Warning. Long.
JC name Dramatic Touch (although on her TB mare days, I liked to call her Melodramatic Touch). Barn name Dusty. Bay mare, 15.3 h, raced at 3 and one start at 4. Very finely built, like a deer. Vet said she had the classic conformation of a 6-furlong horse.
(Just tried to post link of pedigree, but was unsuccessful. Could somebody who knows how to do that help me, please? Sire is TV Commercial; dam is Greek Drama. She shows up on equineline but not on pedigreequery).
Anyway, at 5, she became extremely subtly NQR. Had local vet out more than once. He could find nothing wrong, but I could feel there was something different. She was a dressage horse, and I didn’t feel comfortable pushing her when I knew she wasn’t herself.
Thanks to the military, I lived during this epoch in Bucks County, PA, about an hour from New Bolton. Took her down to see the best vet in the whole, wide world, Dr. Bill Moyer, who at the time was the head of the large animal clinic at New Bolton. (Before Texas A&M stole him. 
)
I tried to explain what I was feeling and that the local vet couldn’t see it, while he walked around looking at her conformation. He then flipped up her lip and saw her tattoo.
He said, “She’s a Bold Ruler horse, isn’t she?” “Yes.” “I already know what’s wrong with her, but lets do the whole exam, let me watch you ride her, then I’ll tell you what’s wrong and how to manage it.”
The problem was that she had the flat feet that apparently is quite common in the Bold Ruler line. Dr. Moyer and my farrier talked, and Dr. Moyer explained in detail how to make very special shoes that were ground out on half of the inside to artificially create the concavity of a normal, not-flat hoof. ETA - Best farrier, John Kirsch. RIP John).
Dr. Moyer said something that we’ve probably all learned the hard way. TBs are bred with speed in mind, for the short haul, with no concern in keeping a horse sound past 5. So, stallions that produce results on the track get the mares, and we get horses with various soundness issues.
The shoes worked great, and she wore that type of shoe for the rest of her life. She was laid up for a year with a hock injury, but before I lost her in a pasture accident at 13, she was solid 3rd with very good clinicians telling me she should be able to go PSG. Big, floaty, heavenly gaits, like her feet weren’t touching the ground. Miss her so much. 
