Talbert Farrier Services

Talbert Farrier Services Talbert Farrier Service specializes in logic based evaluations and custom applications to properly a ~1997 Grad. We now reside in Milan, GA and have 4 children.

Auburn Horseshoeing School- Auburn, AL
~2005 Grad. Midwest Equine Dental Academy- Mount Pleasant, MI
~American Farrier Association - Certified Farrier 2008
~American Association of Professional Farriers-Accredited Professional Farrier 2014
~2013-present; Clinical Farrier- Central Georgia Equine Services- Fort Valley, GA
~ Former Contracted Farrier- Fort Valley State University
~Former assistant instructor- Auburn Horseshoeing School
~apprenticed with the late Herb Schneider CF
~attended Kentucky Horseshoeing School's Cert Prep course- Mt Eden, KY
~attended Dr. Ric Redden's Equine Podiatry course- Versailles, KY July 2012
~attended Dr. Ric Redden's Equine Podiatry course- Versailles, KY June 2022
~Sarasota Polo Club- farrier (9 winter polo seasons)- Sarasota, FL

CE includes-
~Florida Association of Equine Practitioners Equine Foot Symposium- Orlando, FL
~(2-time attendee) International Hoof Care Summit- Cincinnati, OH
~Bluegrass Laminitis Symposium- Louisville, KY
~International Laminitis Conf.- West Palm Beach, FL
~(3-time attendee) American Farrier Association National Convention- Lexington, KY and Chatanooga, TN
~AFA Florida Warm-up contest/clinic- Tampa, FL
~ Multiple day AFA cert prep course- Ponte Vedra, FL
~ Multiple day AFA cert prep course- Murfreesboro, TN
~Former member, Florida State Farriers Association
~Georgia Professional Farriers Association member (not current)
~ AAEP/AFA Vet, Farrier workshop- Athens, GA
~American Farriers Team hands on clinic- Athens, GA
~Zoetis sponsored vet/farrier clinic- Russell Lands, AL
~Georgia Equine Veterinary Services vet/farrier clinic- Canton, GA
~helped organize the first annual Auburn Horseshoeing Clinic- Auburn, AL
~helped organize the first farrier clinic hosted by Central Georgia Equine Services- Fort Valley, GA
-(7-time attendee) East Coast Horseshoe Supply annual clinic. Perry, GA
-Monetta Farrier Supply Spring Fling Farrier clinic in Monetta, SC
-World Championship Blacksmiths Inc comp/clinic in Athens, GA
-GPFA clinics, Perry, GA; Montezuma, GA
-Montgomery Serum Supply farrier clinic in Montgomery, AL
-(3-time attendee) Farriers Depot clinics in Ocala, FL
-Visby's Farrier Supply farrier clinic in Palm Beach, FL
~contests- GPFA annual competition- Athens, GA

I've been working professionally with horses since 1990. Prior to learning to shoe horses, (and for some time after) I worked as a polo groom, exercise rider, polo horse trainer, and player. In this capacity I spent;
-10 summers working for Hidden Hills Polo Farm in Andover, KS owned by former United States Polo Association Chairman Jack Shelton and Mr Larry Arbuckle
-one winter for Hidden Hills Polo (South) in Sarasota, FL
-3 summer/fall seasons for 5 goal professional polo player Kevin Fawcett and Mr Kenny McLean in Point Clear, AL
-& one summer polo season for Mr Roger Redman in Detroit, Michigan

