Horse owners may wonder if the air inside their barns poses any real risk—and if there’s anything that can be done after construction to make it better. The short answer: yes and yes.

Understanding the Bigger Picture - “The farrier crippled that horse.” Over the past few months, I have heard this from at least two people complaining on behalf of a friend whose horse had gone lame. The farrier was implicated in both cases, and I was asked to consult on one of them. I am going to talk about several issues we farriers deal with all the time, and why it is highly unlikely that the farrier was responsible for the lameness.

Take an inside look into the latest the scientific studies at the University of Saskatchewan's veterinary college, with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine's semi-annual newsletter: Horse Health Lines.

Is your horse at risk? Laminitis is damage and inflammation of the tissue between the hoof and the underlying coffin bone (distal phalanx, P3). This tissue, the laminae (also called lamellae), is actually folded layers of tissue contacting the surface of the bone on one side and the inside of the hoof wall on the other, connecting the two. Depending on how severely these attachments are weakened, the outcome can range from mild foot soreness to separation of the coffin bone and hoof (founder). The front hooves, which bear the majority of the horse’s weight, are most commonly affected, but it can also occur in the hind hooves.