Today the farrier came. I had two horses trimmed and two horses had shoes pulled. I also held horses for two other owners.
Farrier (aka Shoer) visit should be every 6-10 weeks depending on the horse, but the general rule of thumb is every 8 weeks. Horses can be trimmed or have shoes put on. I could write forever and not even begin to cover all of the details of having a visit from the shoer, but here are some highlights of things farriers have expressed to me:
1. Be on time. For farriers, time is money and when you are late, they are not working. I was 8 minutes late today (sorry Troy).
2. Have your horses exercised or worked prior to handling. If you don't handle your horses very much, make sure to spend some time with them the day before a visit.
Photo Caption: Shoe Sizes 6, 2, 1, 0, 00, 000 from left to right3. If your horse isn't good about something (pulling back, dancing around, etc), work on it. Good farriers are hard to find. They are also not desperate for work, so good ones will fire you if your horses continually act up.
4. Tell the farrier if your horse has a particular issue or sensitive area.
5. If your horse is continually misbehaving, ask the farrier if they would like to correct the behavior. Farriers take a lot of risks, so it is important that the horses act appropriately.
6. Bring your checkbook. I rarely write checks, so I have been guilty of this on more than one occasion.
7. Don't forget your appointments. Write them down and ask your farrier if they can remind you (especially if you are forgetful).
Remember, your farrier is your connection to your horses feet. You should work with him/her to keep your horse healthy and sound!
This video shows a quick trim of one foot, in case you have never seen it before!
4 comments:
I'm assuming that this video just shows the rough 'first cut' of the trim, as the farrier never once sights the foot for correct balance.
Yes, there is a balance between complete video production and how much people are willing to watch. Just a video to give folks an idea of what it is like. Besides, the music would have gotten old if we showed the whole thing! :)
Hello all , my first time here .
hope everyone is doing well . i'm a farrier in the bay area California for 16 years now . Interesting Video . i agree with one of the comments that the farrier seemes to be haphazardly rasping the foot . Usually i'll have to stop rasping and sight down the foot to make sure i'm getting the angle 90* to the axis of travel , Unless the farrier in the video had that visual vantage point ( which didn't seem aparent ) i would have to suspect the end result of that trim - of course the front feet bare more weight than the hind which makes it all the more important that things be right . Unless the farrier went back after that video clip and touched things up i have to say that watching the video has left me wondering about the quality .
thanks for the blog being here .
john silveira
http://www.Care4Horses.com
Thanks for the comments John. There was more to show of the trim but due to video uploading limitations (and the audience's ability to stay attentive), this was just an introduction into what a trim looks like. He was going pretty fast so I could capture it quickly on video. There is definately more to the trim than a rough cut and rasp! But the purpose of this blog is to introduce a subject, not bring it to advanced levels. :)
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