After graduating farrier school I worked for Herb Schneider who's private shoeing practice focused mainly on eventing and dressage horses in east Alabama and west Georgia as well as in the Birmingham area. Herb Schneider was a Master Farrier, an AHSA Judge, and later served as Coach for the Auburn University Equestrian Team. While working for Herb we shod or trimmed most of the horses owned by Auburn University and provided hoof care for many horses brought to the AU School of Veterinary Medicine with a variety of hoof related problems. This experience with creative shoeing methodologies greatly influenced my approach with future difficult cases I would encounter. I assisted Herb with teaching farrier students attending Auburn Horseshoeing School and with preparation, organization and occasionally instruction with an elective class on hoof anatomy and function for future veterinary students at Auburn University. My family has been involved with horses for generations. My great grandfather owned many thoroughbred racehorses and was the President of the Maryland Horseman's Association. Both my grandfather and grandmother were competitive in show jumping and my grandfather also owned TB racehorses and co-founded the Potomac Polo Club in 1956. My uncle played professional polo, managed Hidden Hills Polo farm, trained polo ponies and now owns and trains TB racehorses. My wife worked as a groom for Strawberry Banks Arabians in East Aurora, New York before she transitioned to polo and migrated to Florida to work the winter polo season. She worked as a polo groom for 3 winter seasons in Sarasota, FL and 3 summer seasons in Wichita, KS.

11/30/2025

Remember Chuck E Cheese? They had a game called Whack-a-mole. That was essentially the same experience as social media is for farriers. Every day the cursed algorithms put these tik-toks and posts in our feed. Everyday. Posts that offer owners information about the horse's hoof that is just wrong, incorrect, partially wrong, or perhaps they may be mostly correct but their explanation isn't. When you engage with one, just like whack-a-mole, there's another,.. and another popping up. It is exhausting. And yet it is like when you know the words to a common Christmas song, and someone next to you is struggling with a verse, and you try to ignore it, you try to, but it's eating you up, eventually you have to say "it's partridge in a pear tree. Yes I'm sure. Partridge. Yes. No it isn't flamingo. I'm certain. Yes. Not a flamingo. Partridge." Same with these grossly inaccurate hoof posts online.
Why does the horse's hoof attract so many wanna be experts offering advice? It is because there are levels to understanding the hoof. I see it as a stairway. Look at each stair as a higher level of understanding. And there are just so many on that first and second stair that anyone on the third or fourth feels they are equipped to turn around and teach. You can always recognize when a person is speaking from a lower stair because you've stood on that stair, you've pondered those same questions, entertained the same solutions, drawn the same conclusions, tried the same applications, and parroted the same BS. What you hear recited by someone on a lower stair are statements you are intimately familiar with. When you were on that stair, you didn't realize how differently you would view the hoof from the next stair. You probably didn't even realize or appreciate that there was a higher stair.
How do you get to the next stair? A lot of studying, reading, attending lectures, clinics, conventions, symposiums, having discussions with other professionals, challenging your own views, researching your own questions, being observant, taking higher level courses, beginning to truly learn who the real experts are, questioning everything you are told, experimenting, etc. Slowly you will start to develop a deeper understanding and you'll begin to see the hoof differently. When you see someone telling others something you once thought, then congratulations you are on the next step on that staircase. Now your perspective has matured, now you have an entirely different take on the foot than most. But wait, ....there's more. You are only on the second step. When you are on the third, you will see the errors in your current understanding. And when you are on the third step, guess what, there will be so many on the first and second it'll make you want to go jump off a bridge. Welcome to the burden of knowledge. The more you learn the lonelier it gets. Cause with each step you make fewer will share that step with you, fewer will be above you to turn to. What's that mean? It means be careful what you wish for. Now you are going to see a lot of untruths and half truths being shared by well established professionals, you are going to see what isn't going to work and you'll know why. Because the usual course is that we all tend to overestimate ourselves early. We start out in this profession with idealistic enthusiasm and confidence that is tethered to naivete. The realization that we do not have a magic wand, that we cannot "fix" everything, that we are often treating the symptom and not the cause, these are tough pills to swallow. In fact they are too tough for many. Ego keeps many stuck on stair #2 for 20+ years.
Understanding your own limitations means you'll have to wrestle with far more ethical dilemmas. When you are ignorant then optimism is easy. -"Hey this might work!"-. But when you know what you are doing or being asked to do won't work, or if you know there isn't a solid solution you can offer the owner for a specific problem, (which there often is not) then optimism is more difficult. Now you are dealing with Dumbo's feather. Now you are in the psychology business. Now you are navigating different conversations. Instead of "Hell yeah, I can fix that!" you are instead explaining how that got to be that and why that may likely continue to be that or maybe still that but to a lesser extent. You are sometimes having to placate and appease. I'm not saying that knowledge renders us useless, I am saying that knowledge humbles us. The most vocal critic is almost always going to be standing on stair number 1 or 2. They don't know what they don't know. They are moles popping up in our algorithms begging to be whacked. The platform allows them influence and their confidence mesmerizes their disciples. If you want to enjoy a good horse movie don't learn enough about horses to notice all the mistakes. If you want to scroll Facebook with peace and serenity don't become a farrier, your arm will give out and the moles will win. They'll crawl all over your carcass and gnaw on your bones, there's just too many, we will have to evade them or disguise ourselves as them in this apocalyptic hell hole.

