What the horse owner says: "i'll be at work but my teenage son will hold the horse for you" What the farrier hears: "My teenage son hates horses and everything about them. He'll be miserable and hopeless holding the horse but I'm desperate to get my horse shod before the show"
What farriers hear (3)
What the horse owner says: "it's just up the road from the other horse you shoe" What the farrier hears: "it's an extra 30 minutes drive down a bumpy road, across a gushing river and I might not be able to catch the horse when (and if) you get here"
What farriers hear (2)
What horse owners say: "how much do you charge?" What farriers hear: "I'm ringing round as many farriers as I can find looking for the CHEAPEST"
What farriers hear (1)
What the horse owner says: "There's no good farriers in this area" What the farrier hears: "I've had most of the local farriers and none of them want to come back to my crazy place"
Farrier Photo: A clean shoeing surface
It's always handy to have a clean and level surface to work on when trimming and shoeing. Sometimes this isn't quite possible! I love living in New Zealand but this is what farriers experience from time to time. Photo copyright Antonia Steeg
Learning to be a farrier on a weekend course
Q. I’d like to start shoeing my own horses so I no longer need to use a farrier. Is there a weekend course I can go on or better still a book I can read to learn the basics? I just want to put shoes on my own horses, not learn about the advanced stuff …
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Liberty horseshoe nails
Liberty horseshoe nails I had a farrier call up last week wanting to buy more Jim Blurton bar shoes. He said the first pair he bought were sat on his fireplace at home and almost looked too beautiful to nail on a horse. Today, we got the Liberty BH 3.5 nails in stock and I …
Happy New Year
Happy New Year. Looking at the usual social network sites, it seems too many people are glad to see the back of 2011 and looking forward to this new year and the possibility it'll bring them happiness. I enjoyed 2011, it was full of good things for me personally and positive improvements for my business. …
The apprentice farrier working on my horse
Question: I have been using the same farrier for many years and I am very happy with him. And I still am, apart from one thing. For the last year or so, he has taken on some trainees and is letting them remove shoes, trim hooves and size new shoes. I have not seen them …
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Hot Shoeing Photograph
Here's a photo for Friday. I love how the photographer Antonia Steeg has captured the hot scale coming off the shoe as it's being shaped. I'm shaping a Kerckhaert Classic horseshoe with a Jim Blurton turning hammer on an O'Dwyer 40kg anvil.
Farrier Blog 