Stepping Into A Second Chance: Texas A&M Farrier Service Rehabilitates Horses

A farrier manages a horse’s hooves, which are fundamental to its overall health and mobility. Because horses are large animals that rely on relatively small feet to support their weight and movement, proper hoof care is essential. As horses interact with their environment, their hooves are constantly changing, making routine maintenance critical to their well-being.

While routine hoof care keeps horses light on their feet, more severe conditions require the collaboration of a veterinarian, a farrier, and a supportive community dedicated to their recovery.

For Rooster and Raven — beloved residents of Honest Reins Equine Rescue — that collaboration became essential when their hoof conditions extended beyond routine care. Veterinarians at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) worked alongside Large Animal Teaching Hospital (LATH) farrier Jason Wilson-Maki, who brings 30 years of farrier experience, including 18 years at Texas A&M, to develop specialized treatment plans that helped both horses get back on their feet.

A Philanthropic Mission

Before arriving at Texas A&M, Rooster’s and Raven’s lives were filled with uncertainty. Both horses came through auction houses, where their futures depended on who was willing to take a chance on them. 

That chance came through Honest Reins Equine Rescue, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that was launched this past January by Texas A&M veterinary technician Jaci Christensen.

“Our focus is on horses in the auction pipeline,” Christensen said. “Of course, there are horses that have needs everywhere, but the auction horses spoke to us because we try to identify horses that are at risk of ending up in the wrong hands.”

As horses move through auctions, Christensen said, they often lose weight, pick up infectious disease, or develop behavioral concerns.

“Our goal is to know every nook and cranny of that horse — from behavior to health — in order to place him or her in the best lifelong home,” she said.

Being located in the Brazos Valley grants the rescue its greatest resource: the LATH.

“Anytime we bring a horse here, I leave with the confidence that they’re in the best hands,” Christensen said.

Rescue And Rehabilitation

That trust was demonstrated through two very different cases: Rooster, a 12-year-old gelding, and Raven, a 10-year-old dark bay mare.

Originally identified only by a tag number, the rescue kept the name Rooster arrived with, but he quickly earned a reputation for his personality.

“He is just a big dork,” Christensen said. “Once you start scratching, he’ll follow you around the pasture begging for more scratches. There’s not a mean bone in his body.”

When Christensen first saw him at the auction, he stood out immediately.

“He was in the back, but there was just something about him,” Christensen said. “He was one of the only horses in that pen that walked up and wanted attention and human interaction.”

Raven was much more reserved.

“She had this really gentle, soft, willing personality,” Christensen said.

Raven’s disposition may have been affected by her health — after leaving the auction, Raven was brought directly to the LATH, showing signs of asthma, influenza, and respiratory complications.

“I couldn’t tell you how many hands she passed through before she got to us,” Christensen said. “She had every reason to not trust humans, yet she was just so forgiving and somehow knew we were trying to help her.” 

Stumbling Upon A Diagnosis

Despite the relief of leaving the auction house, Rooster and Raven’s roads to recovery were far from over.  Both horses required specialized farrier care through LATH’s Equine Sports Medicine & Imaging (ESMI).

In equine medicine, veterinarians and farriers work together to diagnose and treat hoof conditions. Veterinarians evaluate internal structures through imaging such as X-rays, while farriers implement therapeutic shoeing plans to support healing.

Texas A&M is one of the few veterinary schools to employ a full-time farrier, making collaboration between the Equine Sports Medicine and Imaging (ESMI) Service and the farrier service an integral part of patient care.

When Rooster presented with significant damage to the front of his left hoof wall, the ESMI team performed a thorough examination. They found no bone rotation but did identify an unstable hoof capsule in the toe — a critical finding that meant the injury could be managed without more invasive intervention.

Working alongside the ESMI team, Wilson-Maki was able to use Rooster’s X-rays to understand the extent of the damage and create a proper plan of action to treat the injured hoof.

