A horse’s feet often reflect the environment it lives in. Dry, arid climates can leave horses with hooves that the highest-quality nippers cannot withstand. Damp, humid climates result in a sodden, decaying mess. Then there are the feet that farriers in the Midwest, like David Hallock, contend with.

The Dansville, Mich., farrier works on horses that live in an environment that endures both extremes — a moist, rainy climate, followed by lengthy dry and arid stretches, only to repeat the cycle several more times.

On this “Shoeing for a Living” Day, Hallock handles plenty of feet that ride the environmental rollercoaster of the Upper Midwest, discusses how he keeps the horses going and offers insights into how he’s educating the farriers of the future.

Center of the Limb

Hallock is joined by Laura Russman, CF, and Samantha Hamm, who had recently completed Hallock’s 24-week farrier program at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich. They are continuing their education with hands-on experience and tutelage with Hallock’s 3R Forge & Farrier Services.

They are tending to the horses at Horsescape Farm, a boarding facility in Williamston, Mich., that’s owned and managed by Sue and Jenny Miller. Hallock has been providing hoof care at the farm for about 10 years after the account previously was serviced by the late Gil Reaume, who is the younger brother of International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame member Bob Reaume.

“When Gil retired, he asked me to do them and one other little laminitic horse,” he says. “He was kind enough to ask me to take them over because he wanted to make sure they were taken care of.”

While Hamm sets up the Finger Lakes trailer, Hallock and Russman retrieve the first two horses from their stalls — Thomas and Cooper. Russman places Thomas in cross-ties and begins pulling the nails from the left front shoe using crease nail pullers. Thomas is a Gypsy Vanner-Clydesdale cross that does a bit of jumping.

Meanwhile, Hamm follows suit by pulling Cooper’s left front shoe. Cooper is a relatively new addition to Hallock’s roster of horses. When he arrived at the barn, the aged gelding was experiencing some flaring, as well as some on-and-off lameness issues. Within a year, Hallock has him moving in the right direction.

“He’s really straightforward and simple,” he says. “It’s just a matter of trimming around the center of rotation and keeping the hoof capsule underneath the center of the limb. His feet have been coming around.”

Cooper tends to naturally grow high on the medial side of his left hind foot.

“When you’re standing in front of him, you can see the difference between the two,” Hallock says. “The left bears all that weight on the inside and it shoots the foot to the outside. I have to gather it all back up and stick it back under the center of the limb every trim. If I don’t, then I’m chasing all of it.

“My horses tend to seem high on the inside of the hinds for a lot of people,” he continues. “But I reference Cornwall, England, farrier Simon Moore’s lecture at the 2023 International Hoof-Care Summit and a video he showcased about how the hind end twists when it flexes. You can’t T-square a hind leg because of the reciprocal apparatus. All these condylar surfaces are in play once that leg is off the ground. The ground is the only place where you can judge medial-lateral balance for a hind leg.”

Hallock often has conversations with farriers about why they have a lateral toe flare on the hind feet. There’s a simple answer.

“It’s because we over-trim the inside,” Hallock says. “That ties in with why we need to know anatomy.”

Fundamental Focus

As the instructor of the Michigan State University Farrier Program, Hallock’s curriculum emphasizes the importance of learning anatomy.

“The anatomy test is written to the point that the first 12 weeks, passing is a 50%,” he says. “I’ve decided not to soften anatomy to really make them understand how in-depth it can be. If they’re part of the 24-week program, the second 12 weeks goes to 75% for the written test.”

Evaluating Thomas’ shoe wear gives him insight into how he’s loading and the potential to avoid future pathologies. Photo by: Jeff Cota

Hallock employs a similar emphasis on forge work, stemming from his work with Chris Gregory, CJF, FWCF, ASF, of Heartland Horseshoeing School in Lamar, Mo.; and Dusty Franklin, CJF, AWCF, ASF, of Five Star Horseshoeing School in Minco, Okla.

“I’ve picked up forging projects like circles and forge welding, and getting those things out of the way early before the students decide it’s too complicated,” he says. "They have a list of forging projects that they have to accomplish in the shop.”

Although Hallock describes himself as a traditionalist when it comes to the forge, he applies keg shoes every day.

“Farriers need to learn how to build shoes and how to forge weld,” he says. “Learning those techniques teaches you how to modify and manipulate a keg shoe so much quicker and easier. You should be able to carry a compromise keg shoe pattern and shoe whatever you need to shoe. If you have the skill set, especially starting out, you can carry less inventory and spend less money. If you don’t have the shoes you need, but you have 5-6 feet of 3/8 or 5/16 stock in the truck, along with the skill set to make whatever you need, then you're all set. I’d much rather teach skill sets than application.”