6.7 million horses in the US. 4 confirmed cases of EHV in Texas, 2 in Oklahoma, 3 in Louisiana (as of yesterday). I'm no...
11/21/2025

6.7 million horses in the US. 4 confirmed cases of EHV in Texas, 2 in Oklahoma, 3 in Louisiana (as of yesterday). I'm no virologist but statistical probability is what I look to when I sense panic and hysteria brewing. Right now if you are a horse owner in Georgia the statistical probability that your horse will die from lightning, drowning, colic, heart attack, allergic reaction, trailering accident, falling tree, aneurism, poisoning, mistaken for a deer and shot, falling into a well, running headfirst into a wall, cancer, impaled by a shard of wood while running through a fence, or hit by a beige Ford Ranger are all more likely than EHV. Continue to pay attention but don't allow panic demonstrated to be panic emulated. If the stats change so too should the concern, but the stats would have to exponentially change by historic proportions. Might happen. Probably won't.

11/14/2025

So the subject is the shortened shoeing interval (or a shorter shoeing interval).
Often we (farriers/vets) recommend shortening the time in between appointments purportedly to prevent the detrimental influence of excessive length thereby expediting progress towards a goal. The goal may vary depending on the hoof problem that exists. but universally the goal is typically to encourage a healthier hoof that better serves the horse. That's the sales pitch. Sometimes it is really about satiating an owner's concerns. You see, if you re-shoe it or re-trim it before it gets "ugly" then you don't have to hear about it being "ugly". If your client frets about the way the hoof looks when it is due to be shod, just shoe it before it is due to be shod. Shuts em up. Like a tax on being annoying I guess. But does it really expedite progress? How beneficial is it to the horse? That's the question right? I mean granted it does rest on a logical foundation (whether or not that logic is behind our situational suggestion). Ethically we can rest our head on the mantra of "keep it right so you don't have to get it back right",,, that's solid. Shorter intervals are also widely endorsed within the industry. So there is a bit of "monkey see monkey do" involved. But no doubt serious owners who have serious money invested in their horses don't want to wait until their hooves look like they need it, they want to prophylactically shoe them just before they start to look like they need it. They see no downside to this, and I've always been on board with it because I understand the assignment, I get the mindset. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
But another side of my brain recognizes that shoeing hooves before growth warrants it can be problematic. The walls of slow growing hooves sooner or later become riddled with nail holes and finding solid wall to drive a nail safely into can begin to be a challenge. We can end up painting ourselves into a corner. If I have my druthers I always prefer a hoof that has plenty of growth to work with, this limits my exposure to risk and it is like a blank canvas. So in my life, the longer the owner is content the better. I can't see it from my house, so if you're happy I'm happy. I drive too many nails into delicate and risky hooves, so a horse with hoof mass from my perspective is sexier than socks on a rooster.
Another consideration from a business standpoint worth mentioning is that committing to service your clients on a shorter schedule means you'll have fewer dates available to help other clients. That's math. So do you want to do fewer overall horses more often or more overall horses less often? I like to do horses that inarguably need doing. I prefer progress to maintenance. I have no sense of fulfillment from just shoeing a horse for the sake of shoeing a horse and punching a time card. There needs to be a dragon to slay, a problem to solve, a puzzle to work out. Like the philosopher Kenny Powers said, "I play real sports. Not trying to be the best at exercising."
But here's something we can all agree on, to improve a hoof we have to have growth. Without growth what we have is what remains. We've all had hooves that seem to make progress very slowly or seemingly no progress at all. We may be trying to grow out a crack or get a healthier stronger hoof wall to nail into. But we have a stagnant hoof. Why? Most of these stagnant hooves are lacking sole depth. I cannot explain how the perfusion of the sole corium and the perfusion of the coronary corium may be co-dependent, perhaps they are not, but I can tell you that in a foundered horse, to achieve positive growth at the top of the hoof (speaking of the hoof wall) you have to resuscitate growth at the bottom (speaking of the sole). The thin soled stagnant hoof is no different.
