It seems like only yesterday your horse soared over that 4-foot oxer, slid to that perfect stop in a reining pattern, or ambled smoothly down that shady trail. Now, watching him limp three-legged down the barn aisle, you wonder, "How could this have happened so fast? How could I have not seen this coming?"

Most hoof problems don’t magically occur overnight. They usually result from a combination of factors weighing on the foot. Recently, Ric Redden, DVM, founder of the International Equine Podiatry Center near Versailles, Ky., spoke with The Horse about several common and sometimes debilitating hoof problems that can materialize with little or no warning, such as laminitis, white line disease, and hoof abscesses.

Laminitis

Barbaro brought laminitis back into the public eye when he developed the disorder after five weeks of treatment for his shattered right hind leg. On July 13, he was diagnosed with unilateral laminitis in his left hind hoof, resulting from overloading his good limb to alleviate the pressure on his fractured one. While non-horse people might not fully understand the serious nature of this disorder, it’s important that horse owners do