We know you can’t get to all the footcare meetings and clinics to soak up all the valuable ideas available from a wide variety of speakers. As a result, the American Farriers Journal editors have complied this list of valuable ideas from these sessions that can help you do a much better job of shoeing horses and running your farrier business.

These highly practical shoeing techniques came from a dozen farriers, researchers and equine veterinarians who spoke at the American Association of Equine Practitioners annual meeting, the Bluegrass Laminitis Symposium and at several local horseshoeing clinics.

1 Since the shoe tells the story, always look at the amount of wear on the shoes you remove. By doing so, you will see ways to do a better trimming job.

—Lee Green, The Shoein’ Shop, Yucaipa, Calif.

2 Laminitis normally doesn’t occur in horses under 12 months of age or at all in miniature horses. However, trimming too aggressively can lead to laminitis.

—Robert Hunt, farrier and equine veterinarian, Lexington, Ky.

3 There are two kinds of lameness — mechanical and pain lame. If a horse is pain lame, it takes a long time to make him better since you have to repair whatever hurts before the pain goes away.

But if he’s mechanically lame, he’s going to be sound the minute you remove the mechanical disadvantage.

—Myron McLane, Somerset, Mass.

4 Farriers and vets have been taught for years that the normal angle of the front foot should be between 45…