Of course, trimming also holds a prominent place in his curriculum.

“Trimming is a skill set,” Hallock says. “If you can’t trim a horse and keep it barefoot through the winter and the dry seasons in Michigan, you’re probably over-trimming. My students do a lot of trimming. They have to maintain their feet. I teach them to document their feet early and build their skill sets. It’s easy to marry the forge skill sets with the trimming skill sets when they get to the same level.”

When teaching trimming principles, the focus is on students learning to see the center of rotation and shapes.

“I mostly try to get them to see vertical depth vs. horizontal length and proportions around the center of rotation,” he explains. “Some people naturally think in 3D. Most of them work in fields such as engineering. It’s difficult to get a 2D-person to think in 3D.”

Hallock achieves this by locating markers such as uniform sole depth, the apex and the height of the frog.

“There are so many markers that we use when we’re trimming and we don’t articulate them,” he says. “We do a disservice if we dumb it down and just say, ‘Trim to the live sole and you’ll be fine.’ That teaches people how to stay out of trouble, but it doesn’t teach them how to deal with issues.”

Hallock adds a mild rocker to Pi’s shoes to keep breakover closer to the center of rotation and doesn’t allow the foot to be drawn forward as much. Photo by: Jeff Cota

Michigan State’s broodmare herd exposes its farriery students to a potentially important niche within the hoof-care industry.

“Some of these horses have been chronically laminitic for years or they are carpal valgus or varus,” Hallock says. “It forces students to see those issues and learn how to address them. You have to utilize all of the different markers on the feet, then if you build uniformity around the center of rotation and load bearing, you tend to wind up with nicer feet in the long term.”

Climate Effect

As Hamm makes her way around Cooper, Hallock returns to his Finger Lakes trailer where he sharpens his Beanie Tools hoof knives.

“I like the variety because each blade has a different profile,” he says. “They have three or four different profiles with different amounts of scoop and whatnot.”

The variety is on full display with four different hoof knives holstered in Hallock’s Silverback Chaps — a loop knife (red handle), a wide blade hoof knife (green handle), a straight blade hoof knife (pink handle) and a modified Chris Gregory (wood-grain handle) hoof knife.

“I get along well on most of my feet with the green blade,” Hallock says. “If you’re using a flat knife, you can’t get a nice plane on those deep feet. If you get a flat foot and you’re using a big drop blade, you’re just skimming stuff or you’re over-trimming locations. Beanie Tools has done well by assigning different profiles with specific colors. I like having those options.”

His hoof knives are going to get a workout today. Although Michigan enjoyed above-average rainfall in much of April, it experienced little precipitation in May. The National Weather Service reports that 0.96 inches was recorded in May, the fifth driest in the state’s history.

“When you go out West, it’s dry all of the time,” Hallock says. “When you go down South, it’s wet all the time. One of the downsides of Michigan is we are consistently switching between the two.”

Its effect can be seen, and more accurately felt, while nipping and paring horses’ hooves. Hoof wall integrity is undermined, much the way a cardboard box reacts after getting wet and drying. The sole is hard and flaky, causing the hoof knife to skip across it.

Hallock begins his nipper run at the toe and makes his way to the lateral heel. It’s not an unusual technique with the exception that the clipping remains attached to the hoof at the toe. Returning to the toe, he completes the nipper run to the medial heel.

“It’s pretty easy to take more heel,” Hallock explains. “If you start at the heel, you might not be able to get your toe down to the same plane that you want to maintain a decent hoof-pastern axis. So, I just put the toe where I want it and go from there.”

Hallock, Russman and Hamm work well together. While Hallock and Russman trim Cooper and Thomas respectively, Hamm prepares the shoes in the forge for resetting. As Hallock finishes trimming Cooper’s left hind, Hamm arrives with a hot shoe for a burn of the left front.

Cooper will be reset with Kahn Certifiers with toe clips on the front feet and side clips on the hinds.

“I like toe clips unless the foot is running forward,” Hallock says. “I still use a toe clip if it’s running forward, but I rocker the toe. In general, I don’t use too many side clips or quarter clips on the front. It seems if you have a soft-footed horse, it can hamper expansion and wind up making the foot run forward more.”

Although side clips on hinds receive some criticism, Hallock views it as good, solid, safe shoeing.

“The whole purpose of side clips on the hind shoe is to allow you to come just under the toe, so he doesn’t reach up and snag himself with steel and cut a heel bulb,” he says. “Cooper has just a little bit of foot out in from of him. I shoe a lot of hind feet with just a little setback and when I put clips on, they’re just like side clips.”

Wear Patterns

After nailing up Cooper, Hamm finishes and Hallock turns his attention to Russman’s work on Thomas. Hallock examines the wear on his Kerckhaert SSP front shoes.

