James Gilchrist, Certified Farrier, of the Palm Beach Farriery Service in Florida, offered several strategies he finds useful for his high-performance clients during the "Putting Science into Farriery" session at the 2008 Convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. "Not a day goes by that I don’t talk to a veterinarian about a half-dozen of these horses," he said. "A team approach is very important to the health of these horses."

He noted that evaluating what trimming/shoeing these horses need requires a combination of gait evaluation; hoof tester examination; discussion of the horse’s history with the owner, trainer, and veterinarian; and evaluation of the wear patterns of the old shoes. Proper trimming is key, he said: "It doesn’t matter how good the shoe is if the foot isn’t trimmed right."

Once the trim is right, the farrier must select right shoe. Gilchrist likes a perimeter-fit shoe (i.e., not one that is squared and doesn’t go out to the edge of the wall) with toe clips, a wide web, and a rolled toe for most horses, and he finds that grinding down square shoe edges all the way around helps promote easier breakover in all directions. Half-round shoes are also useful for this; he noted that they might absorb some shock as the shoe settles into soft ground, which is good for sore-footed horses