06/27/2025
🧬🐴 Understanding Lameness: It’s Not Always Your Farrier’s Fault 🐴🧬
If your horse is coming up lame, it’s easy to point fingers at the person working on their hooves. But did you know that genetics, age, disease, and injuries are some of the most common causes of equine lameness?
➡️ Horses, like people, are influenced by their genetic makeup. Certain conformational traits passed down from parents can lead to long-term stress on joints and hooves.
➡️ As horses age, wear and tear on their joints and soft tissues becomes more pronounced, increasing the risk of lameness.
➡️ Diseases like laminitis, navicular syndrome, and arthritis can cause ongoing pain and soundness issues—no trim or shoe job can “fix” these problems overnight.
➡️ Past injuries—even ones that seemed minor—can resurface over time, especially with changes in workload or terrain.
🎯 A skilled farrier’s job is to support and manage these conditions, not magically cure them. Proper trimming and shoeing can make a world of difference, but they work best when paired with realistic expectations and a full veterinary diagnosis.
👨⚕️👢 The best results come from teamwork: Farrier, vet, and owner all working together with the horse’s best interest in mind.
✅ Stop the blame game—let’s focus on solutions.
Forge Fate Farrier Service
Jeff Mangone Apf-l