The Farrier's Role in Horse Hoof Care

·  ·  ·  ·  ·   ·  

Farriers perform duties such as trimming horse’s feet and often applying shoes for protection.

Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt

International Hoof Care Month is celebrated throughout the month of February. During this time, it is important to recognize the significant contributions farriers make to the equine community.
“Farriers perform duties such as trimming horse’s feet and often applying shoes for protection,” said Jason Wilson-Maki, farrier for the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, in College Station. “How complex the shoe(s) will need to be depend on the horse’s individual needs, what activities he undertakes, and what may be needed to address any hoof issues.”
Due to the fact that no minimum education is required to become a farrier, a large diversity exists within the farrier community in regards to skill sets and knowledge. However, organizations such as The American Farriers Association offer a series of voluntary examinations by which individuals can earn credentials.
“Within the United States, there is no minimum education or skill set requirement to trim or shoe horses’ feet; any person at any point may technically do farrier work,” said Wilson-Maki. “With that being said, many horseshoeing schools, both public and private, exist and attempt to impart to their students a good basic skill set.”
Though they differ in job titles, both the veterinarian and the farrier have important roles in the long and short term care of the horse’s foot.
“A farrier works on the hoof capsule and corrects distortions that are evident by observation,” said Wilson-Maki. “However, a farrier cannot diagnose nor treat lameness, and are not required within the United States to have any formal education.”
In contrast, veterinarians have different tools, such as regional anesthesia, radiographs, ultrasound, and MRIs to diagnose lameness, as well as a specified education and specific practice laws under which they work.
“(Veterinarians) may also treat the diagnosed lameness by means of medical treatment,” said Wilson-Maki. "Often, shoeing and trimming protocols are an integral portion of the overall approach."
As far as farrier service pricing goes, it varies greatly within the region and county.
“What would be considered usury in rural Texas may well below average in (places like) New Jersey,” said Wilson-Maki. “An owner could ask about the pricing ahead of time and get a feel for what is normal within a given region.”
Additionally, each horse and owner will have different needs from and expectations of, respectively, a farrier.
“A salient point that must be highlighted is that the owner must be able to communicate clearly and well with the farrier,” said Wilson-Maki. “An owner should seek out a farrier that can meet the needs of their animal and with whom they can communicate.”
Whether your horse is a champion barrel racer or a leisure-riding companion, farriers are vital to your horse’s health and well being, and finding one that meets their specific needs takes clear communication between horse owner and farrier.

About the Author

Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences

Consequences of Stall Confinement

  

The team observed that the horses showed significantly more positive social contact when they could make physical contact with their neighbors, including touching with ears pointed forward and social grooming.

Photo: Thinkstock

As social relationships between horses become a greater equine welfare focus, scientists are seeking ways to allow social interactions for animals housed in traditionally isolating box stall settings. But don't tear your barn and stalls down just yet: French researchers recently tested another solution—windows between stalls—with positive results.
“Horses stabled with a large open window between two stalls showed more positive social behavior and less aggression and boredom than when they were separated by full walls,” said Claire Neveux, MSc, researcher and equine behavior consultant at Ethonova, based in Monteille. Neveux presented her research at the 2014 French Equine Research Day held March 18 in Paris.
In her study Neveux and her fellow researchers observed 12 riding horses in their home stable for 10 days. For the two days prior to the study period, horses were allowed to see each other through a barred window installed in their normal 9 foot-by-9 foot box stalls. (There was only one window for every two stalls.) Additionally, each stall had a half-door that opened to a common area where they could see other horses, but not touch them.
For the first five days of the study, the researchers closed the barred windows to create a solid wall, as the horses had been stalled previously, but the horses could still look into the common area via their open half-doors. In the second half of the experiment the researchers opened the windows between the stalls and removed the bars, allowing the horses access to their neighbors. In each study phase researchers noted 180 behaviors per 24-hour period per horse.
The team observed that the horses showed significantly more positive social contact with the inter-stall windows open, including touching with ears pointed forward and social grooming. The animals showed less aggressive behavior (such as kicking the door, laying their ears back, and biting threats) when the windows were open than when they were closed, Neveux said. Additionally, when the windows were open the horses spent less time standing idle with their heads hanging out the half-door to the common area, indicating possibly less boredom or depression, she said.
The researchers reported that they observed no equine injuries during the study period.
“The results of this study have not only shown that it’s possible to allow horses to have social interactions even when housed in box stalls, but that this also leads to changes in the horses’ activity during the day—changes which seem rather positive because they’re associated with the presence of an equine companion,” Neveux said.

