06/18/2025
I was listening to a hoof podcast recently. Pete Ramey was talking about some of the boundaries he sets with his clients. He said -- to paraphrase -- if the client won't address the diet and management then he is not going to waste his time or their money because there are cheaper farriers they can fail with. I've been thinking about that a lot this week.
By and large, my clients are awesome. I am grateful for every one of them and I love getting to know them and their horses. Over the years, I have become more willing to walk away when a client is not ready to hear whatever it is. Situations are complex. I believe people do their best most of the time. I'm not always right, which is why I am a huge advocate for getting the vet involved when needed, and also for working as a team with the vet.
Addressing nutrition is tough, especially when clients have been given incorrect information. It's also really hard when horses are sugar sensitive or lacking in essential nutrition and owners don't want to implement the changes required for the horse's welfare.
Clients can get really stuck on horses needing grass, when unfortunately grass can be very harmful to horses with metabolic issues. Sometimes all it takes is the grass the horse can reach through the paddock fence, if the metabolic issue is serious enough. Hand grazing can also be enough to push a horse over the edge if they are already at the edge. What I usually say to clients who tell me that it's no life for the horse without grass is this: if the horse has a metabolic issue and you give them grass, you need to be ready to go through many months of potentially painful laminitis rehab or you need to prepare yourself to put them down if they founder. As horse owners, we all need to weigh these options and consider each horse's situation. The answer may be different for different animals. Laminitis is not necessarily a death sentence. In fact it is often possible to achieve a complete recovery from laminitis! But the horse owner has to be willing to implement the changes required. Of course it is ideal to make these changes before the horse founders, but it's an imperfect world.
Sugar sensitive horses require a diet that is low in starches and sugars. This means tested hay, careful selection of supplements, care taken around treats and extra feeds, etc. Generally it also means no grass or very restricted grass. Honestly, in my opinion, given all of the horses I have seen and worked on who have laminitis, grass is not worth the risk for a sugar sensitive horse. There are lots of ways to enrich their lives that do not involve playing Russian roulette with pasture induced laminitis.
The tougher cases for me are the ones where the horse suffers with low-grade laminitis but does not necessarily rotate or end up in severe pain. I struggle to call this sub clinical laminitis because there are symptoms! In these cases, it can be even tougher to get clients on board with making management changes, because the issue is chronic and less severe than acute laminitis with rotation so it is easier to sweep under the rug for the horse owner. Horses with this sort of low grade laminitis tend to have more subtle signs, such as:
- persistent flaring / capsular rotation
- poor hoof quality
- low grade foot soreness that tends to worsen after trims/shoeing
- thin soles
- Persistently underrun heels on most or all feet that will not correct with added heel and/or sole support
- Heels that don't seem to grow (because the horse is weighting the heel too much because they are avoiding the painful toes)
- cracks and/or seedy toe and white line disease (though these also happen independently of laminitis)
- exaggerated heel first landings, not the healthy type
- Most or all of these issues will often worsen in the summer months when the horse is on grass (or in the case of Cushings/PPID in late summer / early fall)
- slow hoof growth of poor quality, especially in Cushings horses who are not treated with Prascend/Pergolide. No you cannot treat Cushings with diet alone.
Not every nutritional issue is related to sugars. I also see horses suffering with a lack of sufficient protein, outright lack of calories can also be an issue in some cases, zinc and copper deficiencies, selenium deficiency in this area is also significant. It is not sufficient to just feed hay. Most horses do require mineral and vitamin supplementation in order to meet their basic needs. Horses that are lacking in these vitamins and minerals tend to have poor hoof quality, slow growth, I have seen peeling walls, cracking, feet that lack structural integrity without a huge amount of support, feet that wear excessively. I have told more than one client that they can either pay for a quality supplement or they can pay me for all of the extra support I will have to add to their shoe packages to keep their horses feet from collapsing. Even with that extra support these cases tend to be a losing battle until clients get on board with nutrition and management.
Again, I am reminded of what Pete Ramey said in that podcast: there are cheaper farriers you can fail with. I have a limited amount of time and although making money matters to me because that's how life works, there are much easier ways to make money. I do this job because I want to solve puzzles and help horses, so if the owner is not on board, I won't fight it. I used to, but I won't do it anymore, because it is a waste of energy that can be better spent elsewhere. I would prefer to spend my time solving puzzles where all of the pieces are available to me because that is the way I can help the most horses and solve the most puzzles ⭐️
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The usual commenting policy applies on this article. Honest questions and curious, open commentary are always welcome. You don't have to agree with me to have a safe place here to share your thoughts. You do, however, have to share them respectfully if you would like to continue to be welcome here. Snark of any description will not be tolerated and will result in an immediate delete and ban. Thank you 😊
I will also add that comments that promote harmful and incorrect information about laminitis will be deleted. There is a lot of misinformation going around right now and I don't want to turn this post into a platform for that misinformation because that misinformation is harming horses and I do not want that on my conscience. I have already deleted some of those comments and I will continue to do so. The fact that laminitis can be and most often is caused by metabolic disfunction is not up for debate here. There is a fine line between encouraging open discussion and letting my page turn into a circus.
Thanks 😊