I may not be the best at much but I am observant. If I was picking a super power I'd rather be it be invisibility or time travel, but I got the knack for being observant. One thing I observed long ago was how stagnant hooves would often hit a growth spurt when an owner had an emergency. Let's say I had a hoof crack growing out very slowly and I was shoeing or trimming it (doesn't matter which) every 4 or 5 weeks, maybe every 6 weeks, and just making very slow progress. At each visit, there would be little to trim off the bottom of the hoof. But then, life happens, the owner gets sick or loses their job, or gets injured, gets lost at sea, just fill in the blank with an excuse, but for some reason the horse goes 12 weeks instead of 5 or 6. I'd show up and find the hoof grew more in 12 weeks than it had previously grown in the previous 24 weeks under my care. Why? How was the best thing for it leaving it the F alone? .....Well, a turkey never gets done if you keep opening up the oven door to check on it. By removing the little bit of growth the stagnant hoof achieves every 4,5, or 6 weeks we are keeping the hoof in a state of deficit. Growth really begins in many of these hooves around week 6, but we keep resetting them back to week 1.
The key to understanding this phenomenon is to understand blood flow and compression. Blood feeds growth and compression shuts down that blood supply. An average horse needs roughly 15mm of sole depth to allow for optimal perfusion, yet some of these flat soled struggling hooves may have 7mm of sole and our du*****es are subtracting hoof from them with a trim. This compression occurs specifically under the coffin bone with the weight of the horse pushing down and the tension of the deep flexor pulling the coffin bone into the vascular bed. The external force (ground, pad, whatever) acts as the other slice of bread in this sandwich. The vascular corium and solar papillae in a healthy hoof can occupy 10mm of tissue space distal to P3 but when you only have something like 7mm of total sole depth those papillae are crushed and the entire hematic architecture is in a state of ruin.
It can sound complex, but the gist is that the more sole depth, the less compression, the less compression, the more blood flow, and the more blood flow the more sole growth, the more sole growth the more hoof growth, the more hoof growth the more hoof mass, the more hoof mass the more comfort and soundness. And to jump start all this we have to let the turkey cook. We have to prioritize vertical sole depth. We gotta allow for it, appreciate it, and prioritize it, to break the cycle of soreness. Our obsession with short hooves perpetuates the visual expectation that the farrier feels obligated to appease. The result is the number one cause of lameness we see day in and day out. It's called lackuvfootitis. Hooves that have been suffering from a deficit for many years may have some irreparable damage and be very slow to initialize an appreciable change. We do have applications that are mechanically designed to enhance perfusion. These applications are largely technique sensitive, meaning their value is not derived from the appliance so much as it is the applicator. And the "applicator" has to be selective with the allocation of their finite time and energy. Far more horses would benefit from these applications than we have time to devote to them. It is a supply and demand issue and it is an educational issue. Sole depth just isn't a top priority on the horse owner's radar, short toes are. Sole depth becomes a priority only when their horse can't perform. And then it is only a priority if you can manage to articulate the problem to them in a way that the owner can digest. Some don't get beyond the deer in the headlight look. We are after all essentially telling them everything they thought they knew about a horse's hoof is wrong. That is a tough pill to swallow. If they are the right owner, with the right horse, the mechanical applications we may utilize can be very worthwhile. But that is another conversation. The lesson today is more basic, more pragmatic, and that is that sometimes we just have to get out of our own way. Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