About the Author

 Christa Lesté-Lasserre, MA

Christa Lesté-Lasserre is a freelance writer based in France. A native of Dallas, Texas, Lesté-Lasserre grew up riding Quarter Horses, Appaloosas, and Shetland Ponies. She holds a master’s degree in English, specializing in creative writing, from the University of Mississippi in Oxford and earned a bachelor's in journalism and creative writing with a minor in sciences from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She currently keeps her two Trakehners at home near Paris. Follow Lesté-Lasserre on Twitter @christalestelas.

Opening Windows for Equine Social Interaction

  

The team observed that the horses showed significantly more positive social contact when they could make physical contact with their neighbors, including touching with ears pointed forward and social grooming.

Photo: Thinkstock

As social relationships between horses become a greater equine welfare focus, scientists are seeking ways to allow social interactions for animals housed in traditionally isolating box stall settings. But don't tear your barn and stalls down just yet: French researchers recently tested another solution—windows between stalls—with positive results.
“Horses stabled with a large open window between two stalls showed more positive social behavior and less aggression and boredom than when they were separated by full walls,” said Claire Neveux, MSc, researcher and equine behavior consultant at Ethonova, based in Monteille. Neveux presented her research at the 2014 French Equine Research Day held March 18 in Paris.
In her study Neveux and her fellow researchers observed 12 riding horses in their home stable for 10 days. For the two days prior to the study period, horses were allowed to see each other through a barred window installed in their normal 9 foot-by-9 foot box stalls. (There was only one window for every two stalls.) Additionally, each stall had a half-door that opened to a common area where they could see other horses, but not touch them.
For the first five days of the study, the researchers closed the barred windows to create a solid wall, as the horses had been stalled previously, but the horses could still look into the common area via their open half-doors. In the second half of the experiment the researchers opened the windows between the stalls and removed the bars, allowing the horses access to their neighbors. In each study phase researchers noted 180 behaviors per 24-hour period per horse.
The team observed that the horses showed significantly more positive social contact with the inter-stall windows open, including touching with ears pointed forward and social grooming. The animals showed less aggressive behavior (such as kicking the door, laying their ears back, and biting threats) when the windows were open than when they were closed, Neveux said. Additionally, when the windows were open the horses spent less time standing idle with their heads hanging out the half-door to the common area, indicating possibly less boredom or depression, she said.
The researchers reported that they observed no equine injuries during the study period.
“The results of this study have not only shown that it’s possible to allow horses to have social interactions even when housed in box stalls, but that this also leads to changes in the horses’ activity during the day—changes which seem rather positive because they’re associated with the presence of an equine companion,” Neveux said.

About the Author

Christa Lesté-Lasserre, MA

Christa Lesté-Lasserre is a freelance writer based in France. A native of Dallas, Texas, Lesté-Lasserre grew up riding Quarter Horses, Appaloosas, and Shetland Ponies. She holds a master’s degree in English, specializing in creative writing, from the University of Mississippi in Oxford and earned a bachelor's in journalism and creative writing with a minor in sciences from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She currently keeps her two Trakehners at home near Paris. Follow Lesté-Lasserre on Twitter @christalestelas.

Give Your Horse a Breath of Fresh Air This Winter

House your horse outside as often as possible, even during the winter, to help keep him in optimum respiratory health.

