A Farrier Making Every Contact Count: A Microlevel Analysis of Farrier-Client Interaction for Partnership Working in Managing a Horse With Laminitis

There is an evidence base in human and small animal veterinary health care contexts which understands how practitioners engage in partnership working with patients and owners to support adherence to treatment/care plans. However, as yet, it is believed there is no similar evidence base for how practitioners in equine health care contexts work with equine owners. It is argued that this is essential for understanding complex equine practitioner-owner interaction involving the prevention and management of laminitis. The aim of this study was to explore farrier-client interaction where risk management for an equine recovering from laminitis was being undertaken. A case report method involved a microlevel analysis of a farrier-client consultation. The consultation was video-recorded and analyzed using a conversation analysis approach to identify the linguistic and paralinguistic features of the interaction. These were compared with conversation analyses in other health care contexts to identify the actions being accomplished within the consultation. The analysis identified a number of joint actions, including managing epistemic stance (or knowledge rights) and deploying the animal’s presence to navigate problem sequences which supported progression of the consultation through a three-stage model involving “team-”, “option-”, and “decision-” talk, known to be associated with partnership working in human health care contexts. The study highlights the importance of developing an empirical evidence base in equine practice for how practitioners engage with owners based on a microlevel analysis of real-world interactions. It is argued this evidence base is necessary in supporting effective practitioner training in partnership working with clients to promote their adherence to treatment/care plans.