Horse owners and farriers are very aware that poor fitting horseshoes can cause discomfort and lameness in horses. Unfortunately, many do not realize that poor fitting saddles can cause lameness, gait faults, shoeing problems and even personality problems. Ways to assure a reasonable saddle fit to prevent complications with your horse will be presented during the College of Veterinary Medicine's Equine Seminar Series, on Tuesday, September 21, from 6 to 7 p.m. via Zoom.
Steve Kraus is an American Farriers Association, Certified Journeyman Farrier who has been the head of Farrier Services and a Sr. Lecturer of Large Animal Surgery, at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, and the instructor of the Farrier School there since 2010. Prior to that, he worked for over 40 years in his own farrier business in Central New York. He is known for troubleshooting lame, injured and underperforming horses and has shod horses of practically every breed and discipline. He has lectured to farriers, veterinarians and horse owners all over the US, Canada, South America and Europe. He has been a featured speaker at the International Hoof Care Summit, Laminitis Conference, Equine Affaire and the American Farriers Association Convention. Steve has written many articles published in the American Farriers Journal, The Horse Journal and The Professional Farrier. In 2016, he was inducted into the International Farriers Hall of Fame.
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The Cornell Equine Seminar Series is presented by the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine's Equine Hospital, the New York State 4-H Horse Program and Cornell Cooperative Extension. Held monthly, equine experts present on important equine health and management topics. The event is free and open to the public. Register here.
Farriers practicing their craft on the racetrack backstretches of America — sometimes derogatorily termed “platers” — are often considered to be less effective than their sporthorse counterparts on the other side of the stable gate.
The reasons for this misconception are twofold, explained journeyman farrier Pat Broadus.
First, racehorses coming off the track are usually at the end of their shoeing cycle, or even overdue, so those individuals tasked with taking over the horses' care do not see the feet at their best. That image of long-toed, uneven hooves is then perceived to be the fault of the farrier at the track, when in reality the horses' feet may have simply overgrown the shoes due to the time it takes to find retiring racehorses a new home.
Second, the lack of a standardized test to acquire a racetrack farrier's license has been a growing problem for several decades. As it stands in most states, all it takes to be licensed to shoe racehorses is a currently licensed farrier to vouch for the newcomer. The pitfalls of this system are easy to see, with unqualified individuals able to acquire licenses and begin caring for racehorses' feet without the necessary education to do so safely and successfully.
Licensing for racetrack farriers hasn't always been that way.
The Journeyman Horseshoers Union, founded in 1874 as one of the oldest labor unions in the United States, initially helped farriers collaborate with the Teamsters, those driving teams of horses over long distances. The JHU developed tests for farriers, including forging custom shoes as well as exams on equine anatomy and physiology.
When the Teamsters switched from horsepower to engines, the JHU found a new home on the backstretch of the racetrack. In its heyday, the JHU required a five-year apprenticeship with a veteran racetrack farrier in order to be eligible to take the licensing exam.
The difficulty of the test and strict requirements of the JHU meant that racetrack farriers were considered to be at the very top of their profession from the 1940s through the 1960s.
By the 1970s however, the power of the JHU had started to decline as right-to-work laws began to grow in number. The apprenticeship requirement was decreased to three years, and continued complaining about the testing, as well as a lack of qualified examiners, eventually helped wipe out the exam altogether.
The American Farrier's Association, established in 1971, has since moved to the forefront of farriery qualifications. The AFA has developed four levels of testing for farriers, with “journeyman” the highest qualification, and in the minds of many, that has helped sporthorse farriers shift to the forefront as the “best” of their profession.
The most unique aspect of the AFA testing is the written portion of the exam, which tests a farrier's knowledge of anatomy, structure, how shoeing affects a horse's motion and stride, and different lameness issues.
“They're getting $350 to $400 to shoe show horses, so what's happened is the talent level at the racetrack has decreased,” explained Pat Broadus, who added that racetrack farriers may shoe horses for $200-$250 apiece. “The people that come out of school or have a lot of talent are drawn to show horses because they make more money. It's a better lifestyle with weekends off and you don't have to travel as much, so we're really losing a lot of talent in the younger people coming up.”
