Latest on YouTube: Therapeutic vs. Routine Shoeing
In Noble Farriery’s latest educational video on YouTube, Principal Farrier Seth Noble expounds on the differing perceptions of therapeutic shoeing and routine shoeing. The latter is often seen as “boring,” while the former is dramatic… but the “Boring” part might be the most important work that we do.
Everyone loves a good “before-and-after” story—taking a lame horse, working some farrier magic, and seeing them move sound again. That’s the drama of therapeutic shoeing. It’s visible, it’s satisfying, and it gets attention for a reason, but 90 percent of what makes therapeutic shoeing work are the principles that inform everyday shoeing done right.
Therapeutic shoeing is for the horse that’s already hurting—where a structure has broken down, a balance has gone way off, and decisive, sometimes aggressive changes are needed to restore comfort and function.
Routine shoeing, on the other hand, is preventative medicine for the hoof. It’s subtle. It’s about catching small imbalances before they cause pain. It’s making micro-adjustments to keep a horse balanced under the rider’s weight, stride after stride, month after month. And when it’s done right, the horse never has to become a therapeutic case in the first place.
In the Noble Farriery Trim Methodology, we make subtle, incremental corrections over time to prevent injury and discomfort for the horses. Cycle after cycle, the goals remain the same: Maintain hoof soundness and balance across the feet and legs, optimize performance, and shoe accordingly to handle the demands of both the horse’s natural movement and the added load of a rider.
That’s what can make routine shoeing seem boring, because the goal is to maintain equilibrium and soundness. It is yet another reason why building relationships with horses is so critical. Because even if the situation often feels the same from horse to horse, each one has their own history, their own growth patterns, and their own emotions that we want to respect by giving them the best care we can.
Even with top-notch everyday shoeing, injuries and illness can happen. In such cases, interventions are more assertive, targeting specific broken structures or severe imbalances. The goal is to work with the rest of the equine care team (especially vets) to reduce pain, restore functional balance, and support healing.
Between routine shoeing and therapeutic shoeing, one can’t really say that one is more important than the other. They’re both built on the same principles: read the hoof, know the biomechanics, and keep the whole horse in mind.
But if you ask us? The quiet work of routine shoeing might be the bigger challenge, because it takes just as much skill to keep a horse inside the lines of balance as it does to bring them back once they’ve crossed them.
Good shoeing—routine or therapeutic—always comes down to the same goal: a sound, happy, balanced horse.
Watch the full video below