Shoeing & Farrier Services

As a young boy I was totally infatuated with horses. I thought that there just couldn't be a better job in the world than to be a farrier. I graduated mid-term from high school and immediately enrolled in a horse shoeing school to follow my dreams.

Over time I came to understand that it was not corrective shoeing, but rather balancing the hoof, this keeps horses sound through the rigors of training and showing. Once the hoof is balanced this allows the individual horse to preform to it's utmost natural ability with less stress on the limb.

As my skills increased, so did the quality of horses I was shoeing, which put more demands on me but I love the challenges it presents. I currently specialize in shoeing performance horses of several different disciplines.

I often get asked, "How far do you travel to shoe?" The answer... Anywhere. My client's spans coast to coast. Being a farrier has enriched my life by making friends I would have never had and being able to shoe the quality of horses that one could only dream of.

And today I am still living my dream.

Hoof Makeovers

HEEL SUPPORT

QUARTER CRACK

This is a little reiner one of my trainers got in a few months ago. He’s a great little horse and is extremely physical. He came with a quarter crack and had been shod too tight for quite a while. I squared the toe of an aluminum egg bar wedge to raise his angle and get his break over backed up. And then also floated his lateral heel for 4 shoeings to get a handle on the quarter crack. This horse never lost time in the pen and continues to get his name called.

BACKING THE HEEL UP

Ok, here’s what’s going on and not going on with this horse. This is a reiner one of my trainer’s just got in. 

This hoof needed the heel severely backed up in order to increase surface area. Doing so not only supports the bone column more fully, but also aides in the breakover. As you can imagine, this horse was having trouble going to the ground. I’m going to predict that within a couple days this horse’s stops will improve.

By increasing the ground surface of the hoof, I was also able to increase the shoe size. You can see the size difference in the picture of the two shoes side by side on the anvil.

               

                    

NEGLECT

Last week I received a text from a friend of mine, who told me she had rescued a horse. She said the horse needed a lot of help and asked if I could look at it. She hauled the horse to the ranch today and I pulled out my trimming box. I’m always disgusted with people who perpetrate this level of neglect and abuse. And God bless the people who have hearts big enough to pick up the pieces, put these poor abused animals back together again and give them a life.

GROUND CONTROL SHOES

Shoeing Performance horses is definitely not cookie cutter. Each horse has his or her individual needs to help them perform to their utmost ability. Now with that said, that doesn’t mean, what I refer to as gimmick shoeing. But rather trimming the foot to load level, backing the toe up for ease of breakover as well as supporting the bone column. ( I know this post is quickly turning into a book) The shoes pictured here are a polyurethane shoe called Ground Control shoes. One application that I use these shoes for, is on a big stopping horse that is a chronic shoe puller during the stop. If the horse grabs the heel of this shoe with his hind foot, the shoe flexes and then by the next stride is right back in place. And this shoe also allows me to fit the foot full at the heel for expansion, thus continuing to keep the foot functioning in a healthy manner.

I was asked a few weeks ago if I have ever done a resection. I have, I do and I did another one today. Here’s a look. White line disease is anaerobic, so the best remedy is a resection to expose it to oxygen. After debriding infected material I have had great results by treating it with Save A Hoof gel. The last couple pictures are of the hoof from the first pass with the nippers. You can see how the white line disease eats the white line away behind the horny wall.

TO RELIEVE JAMMED QUARTERS

This is a horse I was asked to work on today. He was extremely lame when he was led to me, and after being balanced, was almost sound as he walked back to the stall. He needed the toe backed up, heel support, bone column leveled as well as aligned, his breakover sped up and more width on the medial side. The shoe that I used to achieve my objectives was an aluminum roller motion. And because his medial side was shearing due to improper shoeing, I only used 2 toe nails to allow more movement of the heel.

  



                                              

CORRECTING GIMMICK SHOEING

These are before and after of a horse shod with what I refer to as gimmick shoeing. Always remember that a farrier ( including me) cannot give a horse more ability than that horse naturally processes through some gimmick they come up with. A good farrier can help a horse reach its potential and a bad farrier can be a detriment. I can only hazard a guess at what this farrier’s goal was by removing the heel support and having the horse load on its quarters. This horse was struggling to move in the front. All I did was balance and level the foot. I backed the heels up to create more support for the bone column, and the toe to create ease of break over.

             

       

3 DEGREE BAR WEDGE PAD

Time once again for a hoof makeover. This horse needed a lot more support, his toe backed up and his heel raised in order to realign his pastern angle with his shoulder. I went up 2 shoe sizes in order to support his bone column and used a 3 degree bar wedge pad.