James Cahill

"It's all about soul...Yes, it is." The title and line from Billy Joel's 1993 hit refers to unmeasured essence of our being, and the same may be said also about another kind of sole, the hoof's sole, which is an often-overlooked, under-studied insensitive structure of the hoof that fails to get much attention until there is a problem. The failure to care for the sole's well-being, like its homophone cousin (soul), may have deeper implications and longer-lasting consequences for the soundness of the horse that it is attached to. The...