I wish I had a dollar for every time I was asked that question....it would be almost as profitable as being paid to hear, “my horse has never done that before”. Now that the farriers reading this are all silently chuckling and the horse owners are wondering when the last time they have said this to their farrier, please read on. My objective in writing this is to hopefully shed a little light on the farrier/horse-owner relationship, discuss why problems occur, and suggest ways to avoid problems that ultimately affect the one caught in the middle....the horse.

Obviously to get started there needs to be an appointment date and time set. This is an agreement between you and your farrier as to the time, place , and job(s) to be done. A professional farrier will immediately put you in his/her book and you should immediately mark it on your calendar....all of them if you are like most folks and use more than one. Counting on your great memory to remember something that only happens every six to eight weeks doesn’t work, period. If you expect your farrier to be there on time, and you should, then you should extend the same courtesy. (It should be noted here that the only guaranteed, on-time appointment is the first one of the day - horses have a way of making sure of that - sometimes problems discovered after a shoe is pulled can add a significant amount of time to a “routine” shoeing.) If I am going to be late for an appointment, I call. That’s all there is to it. At that point we decide to move the appointment to later in the day or to re-schedule all together. By the way, the less flexible your schedule is, the more you need to be willing to make arrangements (i.e., taking time off from work) to get the first appointment of the day.

This brings me to another reason farriers quit certain customers....cancellations. OK, we all know things come up, bad weather occurs, emergencies happen, and the best laid plans are sometimes ruined. However, your son’s dentist appointment (which we all know is scheduled six months in advance) is neither an emergency or a valid reason to cancel an appointment. Advanced notice of a needed schedule change is as much appreciated by your farrier, as it is by you, when a schedule conflict arises.

Those of us that make a living in the farrier business do so because we love it. We enjoy the horses, the interaction with the owners, and the satisfaction of improving the way horses move. And there’s not a lot that can change that with the exception of the horse whose owner is unwilling to invest the time and money into properly training the horse to be worked on by the farrier. Telling me about all the blue ribbons, the breeding records, and the myriad of other accomplishments doesn’t make my bandaged hand feel any better or help me re-organize my tools after your horse kicks my toolbox over. I’d rather if you would simply tie your horse and help me pick up the dozens of nails that are scattered over the entire work area.

Here’s the thing that a lot of people don’t understand....... it only takes one poorly trained horse a split second to cause serious damage. As farriers we assume a certain amount of risk, but to be asked to work on a rank horse is an insult, plain and simple. Every farrier is guilty of having worked on a horse he knows he had no business being under in the first place. But, the longer I am in this business, the easier it gets to say “NO”. Five little words keep coming to mind....It’s Just Not Worth It. As a horse owner ask yourself this......would you knowingly put yourself in a position where there was a high probability that you would get hurt? Of course not. Not for $50, not for $100, not for anything! “Hurt” in the farrier business means end of income for a period of time. Instead of getting upset when a farrier refuses to work on such a horse, you should thank him because it’s your well being that’s being protected as well as his. There have been many horse owners seriously injured while holding their horse for the farrier. Whether you realize it or not, while holding your horse for the farrier you are standing on the deadliest end of the horse. If you don’t believe that, talk to someone that has been struck in the head by a rearing horse, assuming they are still around to talk about it. If you own a horse that has to be sedated every time he is shod, there is probably something wrong with him that needs to be addressed by your veterinarian... assuming we are not talking about a training issue. Sedation is a way to keep your farrier, your horse, and you safe in certain circumstances, but it’s a lousy replacement for proper training and the horse doesn’t learn a single thing while his “martini” is massaging his brain!

Farrier and Miracle-worker are not synonymous! It’s unrealistic to think that your farrier can maintain healthy feet on your horse without daily (or at least weekly) help from you. Regular cleaning of your horse's feet isn’t a big deal and takes very little time...assuming your horse is trained well enough to have his feet cleaned.....you see how this all ties together? It’s always entertaining to listen to a customer ramble on about how they don’t pick their horse’s feet as often as they know they should, as I dig gobs of thrush infected, necrotic tissue out of the hoof. If it makes you feel better to rationalize it...fine....a better solution would be to clean the hooves regularly and treat any problems as they arise. Your horse and your farrier will be grateful, and you will spend less time feeling bad about neglecting your horse and lying to your farrier! The overall well being of your horse’s feet, legs and locomotion in general relies on the input and efforts of three key people... you the owner, the farrier, and the veterinarian. When one or more of these are out of the picture, the well being of the horse is compromised. Horse ownership comes with a certain level of necessary funding... just like any other hobby (which is what it is for 99% of the horse owning public).

