When evaluating horseshoeing, many people don’t look at the hoof correctly, according to Hans Castelijns, DVM and farrier based in Italy. “There are the sagittal, frontal, and horizontal planes (illustration included in this story),” he said in his presentation “Shoeing in the Frontal and Horizontal Planes” at the 16th annual Bluegrass Laminitis Symposium in Louisville, Ky. “You can have conformational problems in all planes.

One of his first bits of advice was to be careful about drawing conclusions regarding how a domestic horse’s hooves should be shaped based on information from wild horses. “Feral horses are not wild, just horses that escaped from humans that were once bred for a purpose, and conformation has much to do with breeds,” he explained. “And you can’t run a 1:48 mile with a feral horse. They are adapted for survival in the wild, not athletic pursuits