Photo: iStock

Take a look around your barn, what do you see? Horses in their half-mucked stalls with straw or shavings and a wheelbarrow and pitchfork right outside; the tractor running at the barn door; hay bales piled outside stalls and at the end of the shedrow; a fan on the floor; piles of blankets, coolers, slinkies, bandages, and wraps; dusty shelves covered with medications and first aid supplies; a tack room “graveyard” of retired equipment; sunbeams struggling to shine through dirt-covered windows with dust motes dancing in the light.
“Barns are inherently difficult to keep clean, but dusty barns can wreak havoc on some horse’s respiratory health,” said Melissa Millerick-May, MSc, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in Michigan State University's Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in East Lansing. "This can result in airway inflammation in both young and older horses and exacerbate symptoms in horses previously diagnosed with heaves (or recurrent airway obstruction, RAO)."
Millerick-May’s research found that air particles measuring ≤10 microns in diameter—which is smaller than the human eye can detect—can reach horses’ lower airways and cause problems, including inflammation and mucus accumulation. Those small particles tend to travel with larger particles, which are inhaled and irritate the upper airways. This means that if we can see dust motes in the barn, we need to consider the small particles moving with them as a potential hazard for airway health in our horses and ourselves.
“There are several easily implemented management strategies designed to reduce dust and other respiratory irritants to help minimize inflammation in your horses’ airways, which are known to negatively affect performance," Millerick-May said. "These practices should be established even if your horse hasn’t developed overt signs of respiratory disease, as in most cases of IAD (inflammatory airway disease). These horses may be characterized as not meeting performance expectations, resistant (to work), not able to maintain a level of ‘effort’ that shouldn’t be a problem given their training schedule, etc.”
Millerick-May also noted that such small particles can also affect human airway health: "By implementing low-dust control methods, we’re likely to improve our own health as well."
Consider these tips to help protect your horse's breathing zone (the 2-foot sphere around the horse’s nose from where he draws his breath) and most effectively achieve optimal respiratory health:

• House your horse outside as often as possible, even during the winter. Barns are a Mecca of motes, mites, and molds. Many horses can be maintained on pasture almost year-round. But avoid simply throwing a round bale in the paddock. Horses often lunge their noses into the bale for prolonged periods of time inhaling particles, which negate the benefits of living on pasture. If you need to supplement with round bales, store them elsewhere and place measured amounts of hay in the pastures to be fully consumed daily.
• Consider soaking or steaming hay to minimize inhalation of dust and mold; feed hay off the floor to promote mucus drainage from the airways; or use hay alternatives such as haylage, complete pelleted feeds, or alfalfa cubes. If you must use a haynet, use a slow feeder to prevent the horse from burying his nose in the hay, also making it more difficult to grab hay within the net and shake it.
• When mucking, sweeping, or cleaning, always turn horses out first and leave them out for a while, as it takes several hours for the dust to settle. You might consider applying an agent designed to reduce ammonia levels, and don’t leave vehicles/tractors running near horses.
• Reduce clutter in the barn, and do not store hay or bedding materials near horses. If your horse must be stabled, be sure to use good-quality bedding, regardless of whether you choose shavings, straw, or another option.
• Leave doors and windows open to promote air circulation. If planning barn updates/renovations, consider ventilation and adding soffit or ridge vents.

“If you see dust, you can be confident that there are particles capable of reaching the lower airways, putting the horse at risk for the development of respiratory issues," Millerick-May concluded. "Every change an owner adopts will ultimately benefit the horses’ respiratory tract. These changes need not be difficult to implement or expensive in order to make a big difference.”

How to Read a Horse's Lip Tattoo

http://www.thehorse.com/videos/30371/how-to-read-a-horses-lip-tattoo

5 Things You Need to Know: Colic

http://www.thehorse.com/videos/34072/5-things-you-need-to-know-colic

How to Properly Longe Your Horse

http://www.thehorse.com/videos/30394/how-to-properly-longe-your-horse