Farrier service at UF's College of Veterinary Medicine is up and running

A farrier's work is very often behind the scenes.

Hoof care, including shoeing and other therapy to address problems with horses' feet, takes place with little fanfare, much less public awareness.

At the University of Florida Veterinary Medical Center's large animal hospital, however, farrier Adam Whitehead aims to change all that.

"I'm a fairly enthusiastic person with some big goals and big plans," said Whitehead, who took the reins as the hospital farrier in May, a year after Jim Ferguson retired from the job for health reasons.

Whitehead said he is excited about the opportunity his new job has afforded him to develop the business while simultaneously learning more about lameness care and treatment - the area he is most intrigued by.

A Plant City native, Whitehead completed farrier school in Tennessee and spent two years studying animal science at Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College in Tifton, Ga., where he eventually started his own business. He also served as an apprentice to a farrier in Ocala for a year before building his 10-year career as a farrier, mostly working the show horse circuit.

"Shoeing halter horses, hunter jumpers and three-day eventers really prepared me for what I'm doing now at UF," Whitehead said. "I always had a lot of interest in lameness, but it's so difficult outside of a clinical setting to do long-term lameness care."

"Here at UF, the conditions are suitable for me to do more. We have the technology and the knowledge of the veterinarians here and I'm able to build on that knowledge and focus on what I really enjoy doing."

Whitehead also said he enjoys working and exchanging information with veterinary students.

About 80 percent of the horses Whitehead sees at UF have some type of lameness-related or hoof problem.

"These cases are different than what I'd typically see out in the field, and I've seen more interesting cases in the time I've been here than in the nine or 10 years I was working previously," he said.

This is largely because of UF's technological capabilities and the collaborative relationship Whitehead said he has with large animal medicine and surgery service clinicians.

"Adam is a tremendous asset to the equine program here at UF," said Jason Errico, a large animal surgery resident. "He helps us complete our initial treatment plan when farrier work is required and offers continued services at the university for therapeutic shoeing and lameness management."

Errico called Whitehead "a very skilled farrier with great ideas and a team-oriented approach toward treating horses."

"Our clients have had nothing but great things to say about him and his work," Errico added.

Whitehead said the environment in which he's now working at UF is different in several respects from what he experienced earlier in his career.

"Most farrier operations involve a guy who works out of his truck or trailer traveling from farm to farm doing hoof care for people," Whitehead said. "Typically these farriers go to the customer instead of the customer coming to them. Here, it's more challenging because the customers, or clients, are coming to us but we still can offer more expertise, no matter how nice a set-up someone has in the back of their truck."

For example, Whitehead said, the ability UF offers to view digital radiographs on a computer is extremely valuable. This enables the farrier to obtain extremely accurate measurements when tackling a lameness problem.

"We can go from computer to foot and transfer those measurements to know exactly where the bone is," Whitehead said. "You need to have that technology, and our digital images clearly surpass what anyone else without that capability is going to be able to do as far as diagnosing lameness."

Whitehead is anxious to garner support for expanding the farrier program to include a mobile service similar to the college's Mobile Equine Diagnostic Service. Meanwhile, as word of his services carries, Whitehead hopes to attract more business to make expansion possible and to fulfill his ultimate goal - the creation of a UFVMC Equine Podiatry Center.

"This would be a program that would offer an innovative approach to equine lameness and hoof care," Whitehead said. "Once we build a large client base and a reputation for state-of-the-art care, the Equine Podiatry Center will become a service synonymous with long-term care of laminitus and equine lameness."

Anyone seeking more information about the UFVMC's farrier service should call Whitehead at (352) 392-4700, ext. 4171 or e-mail whiteheada@mail.vetmed.ufl.edu.