Providing footcare to therapeutic riding centers can provide quality hoof care to horses and be enriching for the farrier.

While arrests were made earlier this spring of Maryville, Tenn., horse trainer Larry Joe Wheelon and two co-workers suspected of violating the Tennessee law against animal cruelty, an early June arrest was made of a farrier for his role in the disgraceful practice of soring. This represents the first time a farrier has been arrested in conjunction with ongoing state and federal soring investigations.

Dealing with young horses presents another example of the importance of using your mind, developing your eye.

I'm sure most farriers have read the 8-line poem, "For Want of a Nail," which is printed below in its entirety. But few farriers may have heard the 1923 Chicago gangster quotation, as reported in the Chicago Tribune... "For the presence of a horseshoe, Nails was lost." The bizarre 1932 incident involved Chicago gangster Samuel "Nails" Morton, so named because of his "superior qualities in gang fights." A so-called Chicago florist, Morton had been acquitted in the murder of a pair of Chicago police officers in 1922.

Rest can be great therapy for lameness if you can get owners to agree - and even more so if they'll pitch in.

A story of an injured farrier in Virginia reminds us that safety should never be forgotten when working with large animals.