Denali Equine- The Podiatry Division

06/11/2024

Welcome to our new intern Emma Labrie. She is here for the month of June between sessions at Heartland horseshoeing school. Her favorite horses to shoe, are jumpers and pleasure horses. She hopes to go back to Michigan to shoe horses to be closer to family and has high goals of being a certified farrier with the AFA. We are happy to have you and hope you pick up a few things while you’re here.

05/01/2024

Here are some shoes we made over the last month for some pretty cool cases that came in.

02/11/2024

Had a great week in Amarillo Texas at the WCB winter clinic. Was so busy with lectures and hands on mini clinics in the fire that I forgot to take a bunch of pictures while I was there. There is always so much to watch and absorb while we are there. It’s hands down one of our favorite clinics to go to. We even got a little snow which just seems to be tradition when we are out here.

01/30/2024

Tiny little glue-on shoes with pour-in for a tiny little customer.

09/29/2023

Here is a horse that arrived with a chronic quarter crack. We balanced the foot, cleaned and debrided the affected area, and applied an aluminum plate patch with a drain system so that it can still be treated. We also provided some pour in pads to load share and take some stress off of the injured area.

08/14/2023

This draft horse shoe was a collaborative effort made by Mike Workman, CJF, DipWCF and Biagio DeMaglie CF made from 20in of 1/2 x 1. Teamwork makes the dream work!

08/06/2023

We are on our way to Nicoragua for a mission trip and will be gone until the 13th. So if you are unable to get in contact with us, that is why. Feel free to contact the office. Thank you so much and we look forward to seeing everyone when we return.

02/13/2023

Made a fun shoe with 18 inches of steel. Haven’t made one of these in years. I don’t use these very often but they are a good challenge.

10/27/2022

Attention all farriers! Don’t forget this Friday is forge night at Denali Equine from 4pm to 8pm. We have a few core people that have been coming religiously, but it would be great to see some new faces. Hot weather is behind us and it is a great time to come out and improve your skills and have a blast doing it.

09/17/2022

Finally finished these up last night. This is a pair of whip across bar shoes I made for some family out west who took really good care of me while I was out there this summer.

09/10/2022

09/10/2022

Congratulations to our intern Biagio De Maglie! He has been with us now for 2 months and has already finished the certification exam with the AFA. This is not an easy exam and few farriers choose to take on the task. He is now the first Chilean certified farrier and we couldn’t be more proud. He has put in lots of hard work and practice. We see lots of bright things for his future. Now he will begin his journey practicing for the journeyman exam. We are so excited for him!

08/31/2022

Today we had a little hunter pony come in for some glue on shoes. We don’t Cary shoes this small so we just had some fun hand making them from aluminum bar stock.

08/26/2022

A 2yr old cutting horse was referred today for evaluation of a rapidly progressing club foot. The horses routine farrier quickly identified the foot was not going how he would like and requested it be seen through our podiatry service. History provided revealed the horse had a flexural limb deformity as a foal that improved with closely monitored trimming and medical management. He has recently undergone a growth spurt and their concerns about his front hoof conformation returned.

A lameness exam, farrier radiographs and podiatry exam revealed the horse had a RF grade 4 club foot, dorsal white line disease and remodeling of the distal tip of the coffin bone and and a Grade 2 LF foot. The horse was not currently lame.

The areas of the hoof affected by white line disease were resected to allow for easy treatment and oxygen exposure. Therapeutic handmade shoes were made: the severe club foot got a toe extension and the more normal foot had a masselotte toe clip applied.

The toe extension provides support to the dorsal hoof wall (which is under more pressure) while the mechanics of the shoe encourage stretching of the deep digital flexor tendon and encouragement of the heals to contact the ground. The masselotte clip protects the toe from being worn excessively by having a mass of steel forged into the toe.

Stay tuned for an update…

03/19/2022

We had another great night of forging in the pines! We came together and made some tools, worked on some fundamentals, learned some new techniques, and as always had some friendly competition with cadaver limbs at the end of the night. I think we all went home more motivated and more excited about our every day work than we were before.

03/10/2022

Here are some suspensory shoes we made for a horse today that came in with suspensory branch desmitis in both front limbs. With these shoes we use ground force reaction to recruit the deep digital flexor tendon and relieve the suspensory branches.

02/20/2022

Forging in the pines was a great time last night. Thank you everyone who came out and thank you Wayne Baesemann and kathryn Baesman for bringing all the pizza! Here are just a few photos from the night. The next one will be March 18th.

02/13/2022

We just arrived back home from Amarillo Texas at the WCB super clinic. We definitely got our shot in the arm of motivation, we learned a ton, saw old friends and met many new ones. Can’t wait to get to work tomorrow!

02/03/2022

Attention all farriers! We will be holding a once a month forging night here at Denali Equine beginning February 18th. This is an opportunity to get together with like minded individuals and work on shoe making, modifications, certifications, contests, and tool making. Make your vocation your vacation and your vacation your vocation, well have some fun and sharpen each other along the way. For any questions feel free to text Michael Workman CJF at 540-336-5747. Hope to see you there!

01/25/2022

We have made it here safely for the 2022 international Hoof Care Summit. Continuing education is a big part of our practice here. We have 4 days of jam packed lectures that undoubtedly will help us stay up to date on the latest research and ideas in the industry.

01/18/2022

Thank you World Champion Blacksmiths for this awesome prize box!

01/06/2022

Dissection day for the interns! Dr. Kate Workman did an amazing job going over anatomy and physiology and connecting all the dots while I went over different types of shoes and ground force reaction to aid in the healing process of certain injuries relating to the anatomy we were going over in the dissection.

08/03/2021

Yesterday we were presented with horse that suffered a quarter crack to the medial side of the left front foot. The quarter crack was infected so me debrided and cauterized the area. We then applied a drainage tube so that it could be injected with medication while still supported by a fiberglass bridge. We also made a bar shoe to fit the foot, floated the medial side, and provided some rolled mechanics to the lateral side of the shoe. We used equipack as a load sharing device to give the hoof wall some relief.
Denali Equine

03/17/2021

Warmblood Wednesday! Today I had the pleasure of making these hind bar shoes out of 17 1/4 inches of 3/8 x1