Polydactyl People and Ponies: A Gallery of Extra Digits (and Hooves)

This polydactyl was found in British Columbia by one of the farrier students at Kwantlen College. Gerard Laverty, the instructor at Kwantlen, sent these images to me, which started my collection. Image © Hoofcare Publishing and Gerard Laverty.



If you visit farms and horse barns in New England, you'll sooner or later find one with a clan of double-pawed cats. Their owners are usually quite

Shackleford's Preakness is First Triple Crown Win for Synthetic Horseshoes; Dewey-Walters Shoeing Team Claims Two-Thirds of Crown, Going for Triple

Jockey Jesus Lopez Castanon had so many reasons to smile as Shackleford lunged across the finish line of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Were you watching? Were you one of the millions of people who didn't notice anything unusual about this horse? UPI/Kevin Dietsch/Fotoglif image


"Oh well, another year without a Triple Crown winner," everyone said, as they turned off their televisions

The Royal Thoroughbred Tour: Irish Farriers Greet Britain's Queen Elizabeth at National Stud

When Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth set her royal foot on Irish soil last week, it was the first of her family's to do so since the Republic of Ireland gained complete independence from British rule.

But she didn't waste much time getting to the bits of Ireland that she'd probably been dying to see, like the Irish National Stud, the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud, and the legendary Coolmore Stud.

An Unusually Silent Anvil: Ron Dyer ("The Horseshoer")

 I learned tonight, completely by accident while researching something on the web, that Ron Dyer the Horseshoer (as he called himself) died on April 23, just shy of his 84th birthday. I don't have much information, perhaps other people have already announced his passing, but I had no idea.

When I knocked on the door of the farrier profession, I immediately noticed that people tended to cluster

Videos: EHV Outbreak in West Means America's Pleasure and Show Horses Stay Home and Horse Professionals Get Re-Scheduled

Surely you're heard by now that a strange outbreak of Equine Herpes Virus Type 1 has sent horses in the western United States and Canada into near-lockdown situations. Horse shows, trail rides and rodeos are cancelled, even though the only horses truly at risk are a group of cutting and western performance horses who were on the grounds of a show in Utah in the first week in May. But how many

Kentucky Derby: Horseshoes (and a Horseshoer's Daughter) Ready to Run for the Roses

Here's the Kentucky Derby news you won't ready anywhere else. And the photos no one else would think to take. But by the time you've read this, you'll have to admit that it makes a good case for ESPN adding a hoof analyst for the Triple Crown. It's not just the shoes and hooves, either, as you'll read. It's the people.

Hoofcare and Lameness will be watching the Kentucky Derby from the comfort of