The ball has dropped. Toasts have been made. Another year has passed. Father Time has relinquished his mantle to Baby New Year. But before running headlong into 2017, it’s a good time to reflect upon 2016. After all, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

When a well-clipped shoe is applied correctly, it sure looks sharp on a horse’s hoof. Some farriers will even go so far as to call them sexy. Proclivities aside, they serve an important function. “Clips are mainly used to improve the security of the shoe on the foot and relieve stress on the nails,” says Tucumcari, N.M., farrier Jim Keith. “They can be applied anywhere around the wall perimeter, but usually only in the anterior half due to their ability to constrict wall movement. They may be used to contain wall flares.”

Pal is always lame. He was taken off a slaughter truck about 10 years ago and bought by James Work, a small animal veterinarian in Greenfield, Wis.

RW’s job was done and his shoes were pulled. After years of racing around barrels in cloverleaf patterns, it was time for the sorrel Quarter Horse with a white blaze to take it easy and enjoy the good life in Southwest Tennessee.

There’s nothing routine about hoof avulsion. There is a wide range of types and severities of hoof avulsions that a farrier might be presented with. They might be a result of trauma or because a farrier had to resect hoof wall to rid it of white line disease. They might come as an acute injury or be chronic in nature.