“I cleaned the resected (damaged) area of the foot to make sure we had clean attachment on everything,” Wilson-Maki said. “There wasn’t any sign of rotation and the alignment was pretty good.”

In order to stabilize Rooster’s hoof wall, Wilson-Maki crafted a horseshoe that would support his damaged hoof while giving it proper time to heal.

“We used a shoe that had quarter clips, so the clips came up over the quarters to prevent where the gap in his hoof wall was; this kept the foot from splaying apart,” Wilson-Maki said.  “I then rockered the shoe so that it held that space in, and he was essentially fine.”

Rooster’s progress has been steady with continued farrier care and hoof support, according to Christensen.

“Per Jason’s recommendations, we put him on a hoof supplement to help with hoof growth and followed up with consistent shoeing. The hoof wall is starting to almost normalize now, and he looks much better than he did when he first came into our care.”

With his lameness resolved, Rooster now awaits for his next adventure: an adoption into a forever home.

A Lifelong Malady

Raven’s condition proved more complex.

“When we started noticing lameness, I brought her in immediately,” Christensen said.

Veterinarians and Wilson-Maki determined Raven had navicular disease, a degenerative condition affecting the navicular bone (a small, flat bone located deep within the back of a horse’s hoof) and surrounding structures in the hoof. Wilson-Maki described the structures surrounding the bone as an important part of the horse’s ability to regulate weight distribution.

“As the bone starts to degrade, structural changes can increase the horse’s pain level; to compensate, horses often favor landing toe first, which can create a flatter foot,” Wilson-Maki said. “The flatter the foot, the more stress is placed on the tendon and on that navicular bone further worsening the discomfort.”

The diagnosis was dire, as navicular disease — when not treated consistently — can turn into a situation where neither owners nor veterinarians can control their quality of life any longer, and the horse may need to be euthanized.

“What we want to do is mechanically alter the way that the coffin joint functions,” Wilson-Maki said. “If you increase the elevation of the foot, it alters the mechanics of how a horse bears weight, which then takes strain off of the deep digital flexor tendon and takes a lot of strain off of that navicular bone that is damaged. With my experience on horses with that significant bone change, it’s not going to be something that you’re going to heal; it’s going to be something that will require farrier management.” 

For Raven, that meant corrective wedging to elevate the heel and shift weight-bearing pressure. She also received steroid injections to reduce inflammation.

“It’s the difference between walking in skis versus running shoes,” Wilson-Maki said.

There is no cure to navicular disease, meaning Raven will always need farrier work to keep her comfortable.

Fortunately, over time, Raven began to bond with Christensen’s daughter, further cementing her place in the family.

“You’re putting a lot of faith into anybody who adopts her,” Christensen said. “We are just not willing to risk her. She’s been through enough, so we have decided to make her a permanent member of Honest Reins; she’s our forever mare.”

A Team Effort

For Wilson-Maki, success depends on collaboration between veterinarians, farriers, and owners willing to stay involved. 

“I work in an environment that’s high stress for the horses, but Rooster and Raven were just phenomenal to work on; they let you do everything that you needed to do,” Wilson-Maki said. “And most importantly, their owner is hugely dedicated to them, and that really is vital. You can’t do any of this without them.”

For Christensen, Texas A&M’s collaborative, integrated approach made all the difference, which is why Rooster and Raven represent more than successful cases — they represent the importance of early intervention and teamwork in equine care.

“The Sports Medicine and farrier services work cohesively together; that’s something you don’t find anywhere else,” Christensen said. “The fact that I can come here to understand exactly what’s happening and hopefully have a solution to make that animal more comfortable means way more to me than just throwing shoes on a horse, and hoping it fixes it.

“Being a present and responsible owner is about being willing to work with your veterinarian early to diagnose problems and address them as soon as you can and then working with a really good farrier who can manage conditions,” she said. “It just so happens that here at A&M, it’s a package deal.”