I received a bachelor of science in biology from the University of Arizona in 1992 with an emphasis on functional vertebrate morphology and a Doctorate in veterinary medicine from Colorado State University in 1996. Prior to completing these studies, I worked as an apprentice for a journeymen farrier and over the course of several years began to practice as a professional farrier myself. As a senior veterinary student and one of four farriers in my class I was surprised at how frequently experienced clinicians would defer to our judgment on equine podiatry cases. I can not vouch for the other three more experienced and competent farriers in my class, but I usually had more questions than answers. This vacuum of practical information seemed even more evident as I dealt with veterinarians in the context of my own farrier practice. To further muddy the waters, many well recognized techniques in therapeutic shoeing met with poor long term results in my hands. These failed corrective experiences were in stark contrast with how sound my strings of hard working mountain horses would remain in all but the most simple shoes. While the answers to this discrepancy are clear now, they would remain shrouded in the fog of dogma for the first four or five years of my veterinary career.

I joined my father Mike Hufnagel’s (CSU 1970) equine practice immediately following graduation. I naively expected my results in the area of equine podiatry to be above average owing to my experience as a farrier. Tables turned, I found my recommendations to farriers equally vacuous in the practical and even more discouraging was my inability to resolve foot pain much beyond the blocks that diagnosed it. Of the great many pieces of clinical wisdom that my father has passed down to me, perhaps none has been more beneficial to me as a podiatrist than his insistence on meeting with farriers and staying on until the horse has been completely shod. In the last decade I have worked with upwards of one hundred farriers in this manner and can honestly say I have learned something from each one of them. However, I was still not bringing much to the party but a stack of x-rays, a textbook diagnosis and per haps the “shoe du jour.”

In early 2001 we began to incorporate eponatech’s metron software into practice. This was cumbersome and time consuming early on but allowed us to start looking at podiatry cases in very objective terms. Having analyzed nearly 2000 radiographs in this manner some things have become clear about horses with foot based lameness. More importantly, we finally had a tool by which to make precise and scientific adjustments to horses hooves. I finally began to see why some things worked and some did not. Concurrently, the global research community began making great strides in its understanding of hoof balance and function, largely do to advances in force sensor technology and imaging capabilities. Unfortunately, at the same time there began a whirlwind of noise and mixed messages available for horse owners and young farriers to sort through. The results of which have not always been good for our horses. The purpose of this web site is to provide my clients, prospective clients and their farriers with the information needed to make sense of what I am suggesting we do to their horses hooves.