Pete Healey has been providing farrier services at Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Los Olivos, Calif., since 2002. Working in a major equine veterinary environment has allowed him to combine practical farriery with veterinary diagnostic imaging daily. In addition to therapeutic shoeing, Healey has devoted considerable effort to developing a systematic method for reading, measuring and interpreting equine foot radiographs as they relate to trimming and shoeing.

His work provides farriers with an important way to look beyond the outside of the hoof capsule and evaluate the structures that determine the mechanical relationship between the hoof, distal phalanx, joints, sole and ground surface.

The equine foot is an intricate mechanical and biological system. A trim is never performed in isolation. Every decision made with the rasp, nippers, knife, shoe, pad or other appliance has the potential to change the relationship between the hoof capsule and the structures contained within that capsule.

When a farrier lowers or preserves heel, shortens the toe, moves breakover, changes shoe placement, modifies heel support or attempts to correct medial-lateral imbalance, the external appearance of the foot changes. More importantly, the relationship of the hoof capsule to the distal phalanx, or P3, and to the ground also changes.

Healey’s radiographic approach gives the farrier a method for seeing and measuring these relationships rather than relying solely on external appearance. For the professional farrier, this is extremely valuable.

Transform Hoof Trimming

A farrier should understand not only what’s being removed from the hoof but also what…