame horses had been returned to soundness by restoring their hoof balance to mother natures' specifications whilst taking into consideration the modern need and lifestyle, allowing injuries the optimum conditions for her to work her restorative magic.

The flip side of this elation was sharing his understandable frustration at some owners decision to return to their usual cheaper farrier that now the horse was "fixed" and his work was done and at their unwillingness to accept that a return to the former shoeing style or techniques would very likely see a recurrence of the soundness issues. It was truly harrowing to hear to some of his voicemail messages from distressed owners plead with him to come and sort the problems out again because the horse had once more gone off the rails.

The point I am trying to make with these ramblings is that I believe by improving our knowledge and observational skills all horse owners and keepers can actively improve the chances of keeping our equines sound, happy and healthy. We should make time to ensure they are properly fit for the work asked of them and we can all learn to recognise bad trimming and shoeing and do something about it. Cut corners on hoof care at your peril as what you save now will most likely cost you dearly later, in time, money and emotion. Cost, cute apprentices and the fact that he doesn't keep you standing out in the rain as long as some others whilst he shoes your horse are not good criteria on which to base your choice of farrier. The farriery industry will only change if customers apply pressure for better standards. Avoid the remedial by thinking preventative.

Sally-Ann Neve

August 2009