In the movie Forest Gump, the title character tells a reporter that his mother used to say, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.”

Like a horde of starved chocoholics, farriers and hoof-care professionals from all over the world descended on Cincinnati, Ohio, to find out what treats were in the box this year at the 2013 International Hoof-Care Summit.

They were not disappointed. Whatever your tastes, there was something for you. If you were unable to attend, here is a sampling of what you missed.

Unfortunately, there was so much going on that I was unable to attend every presentation but, as an old hand at these events, I enlisted the help of some friends to aid in ferreting out their WOW moments. Following are the treats that we thought were the sweetest.

Mitch Taylor

Mitch Taylor of Richmond, Ky., has opened the Summit for the past 3 years. He always has new, innovative ideas to consider. This year he focused on the coffin bone and our understanding and misunderstanding of it.

Coffin-joint alignment has typically been determined by evaluating lateral and dorsopalmar radiographs of the bone. It has been my opinion that the distal edge of the coffin bone and the articulating surface of the coffin joint should be on the same plane. But in dissecting scores of feet, Taylor has found numerous examples of joints that did not correspond to that relationship. This came as a bit…