Farriers

“No hoof, no horse. ” Yep, I have heard that for years. I never had a problem with my childhood horse, Amoreena. I called the farrier, he came. Her hooves always looked good. When I got Brego, Arwen, Sassy, I didn’t know any farriers in the area. I looked in our local paper and found one. Brego was new to me then, and I admit I was still nervous and didn’t have a clue how to interact with him. I haven’t had a horse in years and years! Amoreena was 11 months old when my sister and dad bought her for me. I trained her by reading books and spent a lot of time with her! I had no extracurricular activities after school! I came home and spent time with her.
Brego was different. Older, green broke, and not so easy-going. When the farrier came, he wasn’t patient with Brego at all. I never called him back. Through word of mouth, I found a farrier who also did the horses for the horse rescue place 5 miles down the road. He seemed good to me. The only problem being he wasn’t regular. Sometimes he would come 6 weeks, 8 weeks, etc. The hooves never looked good for very long after being trimmed. I bought hoof supplements, topical applications–never seeing any improvement. I should have looked for another farrier long ago, but shame on me, I didn’t. He was my  farrier for about 8 years!
Last fall, I knew I needed to look for someone else. There is a woman down the road(everyone here is “down the road”), who has 2 horses. I asked who she uses to do their hooves. I called him. On the initial visit, I was thrilled! He kept regular appointments, took his time, and talked like he knew what he was doing!
He came again, and red flags popped up. His price went up, and he cut way too much off of Ginger’s front hoof. I can’t remember exactly why. Then he missed an appointment. When he came back, he was hurried and the hooves looked like crap. Back to square 1. Thank goodness I knew someone from Facebook who had horses. She is someone who lives about 15 miles away( once my trailer gets on the road, I hope to ride with)!
She uses a woman who does natural barefoot trims. This woman lives about 2 hours away-yet she comes to do R’s horses! I called and she was able to come soon, because she had scheduled with R. (she would be in the area, more or less).
I love the work she did! Their hooves looked great! She explained that farriers trim with the thought that the horses would wear shoes. Their trim will always accommodate the shoes. I believe she was appalled with how my horse’s hooves looked, even though it had been only 5 weeks since the other farrier was here.
I am hoping that she will continue to be my “natural barefoot trimmer”! If she doesn’t work out, I really don’t know what I’ll do. I should have educated myself a long time ago! But for now, I am happy and hopeful all will be good. The quest will be over!