WHEN YOU LOOK through your horseshoeing library, you are bound to find some guides to various hoof problems: maybe something lighter in the way of personal farrier accounts, and definitely a number of textbooks that you will never throw away. Mike W. Ross and Sue J. Dyson have recently published the latest textbook that needs to find a home on your bookshelf — Diagnosis and Management of Lameness in the Horse. 

This 1,140-page work covers the topic of lameness more thoroughly than a general horseshoeing textbook possibly could. It’s dedicated solely to understanding every possible cause and effect of equine lameness. The authors present ways to diagnose and manage horses that suffer from this debilitating handicap as they walk the reader through a variety of traditional and alternative treatments. 

Ross, a professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and Dyson, the head of clinical orthopedics at the Centre of Equine Studies in the United Kingdom, have labored to make this a text that is a necessity for beginning and experienced farriers. 

Tackling Lameness In 10 Parts

While attempting to leaf through 1,140 pages of lameness information may seem overwhelming, Ross and Dyson break down this broad topic into 10 specific parts: diagnosis of lameness; foot; forelimb; hind limb; axial skeleton; developmental orthopedic disease and lameness; arthritis; soft tissues; therapeutics; and lameness in the sport horse. 

Within those 10 parts are 130 specific chapters with 850 illustrations sprinkled in to provide visuals to go with the…