In sunny northern California, farrier Sam Durham and his team members Mike Cinquini, Cole Durham and Lauren Wright shoe 600-head of horses. Among those 600, Durham and his crew average very few, if any, foundered horses, a handful in bar shoes and another handful patched after issues, such as white line disease resections. Durham also typically applies a lot of pads due to the frequent wet to dry cycles in the region, which can be brutal on the foot. Part of Durham’s success in healthy hooves is because of his focus on mechanics — the interconnectedness of the foot with structures higher in the limb — and the attention to the horse’s unique work and conformation.

“There’s a geometric proportional measurement for all things, and it’s specific to each horse,” Durham says. “We met Hall of Fame farrier Simon Curtis, and he was documenting hoof measurements for his research, so we adopted the same model. An average coffin bone is 21/2 inches long from the front end of the extensor process to the tip of it. Then you need a dermal and epidermal layer. So, you add another inch of material from the bottom of the bone down. Depending on the size of the horse, the hoof should be 31/2 inches long, and that’s geometrically proportional for that animal.

“That’s why we measure our feet, so we make sure we’re staying inside that parameter. It’s easy to teach, and eventually you don’t have to measure as much anymore because you…