Rusty's Equine Hoof Repair: "No Hoof... No Horse"

There are few true "specialists" in today's equine industry, if you define the term as someone who devotes himself to a particular branch of study or research. Generally most equine experts obtain their horse sense by learning a little bit of information about a variety of horse related topics.

Conversely, using that same definition, I consider myself to be a true hoof repair specialist. While my knowledge of many aspects of a horse is vast, I have focused the last twenty-two years of my life solely upon the research and repair of damaged horse hooves. It is my forte.

To be perfectly clear, I am not a practicing farrier. I'm a hoof repair specialist who has developed and perfected my own methods of treating the many and varied debilitating injuries that can occur in horse's hooves. This is not just a claim, but rather the statement of a professional with a client list of owners across the United States whose horses I have treated with more than satisfactory results.

Permit me to provide a little background: It was while hanging around the barns with a friend who trained horses that I quickly gained an appreciation for the old adage, "no hoof, no horse." My friend had a horse with cracked hooves. Young and curious, I went off in search of wonder putty to patch the hoof back together. Today, 22 years later, my talents are in demand by horse people working with horses of various breeds and performance levels -- Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds which race, horses trained for dressage and other competitions, and horses owned strictly for riding pleasure.

My experience with horses was minimal at the time I saw the first cracked hoof. I was working as an apprentice machinist at the time, and my natural inclination to solve mechanical problems was quickly transferred to the hoof of the horse. I barn-stormed the country, contacting almost every adhesive manufacturer to learn about epoxies, urethanes, fiberglass and acrylics used in hoof repair. I also hunted down hoof repair experts to see if they would share any knowledge. When it became apparent to me that virtually all of the hoof repair specialists I met had their own challenges on their individual techniques, I decided to research and develop my own application technique.

So off I went in search of horses with cracked hooves to try to master the art of hoof repair. I'm a native of the Buffalo, New York area, and fortunately, many trainers gave me the opportunity to work on their injured horses, because the last resort back then was time off.

After applying patches and realizing mixed results, I began studying the anatomy of the hoof. I learned that to repair the hoof, it is necessary to understand hoof anatomy and the dynamics of the hoof, along with their gate, not just to know which adhesive to use to patch the hoof together. Now my evaluations are not just about what I need to reconstruct, but what type of injury we are evaluating, the cause and extent of the damage, and what part concussion will play at the injured site.

Statistically, one of the most significant challenges for owners and trainers of horses is the amount of time lost due to lameness in the hoof. And unfortunately as we all know, lost time translates into lost money or enjoyment. While the conscientious farrier can tackle the typical day to day hoof problems that arise, there are always those special cases that require the knowledge and advice of a specialist experienced in the science of hoof repair.

As a hoof repair specialist I work with your veterinarian in diagnosing the cause of the horse's lameness. I then treat the hoof accordingly using the newest, safest and most effective technology, which I have researched and developed over the last twenty-two years.

I then incorporate the efforts of the resident farrier, trainer, owner and caretaker/groom to work together as a team in aiding the healing process and ultimately restoring the health of the hoof. Each horse's recovery time varies but almost all treatments are successful.

As the work of a farrier is a craft within itself, so too is the art of hoof repair. Over the span of my career I have developed a vast database of knowledge on injured hoof treatment and repair. My work has taken me across the country as well as to foreign lands. My experience includes horses of all breeds and types not to mention every hoof challenge imaginable. If your horse has a hoof problem, I know how to treat it or have the knowledge base and experience to develop a solution.

Some of my recent clients are:

Ross Croghan - Won the 1999 Meadowlands Trainers Title
Craig Stein - Ohio trainer "Black Jack Sulky" Innovator
Randy Bendis - Pennsylvania trainer
Susie Schoellkopf's - SBS Farm
Arabian Farm Strawberry Banks

Thus the old saying, "No hoof, no horse." If lameness in your horse's hoof is the problem, then allow me to restore the hoof so you can reclaim and place your horse back into the excitement.