Since racetrack licensing boards do not require AFA certification for farriers seeking a license, and licensing is contingent upon the validation of other working farriers, it's been hard for racetracks to strike the right balance between ensuring a high level of competency, fulfilling the demand for horseshoers, and avoiding right-to-work lawsuits.
In 2016, The Jockey Club attempted to refine a standardized farrier's test that it hoped would be adopted nationwide, much like model rules for other aspects of racing. The standardized farrier's test was developed by the Shoeing & Hoof Care Committee of the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, chaired by prominent owner Bill Casner.
However, debate amongst trainers and currently-licensed farriers about the test's format and who the examiners would be kept the project from getting off the ground.
“For the most part, racetrack shoers stay quiet and stay in the background,” explained Pat Broadus. “Most of these guys have businesses built, and they help bring somebody else along.
“Still, a lot of racetrackers were looking for something to validate themselves, to prove they could get things done on the big stage. It was up to them, because the test had been gone; you couldn't take a test and be validated anymore.”
Tired of hearing that racetrack farriers were not as good as their sporthorse counterparts, Broadus decided to pursue the AFA's top-level journeyman certification. In April of 2021 he became the first racetrack farrier to earn that distinction in nearly 40 years.
Eric Gillaland was the lead examiner for several parts of Broadus' testing.
“For him, coming from the racehorse background, is a little different from the majority of the AFA,” Gillaland said. “For the journeyman test, you have to make a bar shoe to fit a pattern. The first time he did it, he did it in aluminum, and we weren't sure about that. Everybody else does it in steel. But he did a beautiful job. He's talented enough that the second time, he just did it in steel.
“His method was also very different on his live horseshoeing. We use plain stamp shoes, which are definitely not a racehorse thing, because there's no traction at all in those. He made templates, then walked to the truck and didn't have to walk back and forth to the horse 10 times to see if it fit. Watching him go through stuff, the efficiency that he has, most of the racetrackers probably have to be efficient to get so many young, excitable horses done each day.”
Broadus has now inspired other racetrack farriers to pursue their AFA certifications, spending multiple hours of his own time each week helping them study.
“I was a farrier for 28 years before I took the test, and I'm a much better farrier now than I was then,” Broadus said. “But at the end of the day, it's not about me. I stepped up and did it first, but if no one else does it, it doesn't mean anything. That's the reason I'm so proud of these guys going up there; they're leading the way.”
Broadus' father, Sonny, was the president of the Arkansas branch of the JHU, and was an examiner for some of the final JHU exams given in that state.
“We had a lot more quality horseshoers back then,” Sonny Broadus said. “There was no such thing as a superstar. There were just craftsmen, and everybody kind of followed their lead.
“The trainers knew a lot more, too. Trainers would walk around the barn area while you were shoeing a horse. He might stand there for 30 minutes, talking to someone else while he watched you shoe a horse, and you might see him three or four times in a week. If he liked what he saw, he'd come back and ask you if you had room to add his horses to your schedule, and you'd work something out.”
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The elder Broadus is extremely proud of his son's passion to help improve not only his own craft, but that of those around him. He hopes Pat's dedication to continuing education helps show today's trainers the importance of testing farriers.
“Every trainer should want his farrier to at least be qualified, and that's what the journeyman's test with the JHU stood for,” said Sonny Broadus. “It told you he was qualified; he's not a genius, but he's not going to hurt you, either.”
Gillaland agreed that trainers should want their farriers to be able to pass the competency exam, but acknowledged that the AFA hasn't been as proactive as it could be about educating trainers and horse owners about the certification process.
“The AFA is an excellent organization, but the downfall is it's run by volunteer farriers, and the reason we get into this is we're hands-on people,” Gillaland said. “We're not sit-downers, so to do other stuff to promote the certification, it doesn't really fall into the realm of understanding.
“It really comes down to, I think, the majority of people are not that involved in certification because their owners don't ask for it. Whoever their farrier is, that's who they think is best.”
“If these trainers knew what was involved in studying for and taking the test, they'd start asking their farriers whether or not they were certified,” Gillaland summarized.
The Swedish show jumping team recently won Olympic gold and jumped more clear rounds than any other nation at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but that wasn't their only claim to fame — two of the three team horses did it barefoot.