11/13/2025

Piggybacking on that last post. Let's talk about the low heeled horse. One of my favorite subjects. Not really. But one that I'm well practiced at discussing. I got well practiced because so many horse owners fret over what they feel might be low heels. Sometimes their horse does indeed have low heels and sometimes the horse doesn't have low heels, ....the horse just has an owner that imagineers problems.
Low heeled horses often (usually) get labelled as also having a long toe. Long toes and low heels go together like peanut butter and jelly. Right? You'd think. But, the toe is often not long, people just describe it as "long". Often these LTLH hooves just have a low toe, meaning the trajectory of the toe is low, it isn't really long. The coffin bone inside the hoof typically mirrors this low angle.
Riddle me this, let's say you have a really low angled coffin bone, and of course the hoof wall must grow parallel to this bone angle, how much further must the wall extend along that trajectory to provide adequate sole depth? Consider the walls of your house. How much longer would they need to be to support your roof at the same height if those walls were slanted?
If the low toed hoof isn't long enough to achieve adequate vertical depth then it isn't long. Long in such a case would be the incorrect descriptive term. And yet it is common. The correct term would be low, now ask yourself why is it low.
But let's get back to the heels. We hear words like low, crushed, underrun, compressed or collapsed. These are all subjective terms and each may leave you with a specific impression, but they are all related in that they all describe a structural failure. An inability to cope with force has negatively impaired the form and function of the heels. Why? Why does your horse have low heels? If you answered genetics, congratulations, but that is the correct answer on the elementary school exam. We are moving on to middle school and need to be more specific. It's the deep flexor.
For a couple decades I have been attempting to explain this to owners, vets, farriers, trainers, students, etc, and I have tried every analogy, I have tried drawings, I have tried talking very slowly and using small words, but it seems like I wake up every day and it's groundhog day again. I may have this same discussion with an owner and it may be an owner with whom I've discussed it 10 times before. The crazy thing is I'll always leave thinking I did a decent job explaining it and they seemed to really understand. Fast forward 6 weeks and they'll ask the exact same question. "Why doesn't this horse have any heel?" "Do you think this horse will ever grow any heel?" "Do you think it needs a wedge?" "Has he grown any heel?" "I'd like it if we could get some more heel on him."
Fer cripes sake. I think it is easier to nail Jello to a tree than to get most horse folks to grasp the role the deep flexor plays in dictating hoof type. But I keep trying. Maybe I'll stumble across the right combination of words that trigger a light bulb moment and the clouds will part and we'll hear an angel singing, the soft strum of a harp, and a gentle dove will fly down and land upon my shoulder. So lets try it like this again.
