Spring laminitis case videos: What’s new for prevention and hoof management?

It's spring, that annual stock-taking time when horse owners should be taking serious care of their horses' feet and examining them for signs of changes brought on by the shift of seasons and feeding as brown grass turns green. It's time for owners to talk to vets and farriers about their horses' overall condition and to look at age and lifestyle factors that might be increasing a horse's

Footing Science: FEI Sport Horse Arena and Track Surfaces Report Download

Is there an ideal footing for all horses? Racetrack surfaces and sport horse arena surfaces are always fair fuel for arguments. The FEI's new report may add some science to personal preferences. (Photo © Hoofcare Publishing)


This announcement from the FEI includes an offer to download this extensive technical report for free: 

The world’s most extensive study into the effect of arena

PBS "My Bionic Pet": Putting Hooves and Paws and Tails Where They Weren't

On Wednesday, April 9, the PBS documentary series Nature will focus on pets who are missing parts. The star of the show will be the all-time star of this blog, Molly the (Three-Legged) Pony, but you'll also meet Chris P, the piglet who lives in a wheelchair or Mr. Stubbs, the alligator who needed a tail, and a pack of pooches who are running with the best of them but without as many legs.

Shoeless in Lexington: Polytrack Podiatry at Keeneland's Last Artificial Surface Meet

An interesting experiment was available to bettors Sunday at Kentucky's Keeneland racecourse as trainer Wayne Rice prepared to send no less than six horses to the post in five races. None of them would be wearing shoes.




Rice's attempts to beat both other horses and the Keeneland Polytrack surface at its own game have been documented on The Hoof Blog in the past. He's had mixed results. He

Dubai Hoofcare: What--and Who--Was Underneath the Horses in the World's Richest Race?

Australian farrier Rob Stevenson now lives and works in Dubai. He demonstrated shoeing a lead pony withgold raceplates before the Dubai World Cup last week; this week he's in China.


The emirate of Dubai is a tiny speck on the map, but it is growing into one of the world’s premier destinations for farriers and innovations in hoofcare. Saturday’s Dubai World Cup races in the United Arab