In the Beginning....

Well, there wasn't light yet, but I was working towards it at least :)
I thought I would pull out some pictures from my days at farrier's school. I don't have many, as I tend to be the picture taker, not the subject of the pictures, but it will be fun anyway :) I decided after college and a little bit of aimlessness, that yes, I DO want to work with horses, but most horse jobs either pay very little, need lots of start up money, or don't last long/are seasonal. I also always loved hanging out with farriers and watching them work, whenever they'd come to the barns I rode, helped out, or boarded at. So one day I decided that would be a job for me, and I went looking for a school that seemed good and wasn't too far away. I got really lucky and had a great school about 7hrs south of me. For anyone thinking of getting into shoeing (or even just trimming, it is STILL a good base schooling to learn it all and go from there...like a with doctors, you first go to medical school, then you can specialize in orthopedics, neurology, pediatrics, whatever...). This was the Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School by Sacramento, Ca (http://www.farrierschool.com/ for more info...). They have an extensive classroom curriculum , great forge work (you hand build shoes from bar stock, before you ever get to touch keg shoes), and you work on horses that you actually CAN work on (vs a bunch of rank throwaway horses like some "schools" try to push on you, which my kick or stomp on you as much as let you pick up their feet). I had a great time there and learned a TON, feeling ready to go straight to work on my own afterwards (though I did do a small apprenticeship with another farrier first, to expand my practical experience under a watchful eye).
Here are some pictures from that time...















This is our workshop...the door in the back, right corner leads to the classroom, and in the back, upstairs (window above clock) was the communal room with kitchen and pool table, tv, etc...
The dorms were behind the back wall in the right hand picture. 2 students share a forge, each gets their own anvil/tools/etc. The picture below, is an evening shot, after classes are done and everything is cleaned up. Classes were M-F from 8-5, but you could use the workshop from 7am to 8 or 9pm 7 days a week.
We didn't just work on "prefect" feet either. In fact, many of the horses we got in, though decently behaved, often had neglected feet or suffered from injury or disease (laminitis, navicular, whatever), and thus we got to work on lots of "strange" things. This was great, as it made me comfortable with most anything that has come my way in my own business too. I don't run away scared when I see foot curled up like an elf foot, falling apart from white line disease, or abscessing and seperating from laminitis. I may (and do) still have to consult with more experienced ppl (vet and farriers/trimmers) as to the best ways to help that horse (I have a LONG way to go in my experiences, as I have only been doing this job for not quite 5yrs :) ), but I can at least feel like there is something I can do, vs having to send the owner off to another farrier (and the good ones in this area are usually booked solid, so it is not like the owner would necessarily even get accepted). Here are two examples:


A very overgrown set of hooves came in one day...these actually ended up looking pretty good by the time they were done...




















And a set of hooves I got to work on...Feet hadn't been done in a while, hooves too long, and if you look closely, the foot on the right side has the shoe loose and starting to twist off (which resulted in the side clip sticking in its white line). After pulling shoes and trimming (pic on the right), I noticed it kept pointing its right toe and not weighting it well at all during trimming. So the instructor came over and we tried different degrees of wedge pads (I think the horse had navicular or something...we did so many horses and I can't remember who was what). When we found the one that had the horse standing more comfortably, we taped that pad on so I could work on the opposite foot, then I used that pad for the shoe on that foot.




The left picture is of the non-wedged foot (and finished), and the right one (and still needs to be put up for a final finish with rasp and such) is the wedged hoof. I think this was only my 2nd or 3rd shoeing as well! So you kinda jump right in to the harder stuff :)



We had a whole variety of animals to work on. From the very big, to the very small. One day, we did a group of 4 or 5 Clydesdales that came in. We had to hand make the shoes (with a little help from da bosses, or we would have been there for a week...they made the blanks, then we shaped them to fit, I think) and boy, those were some BIG FEET...







Pulling the shoes on my charge (two of use at a time worked on them. One got the front end, the other the back...) That shoe is almost the size of my face!


















After the trim, and then the shoes applied...Vet wrap or old standing wraps are great for holding the "feathers" out of the way on these very fuzzy legged drafts :)


Finishing off the hoof...these were some big horses, but as the advertising says, very "gentle giants" for sure....they were so cooperative and there was no need for "draft shoeing stocks"


As a comparison, I took a shoe that would fit my mare (a size 0) and stuck it on the foot...wouldn't want THAT foot stepping on you...broken toes for sure!



One day we went up into the hills, out to a min-breeder's farm. There were TONS of these little guys running around, and the foals were going to all get their first trims with us as well (along with halter breaking and leading lessons. They basically don't get handled much until we get up there....good thing they are so small! So the routine was to partner up, get the moms, tie them (they get plenty of handling), then we both grab the baby any way we can. Once caught, one of us sits down with it in our laps (that seemed to calm them....only a few would "stand" while done), while the other person trimmed the hooves. Worked like a charm, and usually when done, the baby was fairly calmed down and sometimes didn't want to get up, even after being released. They'd rather sit there and get scratched on :)








All in all, it was a great time (2 months) and I learned a TON of great stuff. Though I really think a natural lifestyle with bare (and booted when needed) feet is a lot healthier for horse's hooves, I also am not such a fanatic, that I think shoeing is "evil" (only bad shoeing, but then, so is bad trimming). With the variety of boot products out there now, and ever expanding, and the ever expanding knowledge we are getting on horse feet and how to keep them healthy, I simply do not think that shoeing is necessary anymore.