Look. The deep flexor tendon originates from the deep flexor muscle and inserts on the palmar/plantar surface of the coffin bone (P3). The tendon and muscle together are called the deep flexor musculotendinous unit, this unit has a static resting length. This resting length is as long as it gets when it isn't in an active state of contraction. Now. Part 2 of this equation is the skeletal length. This is obviously the physical length of the bones that correspond with the distance down the limb that the deep flexor courses. If the static length of the DF unit is comparably shorter than the skeletal limb length, you will have a high DF suspension force, a positive PA (Edited in here quickly for the uninitiated, PA stands for palmar angle or plantar angle if we are referring to the hind hooves, and it is the angle at which the coffin bone sets within the hoof capsule relative to the ground, ...because the tendon is attached to the coffin bone, the greater the tendon force, the higher the PA) and consequently less compression on the heel structures, less compression means unobstructed venous perfusion, which equals heel growth. If the opposite is true and the static length of the DF unit is comparably longer than the skeletal limb length, you will have a low or negative PA and consequently more compression on the heel structures, more compression means obstructed venous perfusion, which equals stunted or stagnate heel growth and displacement and underdevelopment of the digital cushion. Bada bing bada boom. Mystery unlocked. Taut tendon= heel. Lax tendon= no heel.
How do we "fix" it? We don't. Unless you know a way to shorten a tendon. That's the genetic hand the horse was dealt. You can put a wedge on it, which is just a prosthetic heel, but what's that do? It crushes the heel even more. Makes it look better, but causes greater damage by exacerbating the length disparity. In lay terms it puts more slack in the tendon apparatus which is like trying to dry off on a rainy day by jumping in the pool. Its dumb.
But, but, but you might say I saw a photo of a horse on the internet that looked like it's heels improved some. Yes. Here's where we have to explain the exception. Excessive toe length compounds the compressive force on the heels. So when you encounter a case of neglect, you can improve the structure of the heel by the degree to which that neglect has worsened it's genetic predisposition. So if you have a hoof with collapsed and under run heels that has 2 inches of excess toe length then merely removing that compounding factor is going to improve the heels proportional to the force reduction. But what if you have crushed heels and no toe length contributing? How much improvement can you expect then? Minimal. You can try different applications to unload a percentage of the weight from the heels, a mushroom bar shoe, a heart bar shoe, until your frog becomes flattened by the overload and that advantage is lost. A rocker shoe set back is probably the most logic based option, but you are and will always be fighting against the genetic predisposition and anatomical reality. You are signing up to nurse every millimeter you can from heels that aren't going to be cooperative patients and sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze. To make a lasting change you need biologic cooperation, which means the DF unit would have to shorten itself. Probably not gonna happen. [Occasionally a muscle belly will contract generally in response to intense and prolonged pain, thus shortening the static length, but this isn't a viable solution.]
"So aside from that Mrs Lincoln how was the play?" Here's the moderately okay news, low heels aren't always the end of the world. I've known tons of sound horses with what would likely be called low heels. If you give birth to an ugly baby it may still grow up to at least be a good artist or something. Same with heels. It has been my experience that low heeled horses will often get just a smidge better without shoes if that is an option. I think it is because shoes don't allow any natural toe wear to occur during the interval and that preserved growth has a small force compounding influence. If shoes are a must and low heels are a presumed source of discomfort a thick leather pad is a good option.

