11/14/2025
So the subject is the shortened shoeing interval (or a shorter shoeing interval).
Often we (farriers/vets) recommend shortening the time in between appointments purportedly to prevent the detrimental influence of excessive length thereby expediting progress towards a goal. The goal may vary depending on the hoof problem that exists. but universally the goal is typically to encourage a healthier hoof that better serves the horse. That's the sales pitch. Sometimes it is really about satiating an owner's concerns. You see, if you re-shoe it or re-trim it before it gets "ugly" then you don't have to hear about it being "ugly". If your client frets about the way the hoof looks when it is due to be shod, just shoe it before it is due to be shod. Shuts em up. Like a tax on being annoying I guess. But does it really expedite progress? How beneficial is it to the horse? That's the question right? I mean granted it does rest on a logical foundation (whether or not that logic is behind our situational suggestion). Ethically we can rest our head on the mantra of "keep it right so you don't have to get it back right",,, that's solid. Shorter intervals are also widely endorsed within the industry. So there is a bit of "monkey see monkey do" involved. But no doubt serious owners who have serious money invested in their horses don't want to wait until their hooves look like they need it, they want to prophylactically shoe them just before they start to look like they need it. They see no downside to this, and I've always been on board with it because I understand the assignment, I get the mindset. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
But another side of my brain recognizes that shoeing hooves before growth warrants it can be problematic. The walls of slow growing hooves sooner or later become riddled with nail holes and finding solid wall to drive a nail safely into can begin to be a challenge. We can end up painting ourselves into a corner. If I have my druthers I always prefer a hoof that has plenty of growth to work with, this limits my exposure to risk and it is like a blank canvas. So in my life, the longer the owner is content the better. I can't see it from my house, so if you're happy I'm happy. I drive too many nails into delicate and risky hooves, so a horse with hoof mass from my perspective is sexier than socks on a rooster.
Another consideration from a business standpoint worth mentioning is that committing to service your clients on a shorter schedule means you'll have fewer dates available to help other clients. That's math. So do you want to do fewer overall horses more often or more overall horses less often? I like to do horses that inarguably need doing. I prefer progress to maintenance. I have no sense of fulfillment from just shoeing a horse for the sake of shoeing a horse and punching a time card. There needs to be a dragon to slay, a problem to solve, a puzzle to work out. Like the philosopher Kenny Powers said, "I play real sports. Not trying to be the best at exercising."
But here's something we can all agree on, to improve a hoof we have to have growth. Without growth what we have is what remains. We've all had hooves that seem to make progress very slowly or seemingly no progress at all. We may be trying to grow out a crack or get a healthier stronger hoof wall to nail into. But we have a stagnant hoof. Why? Most of these stagnant hooves are lacking sole depth. I cannot explain how the perfusion of the sole corium and the perfusion of the coronary corium may be co-dependent, perhaps they are not, but I can tell you that in a foundered horse, to achieve positive growth at the top of the hoof (speaking of the hoof wall) you have to resuscitate growth at the bottom (speaking of the sole). The thin soled stagnant hoof is no different.
I may not be the best at much but I am observant. If I was picking a super power I'd rather be it be invisibility or time travel, but I got the knack for being observant. One thing I observed long ago was how stagnant hooves would often hit a growth spurt when an owner had an emergency. Let's say I had a hoof crack growing out very slowly and I was shoeing or trimming it (doesn't matter which) every 4 or 5 weeks, maybe every 6 weeks, and just making very slow progress. At each visit, there would be little to trim off the bottom of the hoof. But then, life happens, the owner gets sick or loses their job, or gets injured, gets lost at sea, just fill in the blank with an excuse, but for some reason the horse goes 12 weeks instead of 5 or 6. I'd show up and find the hoof grew more in 12 weeks than it had previously grown in the previous 24 weeks under my care. Why? How was the best thing for it leaving it the F alone? .....Well, a turkey never gets done if you keep opening up the oven door to check on it. By removing the little bit of growth the stagnant hoof achieves every 4,5, or 6 weeks we are keeping the hoof in a state of deficit. Growth really begins in many of these hooves around week 6, but we keep resetting them back to week 1.
The key to understanding this phenomenon is to understand blood flow and compression. Blood feeds growth and compression shuts down that blood supply. An average horse needs roughly 15mm of sole depth to allow for optimal perfusion, yet some of these flat soled struggling hooves may have 7mm of sole and our du*****es are subtracting hoof from them with a trim. This compression occurs specifically under the coffin bone with the weight of the horse pushing down and the tension of the deep flexor pulling the coffin bone into the vascular bed. The external force (ground, pad, whatever) acts as the other slice of bread in this sandwich. The vascular corium and solar papillae in a healthy hoof can occupy 10mm of tissue space distal to P3 but when you only have something like 7mm of total sole depth those papillae are crushed and the entire hematic architecture is in a state of ruin.
It can sound complex, but the gist is that the more sole depth, the less compression, the less compression, the more blood flow, and the more blood flow the more sole growth, the more sole growth the more hoof growth, the more hoof growth the more hoof mass, the more hoof mass the more comfort and soundness. And to jump start all this we have to let the turkey cook. We have to prioritize vertical sole depth. We gotta allow for it, appreciate it, and prioritize it, to break the cycle of soreness. Our obsession with short hooves perpetuates the visual expectation that the farrier feels obligated to appease. The result is the number one cause of lameness we see day in and day out. It's called lackuvfootitis. Hooves that have been suffering from a deficit for many years may have some irreparable damage and be very slow to initialize an appreciable change. We do have applications that are mechanically designed to enhance perfusion. These applications are largely technique sensitive, meaning their value is not derived from the appliance so much as it is the applicator. And the "applicator" has to be selective with the allocation of their finite time and energy. Far more horses would benefit from these applications than we have time to devote to them. It is a supply and demand issue and it is an educational issue. Sole depth just isn't a top priority on the horse owner's radar, short toes are. Sole depth becomes a priority only when their horse can't perform. And then it is only a priority if you can manage to articulate the problem to them in a way that the owner can digest. Some don't get beyond the deer in the headlight look. We are after all essentially telling them everything they thought they knew about a horse's hoof is wrong. That is a tough pill to swallow. If they are the right owner, with the right horse, the mechanical applications we may utilize can be very worthwhile. But that is another conversation. The lesson today is more basic, more pragmatic, and that is that sometimes we just have to get out of our own way. Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.
