Peyton and his team were riding high 3 years ago.

Competing under his pedigree name, Break N The Law, the sorrel Quarter Horse gelding is highly decorated with multiple championships, culminating in August 2022 with a National Snaffle Bit Association (NASB) World Championship in Green Junior Trail.

The excitement surrounding Peyton’s promising future came to a screeching halt just 2 months later when an accident left his career in jeopardy. Peyton suffered fractures to the short and long pasterns of his right hind leg, requiring surgeons to stabilize the bones with plates and screws.

Peyton fractured the short and long pasterns in his right hind leg. Photo: Mike Hachtel

Moment of Truth

Mike Hachtel and Tami Farnsworth, Peyton’s owners, leaned heavily on their therapeutic team — Mid-South Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery in Tioga, Texas; Weems and Stephens Equine Hospital in Aubrey, Texas; and Danny Anderson, their Collinsville, Texas, farrier.

After 6 months of surgery, painstaking rehabilitation and deliberate therapeutic shoeing, the moment of truth came in mid-February 2023. Hachtel and Farnsworth greet Anderson and his son, Jarred, at Espuela Ranch in Collinsville for the first evaluation in 2 months.

Jarred Anderson removes a shoeing package consisting of a 6-degree wedge that was secured to the hoof with an elastic bandage. The package allowed Peyton to load his injured right hind leg. Image: Jeff Cota

On that day, Peyton refused to load the foot at the start of the December 2022 shoeing appointment. However, the Andersons applied a shoeing package consisting of a 6-degree wedge that was secured to the hoof with an elastic bandage. The application gave Peyton the support he needed to load the foot.

Fast forward to February 2023, and the Andersons plan to remove the package to see how Peyton responds. Will he load the recovering right hind? Hachtel is confident after conversations with the vet. Yet, the tension in the barn is palpable.

“The sport Peyton competes in, Western pleasure, with the slower motion of trail and Western riding, the vet told me, ‘I can see a complete recovery,’” he tells American Farriers Journal in the May/June 2023 issue. “If the sport were cutting or reining, the vet would have no confidence. If all goes well, this is going to be a remarkable story.”

As Hachtel walks Peyton down the aisle, Danny studies the horse, noting that his injured foot is landing heel first. After removing the appliance, he wants to see how Peyton walks without the support. 

“Let’s let him adjust a little bit before we walk him again,” he says.

A few moments pass before Hachtel leads Peyton from the shoeing area to the aisle on the other side of the barn. As he turns right, Danny and Jarred watch how the right hind foot falls from behind the horse. When Hachtel reaches the end of the aisle, he turns around and walks him past.

“There isn’t a double hit,” Danny observes. “He’s landing flat and trying a little bit to get his heel down. You want to push that a little bit, but you don’t want to push it a lot. The more he walks on it, the better. If he is in grass or dirt, he’s going to sink in and his heel is going to hold him up.”

Hachtel brings Peyton to a stop in front of the Andersons, who ask him to back the horse up a half-step to see if he will load the foot. After about 15 seconds, Peyton loads the foot.

“That’s pretty good,” Hachtel says as he leads the horse back to the shoeing area.

Danny Anderson nails on a bar shoe to provide support in the back of the injured right hind leg. Image: Jeff Cota

Danny retrieves a bar shoe he made the night before and checks the fit. As Danny returns to his Stonewell trailer for adjustments, Jarred drops to his right knee and picks up the injured foot. He reaches his left hand across his body and holds the dorsal hoof wall to stabilize it while trimming it with his right hand.

After adjusting the toe, Danny checks his fit. He returns to the anvil for a quick adjustment and checks the width. Returning to the horse, Danny takes a few gentle swipes with his rasp and double-checks the width of the hoof.

“Are you going to shoe both hinds today?” Hachtel asks.

“No, you’re running a risk if you put a shoe on both,” Danny replies. “It’s like putting glue-ons on a baby. You just do one at a time; otherwise, you strip the other one off. If you were in a situation where he was going to ruin his foot, then we would. But he’s supporting his foot pretty well.”

Mindful of the injury, Danny and Jarred give the horse frequent breaks. Danny takes an opportunity to heat the shoe to prepare for a burn to check the fit.

“That’ll work,” he says. “Now, we’ll box it, so he won’t hurt himself and add a pad to it.”

Since the horse is hand-walked in the arena and is not turned out, Danny and Jarred decide to use a full No. 3 Castle Plastics soft wedge pad with sole packing in the front half of the foot and a soft impression material over the back half.

“I want it to be able to flex since he hasn’t been able to do that up till now,” Danny says as he drills holes in the shoe for riveting. “The sole is dry, so the packing will add a little oil to it. I don’t want the impression material to migrate into the toe, so the sole pack will help keep it in place. I slid the pad forward, so I didn’t use the full wedge. We’re probably at 4 degrees.”

After assembling the package, Danny returns to the horse and applies the sole packing and impression material to the bottom of the foot. Holding the foot across the dorsal hoof wall for stability, he drives two nails into the toe of the shoe.

“He only has two nails in the shoe,” he says to Hachtel, “so no hard turns. Just walk him forward.”

Hachtel leads the horse from the shoeing area to the aisle. As Peyton walks away, a big smile spreads on Danny’s face as he pumps his fist.

“No secondary hit, no heel slapping,” he says. “That’ll work.”

“That’s awesome,” Hachtel says as he leads Peyton to the shoeing area.

Danny finishes nailing up the shoe with the same hammer strike patterns to ease the horse’s discomfort.

“Look at that, Danny,” Hachtel says as Peyton immediately loads the foot. “That’s amazing. He hasn’t been able to do that in 4 months.”

“Look at that,” he replies with a laugh. “That’s cool.”

Return to the Ring

Peyton made an important first step in returning to competition in mid-January 2025 at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla. Despite spending 2 years out of the ring recovering from his injuries, Peyton took home third in Level 1 Novice Select Horsemanship. The relief was evident.

“We can all breathe now,” Farnsworth says.

Steady progress and improvement continued throughout the year at Texas Festival, Southern Ohio Quarter Horse Association (SOQHA) Pre-Madness (first in Level 1 Horsemanship) and The Madness (Circuit Champion Level 1 Select Amateur Showmanship and Level 1 Select Amateur Horsemanship overall winner on days two and three) and the Red Bud Spectacular (Reserve Level 1 Select Amateur All Around and Circuit Champion in Level 1 Select Amateur Horsemanship).

As the leaves changed from green to the vibrant colors of fall, Peyton hit his stride, winning the 2025 NASB World Champion Level 1 Select Amateur Horsemanship. The sorrel followed that up by capturing the All American Quarter Horse Congress Reserve World Champion and the NASB Champion in Select Amateur Showmanship Level 1 in late October.

“I am so proud of Peyton and the improvements we are making,” Farnsworth says. “He is 1 in a million. He’s all heart.”

Farnsworth and Hachtel are quick to give thanks to Peyton’s vets and farrier.

“What Danny implements is a true testament to a horse trainer’s world,” Hachtel says. “If you believe in the system, the system won’t fail you. If a lady sends me a horse and believes in the system, she’ll let me ride it until it’s ready. Same thing with horseshoeing. We’ve done some remarkable stuff here. We’ve made horses go around that never should have.”

Peyton very well might fit in that category.

“Break N The Law definitely broke some rules,” Anderson says.

And Anderson aided and abetted in the Quarter Horse’s return to glory.