11/13/2025

Yes it is genetic. That seems obvious and simple. But I'm reading the comments and it is striking how the majority of owners really have no understanding at all. We've all apparently done an awful job as farriers over the last 30 years telling them almost daily that it is genetic because their comments are as though this is new and incredible information.
"I thought this was nutrition property."
"Nutrition!?" "THIS?!" "Hit the road dude this ain't no nutrition property, this is gen et ic propertee"

10/27/2025

How do you know what your horse "needs"?
Over the years I've noticed how casually we (horse people) toss around the word "needs". When people say "My horse needs x,y &z", what I hear is "I WANT x,y, & z". ,,,,,,,, I can handle "I want". My brain understands "I want". "I want" doesn't have to make sense. If you said "I want a frisbee nailed to the bottom of the left hoof", I understand the assignment. This is an appeasement transaction. It is your horse. I can't see it from my house. What concern is it of mine? But, if I allow myself to process these words literally, when I hear "My horse needs...." I then want to know how you determined this "need". Are you just repeating what someone told you? A friend? A vet? A farrier? A chiro? What was their explanation? Or, have you been on the internet again? Or is it based on an experience you had? An observation? A theory? If so, I want to hear it. I want to understand how this conclusion was reached. What are we basing this on? One bad experience? Is it based soundly in Anatomy? Logic? Or is this Dumbo's feather?
[For the record it is the same with the phrase "has to have". If I miss out on heaven, I believe hell will be me surrounded by dead horse owners whispering in my ear what their horse "has to have".]
If I do allow myself to absorb the word "need" literally, I'll usually probe further sincerely attempting to work out the origin story behind the claim. I try not to interrogate, but this curiosity is my attempt at humility. I'm inviting an explanation and placing my skepticism on the back burner. You made an absolute statement. By the rules of diplomacy I'm offering an opportunity for you to defend it while I practice being open minded. Why and how have you concluded your horse NEEDS this application?
Here's the thing. I want to believe in what I'm doing. It is mentally difficult to shoe a horse in a way that I do not believe is necessary or warranted. I do that too often. It is transactional, but also annoying and unfulfilling. What I'm really wanting when I'm asking questions about this asserted need is for you to please convince me it's worthwhile and based on something. I am constantly trying to limit my transactional work and devote that time and energy to work I believe in. I don't want to shoe your horse if there is no need for shoes. I don't want to apply egg bars and pads to the hind feet because it had an abscess in the front. I don't want to crush the heels with a wedge shoe because your "friend who knows a lot about horses" said that's what it needs. I don't want to amputate your horse's toe because a vet you saw happened to watch a tik toc video. I don't want to put a heartbar shoe on for a neurologic horse. I don't want to do dumb s**t. But,,,, I have done a ton of dumb s**t, and I'll do more. I gotta eat. That's why when someone tells me what their horse "needs", my brain hears "this is what I want". That makes it transactional. That defines our interaction. My opinion wasn't sought, only my hammer, and thus the consequences aren't going to be my burden. Transactional.
Here's a pro tip to wrap it up. Absolute statements should be made sparingly. As equine professionals we should lead by example. The phrase "perhaps the horse would benefit from..." is preferable. "Perhaps" is not a definite. "Perhaps" is not a knowledge claim. And a benefit is not a necessity. Many things can be a benefit that are not required. The phrase "perhaps the horse would benefit from" keeps our arrogance in check.

10/24/2025

Dwarf mini horses often present with severe angular limb deformities. What I have learned from dealing with several (10+) and owning one of the most severe cases I've seen, is that you are better off not trying to "correct" them. I've played around with them, fabricating extensions, forging little aluminum therapeutic shoes, and using urethanes and PMMA's I've built all sorts of creative set-ups. My advice..... don't. The temptation is there, but forcing them to be what they are not only torques the joint and creates discomfort. We are usually compelled to do "something" to please the owner's eye, but we typically don't "fix'" anything with these defects. Instead, with the best of intentions we are just imposing our ideal on anatomy that is abnormal and intolerant of normal. The bigger the correction, the less they like it. I have seen several that are most happy when they are walking on the side of their damn hoof. Force that hoof into a normal stance and they move much worse.... even though it "looks" much better. How many times does this scenario have to repeat before we learn a lesson from it? Dwarves are not common enough for "most" farriers to accumulate the same level of experience they generally have with more common issues. So when they come across the cute twisted legged dwarf, it's always a Kodak moment, and an opportunity to apply some creative bulls**t. Press repeat for the next several appointments, until the preciousness and uniqueness starts to wane and reality starts to set in. That reality is often, "gee willickers, he just seems more comfortable without anything glued to it's hoof..........huh."

They said, you can't shoe out of an SUV. I said 28.1 mpg...... hold my ovaltine.
10/24/2025

They said, you can't shoe out of an SUV. I said 28.1 mpg...... hold my ovaltine.

10/23/2025

There is a dangerous false doctrine being spread on Facebook by one of the hoof trimming cults. They've come to the impressive conclusion that coffin bone rotation (in foundered horses) is due to the unchecked growth of the heels. I s**t you not. And sadly but not surprisingly, horse owners are gobbling it up. This is a perfect example to teach the difference between causation and correlation. Heel growth correlates with P3 rotation, but it does not cause P3 rotation. You'd think that somewhere, someone amongst them would ask "but, but, what is causing the heel growth madam?" Unfortunately no. They don't ask, they just recite the chant without blinking and firmly hold their candle with both hands.

Address

1763 West Highway 280
Milan, GA
31060

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5am
Tuesday 9am - 5am
Wednesday 9am - 5am
Thursday 9am - 5am
Friday 9am - 5am

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Talbert Farrier Services posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share via Email
Share on WhatsApp Share on Instagram Share on Telegram