Q: How should I shoe for rotational deformities in the legs?

A: If you don’t correct rotational deformities before the horse is 2 years old, you won’t be able to change them much if at all. If I try to do that, I’m going to put harmful pressure on their joints, which are set at 20 months to 2 years old.

—Wisconsin farrier

The only thing you can really do for older horses is to shoe them the way they go. If there’s an interference problem, you can help resolve that concern with your shoeing.

Anytime you see the hairline pushed up, the horse is out of balance. If they’re going crooked, I just try to give them as much support as I can with a bar shoe or whatever is needed.

Cosmetically, sometimes you can make a foot look straighter than it is. For example, if he’s toed out from the knee and really straight on the inside of the hoof but flared to the outside, I would give that horse support to the inside.

Then I could apply Equi-Pak or some other filler material on the inside and take as much flare off the outside as possible, depending on the wall I have to work with.

For the most part, you just want to give these horses support and shoe them the way they go. But you don’t want to torque their joints and cause more problems. That will just make for an unsound horse.

I’ve been shoeing…