"No foot, no horse" is the motto of the American Farrier's Association.

The slogan acknowledges the importance of feet to an animal that essentially walks and runs on its version of fingernails. And the saying is especially true at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Farriers, the podiatrists to horses, are the people who keep those hooves in shape.

"Without a farrier, a lot of these horses couldn't perform, whether they're barefoot or shod," said Eric Nygaard, president of the American Farrier's Association.

More than 70 farriers from all over the United States are working during the 16 days of the Games.

That doesn't count team farriers servicing particular countries. Teams that don't have farriers use those provided by the association.

"I would say this is bigger than the Olympics as far as the gathering of farriers," Nygaard said.

Horses in different disciplines require different shoes. So expert farriers in different disciplines are here.

"You shoe a reining horse completely differently than you would an event horse," Nygaard said. "Your reining horses, they wear sliding plates which are made so the horses can slide in the dirt. Your event horses, they want traction. These horses that are jumping big fences and cross-country fences need traction and no slipping."

Experts are also needed in FEI competition because if a shoe comes off, the horse must be back in the ring within 2.5 minutes. If it takes longer, the horse is disqualified. So farriers are the equivalent of a pit crew changing tires at the Indianapolis 500.

Not all the work is that intense. On Thursday morning, a team of farriers worked on Durango, an 8-year American Quarter Horse, in the farrier shop. Durango is in the California Cowgirls Western Equestrian Drill Team, which performs each day in the Equine Village.

His rider, Autumn Teach, 17, of Sacramento, Calif., held the gentle Palomino as the farriers worked. "He's my baby," she said. "When he turned up lame, the vet said he was probably over-compensating and just pushing down a lot more than he should have, so I took him here to see what they could do.

"Farriers, I don't know what I would do without them."

A group of first graders from Waco Elementary School in Madison County filed into the shop. The children watched as the whoosh of the forge stoked bright orange flames in the corner.

"I think it's cool, because I've never seen a horse doing this before," said 6-year-old Olivia Bell.

Most horses in competitions have shoes, but some used in demonstrations will not be shod. All 1,500 horses during the Games require hoof care, shoes or not, said Danvers Child, a farrier from Lafayette, Ind.

"That's one of the misconceptions about our trade, that we're simply shoeing horses," Child said. "But our role is hoof care. So a lot of what we do is trimming and maintaining the bare foot as well.

"We joke among ourselves and say 'It's not rocket science,'" said Child, who has been a farrier for 41 years. "But it's more complicated because all those same principles apply: mass, acceleration, concussion, compression, deceleration. All those same elements apply, but they're happening to a living being, not an inanimate object. So, it is rocket science."