Boots Video

This was the first part of the session working with boots. You can kinda see what I do with him. Just keep at it til he settles. If he gives the wrong answer (yanking feet away, etc), then he "works" yielding the hindquarters. If he is REALLY bad, like tries to kick or something, then he gets backed up more severely and even will get a "bite" with the lead rope (like a boss mare would do).
This is my basic routine for most "difficult" horses. They are not beat on, and they get corrected right away if they give the wrong answer, but praised and get to relax if they give the correct answer. This leads to a calm, non-stressed horse, that as you can see in the trimming photos and video, results in a horse that stands untied and not held to be trimmed.




After the initial "training", which I had to repeat for picking up each of the four feet (which is why a half hour trim became a 3 hr trim, and it took a while to catch him from the outset, LOL), he was easy enough to work on. Here is his last foot, a back foot. Keep an eye out for the "pesky chicken"...it was pretty funny :)

New horse, long feet, very little human handling....

......equals an interesting, but long trim. Took about 3 hours instead of half an hour.

Meet Boots. Boots is a 10yo Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse that my friend Terri just imported from Canada.
He was my Firestorm's old pasture buddy for many years, (these two pics are from then...see Storm in the left corner? :) ) before Storm was imported into the US as well. During his ten years, he lived mostly the life of a mustang...He got to roam many acres of the northern Canadian bush with little human handling beyond a hoof trim now and then or getting haltered or food thrown out for him in winter, etc. He learned to take good care of himself and watch out for predators (makes him a bit jumpy, LOL), and just be a horse. This is good in many ways, but it does make for a horse that is wary of humans and their "strange" environments, behaviors, objects and so on. He will make a good horse in the long run, but it is not like working with or training a horse that has been hand raised for ten years.

When Boots arrived off the truck (what a rig! We had to meet it at the local Park and Ride as it was not going to fit down Terri's driveway and get turned around), his feet were pretty long.


















His owner has knee problems of late, so couldn't do any trimming on him, and he'd been in the lower pasture playing "guard horse" to the youngsters, instead of out in the rocky bush where his feet could wear down naturally.
So first things first, I set out to trim his feet. The trim itself was not too difficult, but since this horse had not been handled much, and then only by his owner, whom he trusted, but was really the only human he knew. So what normally be a 1/2hr trim, turned into a 3 hr training session of desensitization (esp his back end, which he was VERY protective of) and learning that human handling was ok and not going to hurt him. In the end, I got the job done, and once he figured out I was "ok", he stood just fine for his pedicure.












After getting him to settle and let me pick up his feet, I cleaned and inspected them.













Then out come the nippers to get the worst of the length off. He was wary of letting me stick his foot between my legs at first, so I worked with his foot in my hand instead. This is one of the reasons I like my smaller nippers, as they are easy to use one handed. The only downside, is on long feet like his, it takes several rounds of nipping to get the length down, as the hoof walls are often longer than the nipper mouth is high..





Once he settled a little more, I was able to get his leg between mine, which was good. Rasping (esp a foot like his that needed lots of work) with one hand is a major PITA and I was glad to be able to use two hands :)







And then we cleaned up the flare on the walls. Not using a stand yet, but hoping the next trim we'll graduate to that.




Before and after...the foot still needs more flare removal, but it will be done as the hoof grows down. But this is a good start :) The other front foot went much the same way.









Then I moved on to the hind feet. I had to be really careful picking them up, as he had a tendency to kick out. Not kick as in kick AT me, but he really wasn't handled much and to him, grabbing his feet meant he might die. He did get get better about it later.










Once he settled, we moved on to cleaning and nipping. On a horse like him, I start down low and let that leg be relaxed, instead of trying to put it in my lap (and a stand is too spooky right now). It is safer too, at least for me, as if he feels afraid and has to leave, he can take his foot away and do so. In my lap, he would have a harder time getting it away and possibly get us both in trouble that way...










Once he was calm and happy and felt like he wasn't going anywhere, I progressed to putting his foot on my lap. He is a short horse and I haven't had a horse that was afraid of a stand in some time! So this was quite the thigh workout, LOL...




"Hey! What are you doing back there?!"














And the almost finished hind foot... Much better than what they had looked like before.

Cob Feet continued...

This is Arwen. She is a smokey black, sabino Welsh Cob (also section C I believe)..I think she and Auryn share the same sire (might be dam, at any rate, they are related)... She is a little older than Auryn and is almost the exact opposite in temperament. Where he is sensitive, she is dull and thick (you almost have to beat her with a 2X4 to get any response out of her :P) and where he is kind, she tends to be very pushy and looks for ways to aggravate you. But she is a fairly steady horse that you could do pretty much anything with and feel safe. She is my filly's surrogate mother and the two stick to each other like glue. Ari copies everything Arwen does (which has led to things like her learning to paw, stick her leg through gates, push ppl and horses around, etc...) and it is a hoot to see the broad, thick Cob next to a tall, lean and lanky KMSH :)
Arwen's feet are not as good as Auryn's, either. They chip up much easier and really tend to the long toe/low heel and flares. But she is sound and happy barefoot, so I suppose that is what really matters :) She only had one set of shoes in her life, and they lasted just about long enough for the farrier to leave, at which point she stuck her foot in a fence and pulled at least one of them off...I guess that was her opinion on being shod, and she has been barefoot ever since.




Here are her front feet...you can see the chipping and the long/low direction of her feet.....
























Here we have her right front hoof. She displays much more of that heart shape on all fours, then Auryn, who has it more on his hinds. Very flat sole, but decent frog.



Doing a base nipping and cleanup, then finishing with the rasp. Flares mostly removed, toe brought back a little, and heels back where they should be.







The walls before final flare removal and roll..










And after...











Same routine for the other front hoof, and this is the finished product on the front end...

















Here is her right hind hoof...her hind feet actually flare less and look better than the fronts.













Same hoof during and after the trim. Now she is all set again to go for a ride :)