Most competition horses wear shoes to protect their hooves from wear, provide traction, and prevent issues with the structures within the hoof. However, going without shoes also has its benefits, though horses that have had shoes on for months or years may need time for their hooves to strengthen and grow accustomed to not wearing shoes.
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Dr. Stephen O'Grady of Palm Beach Equine Clinic told Horse Network horse hooves are designed to absorb concussion, accept weight, and dissipate energy. A barefoot hoof has a surface that interacts with the ground to strengthen the overall foot. A shod hoof, on the other hand, bears weight just on its periphery, where the shoe rests on the sole; shoes don't utilize the soft- tissue structures within the hoof.
Though not wearing shoes can improve hoof health, not every horse can go barefoot and be comfortable, O'Grady says. The type of work the horse is asked to do, the surfaces on which he works, and genetics will all play a role in deciding if a horse can stay sound barefoot. The horse's veterinarian and farrier should be consulted before shoes are pulled.
A horse that has had its shoes pulled will need to be acclimated gradually, and have workload tapered to allow for the adjustment. The horse will also have his hooves shaped and not trimmed, so his hooves will look different than those hooves wearing shoes.
Done properly, many horses can transition to going barefoot – even those jumping in the Olympics.
Like equine athletes in all disciplines, Thoroughbred racehorses face hoof-related challenges, including quarter cracks. In an effort to better understand this hoof wall abnormality, researchers investigated the incidence, clinical presentation and future racing performance of Thoroughbreds with quarter cracks over a nine-year period.*
A quarter crack is a full-thickness failure of the hoof capsule between the toe and heel that may extend the entire height of the hoof, from coronary band to ground. The separation often results in unsoundness due to instability of the hoof wall or infection of the deep dermal tissue, though many horses remain free of lameness despite the presence of a quarter crack.
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Quarter cracks are thought to arise for many reasons: innate hoof weakness; improper hoof balance; injury or trauma to the coronary band; or infection of the corium, part of the internal vascular network of the hoof. Poor farriery may contribute to hoof imbalance, which could contribute to crack formation. A common finding among horses with quarter cracks is sheared heels, an unevenness of the heels that causes unequal weight-bearing on the bulbs and creates a shearing force absorbed by the hoof capsule.
During the nine-year study period, just over 4,500 horses in a training center were followed. Seventy-four horses had at least one quarter crack during the study period. Twenty horses had two or more quarter cracks. Almost half of all horses with quarter cracks were lame at the onset of the defect.
An overwhelming number of cracks occurred in the front hooves and there was a proportional difference in the number of cracks in the left rather than right front hooves. Most of the cracks came about on the inside of the hooves.
The quarter cracks identified in this study were treated in various ways, though the principle treatments included corrective shoeing with a heart-bar shoe, wire stabilization, and the use of epoxy or acrylic. Treatment goals centered around correcting the hoof imbalance and eliminating uneven movement.
Racing performance following treatment was available for 63 of the 74 horses. Of the 63 horses, 54 horses had at least one start after treatment. When compared to control horses, there was no significant difference in the number of career races, career wins and career placings for horses with quarter cracks.
As mentioned previously, horses genetically predisposed to weak hoof walls might be susceptible to quarter cracks. Racehorses are generally well-nourished, as trainers know the importance of sound nutrition in conditioning an athlete. Aside from high-quality forage and fortified concentrates, horses inclined to poor-quality hooves should be given a research-proven hoof supplement. Biotin should be a primary ingredient in the supplement, but other ingredients will further support hoof health. A high-quality hoof supplement also contains methionine, iodine and zinc.
*McGlinchey, L., P. Robinson, B. Porter, A.B.S. Sidhu, and S.M. Rosanowski. 2020. Quarter cracks in Thoroughbred racehorses trained in Hong Kong over a 9-year period (2007-2015): Incidence, clinical presentation, and future racing performance. Equine Veterinary Education 32 (Suppl. 10):18-24.
Reprinted courtesy of Kentucky Equine Research. Visit ker.com for the latest in equine nutrition and management, and subscribe to Equinews to receive these articles directly.