“Shoe wear is important,” he says, noting that Thomas will get new front shoes. “You can see all of the skid marks on the lateral heel, and he thinned it just a little bit more. He might just be landing hard, but it could lead to future problems. His other shoe isn’t quite as bad.”

Evaluating your work is imperative to improve your skills and benefit the horse, Hallock says.

“If you pay attention when you pull the shoes, make note of whether you were too full or overgrown,” he says. “I was overgrown on the medial side from the heel nail through the heel. You’re going to address that in your trim. Pop it out and make your life easier. Why go back and forth more times than you need to?”

Working Aluminum

Hallock turns his attention to Elle as Russman takes over Thomas after he’s nailed up. Elle is a big, tall Quarter Horse that has some conformational issues on the front end.

“She wants to toe out,” he says. “She has upright feet that get a little dishy in the toe. I try to focus on providing even landing and load in the center.”

Hallock cautions against trimming a horse that’s more than 3 years old based on trying to correct its conformation.

“When you start trimming it to look straight, you’re overloading one side of the joint,” he says. “That’s not our job. Our job is to keep them as sound as long as we can.”

Elle’s conformation creates a slight flare on the lateral side of her front feet.

“She loads hard inside,” Hallock says. It’s funny, from the bottom it looks like a medial flare. From the top, it looks like a lateral flare. My goal is to put the hoof back under the center of the limb.”

Elle wears aluminum shoes on her fronts because she’s a rail hunter and goes barefoot behind.

“If I use aluminums, I’m mostly going to use Mustad Equi-Libriums,” Hallock says. “When they’re in aluminum, people are looking for less knee. The Equi-Libriums have that big, wide-rolled toe on them, so I get a little less knee that way. It also wears them back, so it doesn’t change the shoeing cycle. It’s a pain because I don’t get resets out of them.”

Retreating to the anvil, Hallock works the aluminum in the fire. While some drag their hammer handle across the aluminum to check whether it’s hot enough to take to the anvil, Hallock has a different method — he wipes the shoe across the anvil.

“When it’s cold, they slide across the anvil,” Hallock explains. “When it gets warm, it gets a little tacky. And it gets tacky before it gets to the point where you can burn your hammer handle. It seems like a fine line between leaving the mark and it burning off. If I’m making a shoe, I’ll burn. If I’m just shaping, I just want it grippy. It grabs the anvil. It gets me to that happy spot where I can shape it and not kill my arm, but I know I’m not going to ruin the shoe, either.”

Elle is a shoe snatcher, so Hallock safes the inside and doesn’t leave as much length as he’d like to.

“Her toes run forward a little,” he says. “I like to keep it somewhat symmetrical around the center of rotation. If I can’t gather the toe as much as I want, using a little length can give me the proportions I want. But she can’t stand the length. She doesn’t leave it alone.”

Keeping Pi Together

Russman brings Pi, an Irish draught, into the cross-ties as Hallock finishes up with Elle. She has large feet that have little hoof wall integrity, making it a challenge to keep them together.

“I think Pi took a wrong step last week, but I don’t know,” Jenny Miller tells Hallock. “She was short-strided for the rest of the ride. I rode her again and the same thing happened. She just made a funky step. It was like she stubbed her toe. The inside medial side of the right front was hot. Can you take a peek? She might be brewing an abscess or something.”

After Russman pulls the shoes and prepares the hooves for the trim, Hallock grabs his hoof testers and checks both feet.

“She’s keeping her secrets,” he says after not getting a reaction from Pi. “Laura, do you feel any heat on her? I can’t feel heat very well in my fingers anymore.”

“There might be a few degrees difference, but it’s not by a lot,” she replies.

“Good,” Jenny replies. “Maybe she just stumbled.”

At the anvil, Hallock adds a mild rocker to Pi’s shoes.

“It just keeps her toes back underneath her,” he says. “It’s just functional and keeps that breakover closer to the center of rotation and doesn’t allow that foot to be drawn forward as much.”

As he dresses the foot, the lack of integrity in the hoof wall is even more apparent.

“Pi gets crumbly in her hoof,” Hallock says. “If I can keep it packed together, it seems to fare better. The weather affects their growth and what you see. With all the moisture we’ve had, we have to watch for retracted soles, too. When we go through that wet-dry cycle in the spring, it looks like you have a lot of foot to take. But if you go down to the sole-wall juncture, which is normally a safe mark, they’re going to be crippled. They’re going to be sore because all the extra sole is gone.

“I don’t know if I like dry feet or wet feet,” he continues. “Wet feet are easier on my shoulder, but it’s more difficult to hold them together.”