As a farrier and a veterinarian, we have a unique working relationship. Over the past several years, we've treated and rehabilitated rescue horses at the Grace Foundation in El Dorado Hills, Calif. Our work provides the students at the Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School with a view on how a good working relationship between vet and farrier benefits the team and the horse. Also, because many of the horses are in poor condition, the students get to see some of the most devastating hoof conditions that horses can suffer.

Many new diagnostic techniques and imaging modalities have come into use and it can often be challenging to understand which ones might be best suited for a given lameness problem. It is also important to know when to use these tools.

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.

How a horse is put together — body proportions and angles, leg angles, straightness or imbalance in limbs — influences how that horse moves, how its feet push off and strike the ground and how its hooves wear and grow.

Harry Werner, an equine veterinarian from North Granby, Mass., and past president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, believes that a thorough equine foot examination in lameness cases should begin long before you pick up the horse's foot.