Yet, for many farriers, this is what they wanted to hear. That there is a fix, and that there might be hope. Instead, the farriers saw a few case studies, particularly in presentations by David Farley, Bruce Daniels, and Myron McLane, that outlined new ideas to try, or new ways to look at quarter cracks, but all stressed that preventing the evil wall fractures was one of the most important parts of a horseshoer's responsibility to a horse. Quarter cracks are literally stress fractures in the hoof wall that break through just behind the quarter, or widest part of the foot. All quarter cracks wreak havoc with a horse's career and long-term athletic potential.
All quarter cracks are a farrier's nightmare.
Farriers off the racetrack, working on thicker walled, heavier horses, are frustrated by trying to apply techniques designed for and used by racetrack patch experts. Short-term sewing, screwing, lacing, bonding, patching, and entombing a split in the paper thin hoof wall of a Thoroughbred, racing Quarter Horse, or Standardbred have become specialties of nomadic patch gurus across the United States. Little research has been done into how a quarter crack changes the weight-bearing aspects of a foot. For instance, farriers were formerly taught that they are reuniting the foot by patching the crack, and that their goal is to close up the crack. Speakers at the AFA convention countered that belief vehemently and in unison.