Inevitable necessity of professional cooperation of veterinarian-farrier in equine medicine and/or industry

Principled limb and hoof care are the most indispensible issues in equine industry. Nowadays, the role of farriery and hoof trimming in hoof care and lameness treatment are being considered more and more. Veterinarian and farriers believe that ideal farriery is effective in prevention and/or treatment of horse lameness, which results in saving the diagnostic therapeutic expenses while retaining the athletic performance. Dorsal surface of the pastern and dorsal hoof wall (hoof-pastern axis), should be parallel and their changes might result in lameness. Torsional deformity is a consequence of broken hoof-pastern axis associated with chronic arthritis of distal interphalangeal joint. Veterinarians and farriers are able to treat it by modifying the model of shoeing. Navicular bone position makes it much more exposed to the variety of pressures and biomechanical movements. Egg-bar shoe is one of the most popular shoes in Navicular bone diseases. A sheared heel refers to a hoof capsule distortion resulting from displacement of one heel bulb proximally relative to the adjacent heel bulb. Inappropriate lateral medial orientation (imbalance) of the foot landing surface is another common limb problem. The best choice in horses with bruised heel, laminar tearing, sheared and painful heel is heart bar shoe. Equine Digit Support System (EDSS) is an another natural balanced shoe. In this review, relying on importance of integral relationship between veterinarian and farrier, different types of therapeutic shoes that are used in equine limb lesions and diseases, will be introduced and discussed.