Q: I have been a farrier for 7 years. I have started doing endurance riding. My horse has very sensitive front feet. One of them is slightly upright. I usually put plastic pads on him for endurance rides because the footing is often very rocky and we ride pretty fast and hard.

The smell says it all. The unmistakable rotting odor emanating from a hoof, usually accompanied by a black-colored discharge under or around the frog, deep sulcus, cracks or crevices within the hoof — these are the first tell-tale signs that you’re dealing with the organism, Spherophorus neaophorus, otherwise known as thrush.