The Hoofcare Companion

The Hoofcare Companion is a technical show about keeping horses sound through careful farriery and hoof assessment. It is hosted by Mark Jerram. The structure is plain and instructional. Episodes usually begin by naming a hoof condition, balance problem, or performance context, then proceed through anatomy, likely causes, diagnostic signs, and management choices. There is little banter. The value is in the sequence. A listener hears how hoof capsule integrity, limb conformation, loading pattern, sole depth, frog health, and breakover can combine into a practical farriery problem. Recent episodes focus on interference injuries involving the hoof, hoofcare for the dressage horse, Cushing's disease, coronary band disorders, and mediolateral balance. The show treats those subjects as connected parts of soundness rather than isolated trivia. Radiography is presented as a way to see alignment, sole depth, distal phalanx position, joint spaces, and pathological change that may not be clear externally. Gait analysis appears as another tool for identifying subtle asymmetry in limb movement and loading. Dressage episodes place hoof balance in the context of refined movement, artificial surfaces, left-right symmetry, and competition demands. Disease-focused episodes move through endocrine dysfunction, brittle hoof wall, white line separation, growth rings, abscess risk, and laminitic instability. Coronary band coverage emphasizes germinal tissue, horn production, inflammation, trauma, infection, and long-term hoof wall defects. Balance episodes return to a central point: a hoof that looks level may still fail functionally if load is not distributed appropriately through the limb. The language is formal and sometimes exhaustive. That suits the material. The show assumes an audience prepared for technical terms and repeated assessment frameworks. It is most useful when heard as spoken professional notes: direct, clinical, and concerned with what should be observed before trimming or shoeing decisions are made. Its recurring emphasis is conservative and practical. Good hoof care is treated as anatomy plus evidence plus ongoing monitoring.