White line case demonstrates effectiveness of team approach

A few years ago, one of my customers decided she needed a good dressage horse. She purchased a beautiful, well-put-together warmblood, with exceptional ground manners. This horse had good size, muscling and proportions for the sport my customer had in mind.

A few weeks after she received him, it was time for me to shoe him for my first time. His front feet were a little base narrow, but fairly straight. When I pulled the hind shoes off however, I noticed that he was very long in the medial heels. This had caused about a 2-inch separation in both heels.

This discovery was disturbing because I knew this problem could be due to the length of heels, or might be the beginning of a bad white line disease problem.

Second Opinion

Since I’d had mixed results treating white line disease, I felt a bit intimidated.

I’m a farrier with over 30 years of experience, yet I still run into things I feel unsure about. I knew for certain that the owner needed to know that what I had found on this first shoeing could lead to a major problem. I also knew I didn’t want to be blamed for any subsequent problems because I’d ignored my discovery.

I told the owner about the separation. I said I thought I could trim…