As a farrier at a veterinary clinic, Pete Healey sees a lot of lame horses with terrible feet. As a result, the Los Olivos, Calif., farrier started a blog — Your Horses Feet — to give the horse a voice.

“These feet did not get bad overnight,” Healey says, “but are a product of the industry standards or lack of.”

He stresses the importance of educating veterinarians, farriers and horse owners to prevent painful hoof-issues and in the cases of athletic horses, issues that could potentially end careers.

“At the end of the day, we all want sound horses but we don’t know what we don’t know,” Healey says. “Usually we always know last what we need to know first.”

The feet are integral to a horse’s health and happiness, and many times issues are caused by a simple lack of knowledge. Healey hopes that his blog will educate others on important hoof care information so that issues can be detected before it is too late.  In order to do this, Healey will be covering a broad range of topics in the equine health industry. He will incorporate professional and layman’s terms in order to be accessible for a broad audience, using graphics for clarity when necessary.

Healey plans to update the blog weekly or biweekly with a monthly feature called, “Everything I Know is What I Read in the Journal”, where he will review news from AFJ.

Healey first learned to shoe at 17 when he cowboyed on Santa Rosa Island. He then studied animal science at Cal Poly and has been a farrier for Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Los Olivos, Calif., since 2001. Healey has written two books on hoof care and farriery, including Evaluating Radiographs for Equine Foot Management, which can be found on his website Balanced Break-Over Management or on Amazon.

For more information and to read Healey’s latest blog posts, visit www.yourhorsesfeet.com.