The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Did I ever mention that I love my farrier?

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  dee 
#1 ·
He came out Saturday to trim the horses' feet. He's a big believer in bare feet and has been working on some minor issues that Dancer had due to previous poor hoof care. She's been a bit gimpy lately, not really lame but a bit tenderfooted on occasion - like she stepped down wrong and limps a couple of steps. Me being a worry wort, I was fearing the worst - whatever the worst might be.

We'd been treating her for a mild case of thrush - but that shouldn't have made her sore - or at least I don't think so. Farrier said pretty much every horse he's trimmed lately has had it because of the previous wet weather. When I mentioned that she was gimpy, he just kind of chuckled. "Don't worry, mama, we'll find out what's wrong." Turns out she must have had a hoof abcess in the making before he was out the last time, because he didn't notice anything then. He said he could sure see it now, but it was already drained and starting to heal. He recommended that we not ride her for a couple more weeks (we haven't been riding her because Rain is still a bit too young) but she should be fine. After she had her feet trimmed this time, she was a little sore, but he got really agressive with this trim because she had had something odd with her hoof that he wanted to grow out before putting all the correct angles on her feet. I have no idea what it was, he explained it to daughter a few tims ago and she failed to tell me what it was - but I knew her feet looked awful - she had terrible flares. Now she has beautiful feet. This morning she was up and running with Rain - no sign of a limp, so the soreness must have been short lived.

After all the feet were trimmed, he looked at Rain's feet. He said they would need to be trimmed a bit the next time he was out. She is really growing like a weed, and so are her feet. (no wonder Dancer's regaining her weight so slowly) Problem is, we haven't been able to get a halter on her to speak of. We had one on her, but it wasn't adjusted correctly. Dancer unbuckled it and it slipped right off.

While he was still there, daughter managed to slip a lasso on Rain without any fuss, but once Rain realized she was "roped," she went ballistic, and dragged daughter all over the back yard. Farrier nearly fell over laughing. However, he took pity on the both of them and picked up the rope, spoke not more than a dozen words to Rain, walked on up to her and slipped a loop of the lasso over her nose to make a temporary halter. This gave him time to adjust her foal halter so it would fit right, and he had no trouble slipping it on her and buckling it just right. He then worked the lasso off of her while she considered her options - and opted to stand still.

He used our cotton lunge line to make a butt rope, and within five minutes, pretty much had her walking along behind him with no fuss.

I LOVE MY FARRIER! He's not the cheapest in our area, but we're going to keep him!!!

Oh - and Dancer's thrush is gone, thank heavens!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
It always amazes me at the way some farriers (definitely not all) have with horses. Not to mention the help they're willing to offer when it comes to anything other than dealing with the hooves. I consider you to be very lucky to have one like that!!!
 
#3 ·
I have a great respect for my farrier after my horse cut her frog really bad. I called him 7 am next day, at 8 am he showed up, cleaned, cut, wrapped, and refused to take money :shock: (of course we insisted on taking the pay!). He's also pretty quick doing my girls, and I've never seen him looking mad when they try to pull a hoof away (and I've seen this in number of other farriers).

I love to work with people, who will help in emergency without fussing around much. It's true not only to the farrier, but to anyone I work with often (my plumbing guy, vet, etc.).
 
#4 ·
My farrier makes Dancer tow the line. He's not rough with her, but she's a bit of a bully and if she doesn't want to be messed with, she does NOT want to be messed with! He doesn't yell at her, but he did resort to a sharp smack on her hip when she took a kick at him. She was so surprised - her eyes went wide and she stood absolutely frozen after that. (Even when Rain grabbed his hat and took off with it) Dancer was/is in heat and was being a royal pain Saturday.

Dancer managed to unbuckle the nose piece of Rain's halter again. Guess we're going to have to zip tie it. It's at the biggest setting, so it won't matter. It unfastens at her neck with a clip, so a zip tie won't interfere with getting the halter off in a hurry if we have to. We already know she will need a new halter soon - farrier said in another couple of months, she'll need a new one, but that one we should be able to put on ourselves... I hope...;-)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top