This brings me to the next area that is often a sore spot in farrier/horse-owner relationships. Payment. Farriers shoe horses for a lot of reasons, one of which is to make money. Most farriers I know expect payment when the shoeing/trimming is finished unless prior arrangements have been made, as is often the case with larger barns. There’s nothing quite like the feeling, or should I say emotion, of hearing “oh I forgot my checkbook” or “I’m a little short this week” just as I’m nailing on the last shoe. Did a lightning bolt suddenly hit you that jogged your memory concerning your financial status? What exactly changed between the time I started the horse and the time I finished with the last shoe that makes it impossible to pay for the job in full, considering that the approximate, if not exact, cost was known at least six weeks in advance? As in any other profession, the word gets around rather quickly about the people who fail to pay for farrier services. When these people call, I am simply not taking on any new clients at the present time.

Long before a person buys a horse, they should sit down and determine what this new investment is going to cost them on a monthly or annual basis. Trimming and shoeing costs vary greatly across the country and a horse’s particular needs must first be determined by what his intended use will be. The absolute minimum (no shoeing, no problems, no special trimming) cost for maintaining healthy feet on a horse is going to be $200 per year, per horse for farrier services. I can’t stress MINIMUM enough. If you are not prepared to spend at least that much on farrier care, buy a dog instead! Most horses that are used on a regular basis need much more in the way of hoof care and you should be prepared for that as a horse owner. Horses that are kept on a regular trimming/shoeing cycle typically have the healthiest feet, are the easiest to work with, and have fewer soundness problems than the horses that are shod when the horse owners can afford to do so or feel like riding when the weather gets warm!

Scheduling is an area that creates friction between horse owners and farriers as well. Regular, scheduled appointments accomplish several things. Most importantly they benefit the horse by keeping his feet at the proper angle, length, etc. Minor problems are found quickly and are kept from becoming major, laming conditions that keep the horse out of work for a period of time. Regular shoeing/trimming intervals also give the horse owner the peace of mind that their horse will be taken care of without the aggravation of trying to track down a farrier when the shoes need to be reset. Does any of this benefit the farrier? Of course. Your farrier can schedule horses in the same general area on a given day, thereby keeping his travel expenses down and in turn pass the savings on to you.

I’m reminded of a horse I shod last year. Friday night call to do a Saturday morning shoeing. Normally I wouldn’t even consider such a job. However it was close by, I had the time to do it, and I could tell it would help the people out of a jam. Besides, it paid double what I normally charge! I didn’t know any of the details about the horse, his shoeing, etc. It turns out that at the last minute someone decided to enter this horse in a local competition. When I got there the horse was tied in front of the barn. As I was setting up, the owner and I were discussing the horse... his history, intended use, the usual stuff. I asked who had shod the horse in the past. The gentleman couldn’t recall the farrier’s name but was certain that he had done a quality job because the horse still had one shoe on from his shoeing in October... this was May! Needless to say, the foot with the shoe still on was about six inches long. All four feet were taken over by thrush, full of abscesses, and full of cracks. Did I get the horse shod? Yes. Did they make it to their competition on time? Of course not! The horse could barely walk let alone run. How can someone let their horse get to such a horrible condition? Simple neglect I guess. I’m sure those folks still believe that I should have been able to “fix” that horse.......he didn’t need fixing, he needed routine farrier care and all of that could have been avoided. Will he ever receive it? Probably not. Will they ever call me back? I doubt it. But that’s OK, those aren’t the kind of customers I want. Did I mention I charged them double what I normally get?

The farrier business has an ever increasing number of new tools, new findings through research, and a long list of specialty products and gadgets to keep your horse’s feet healthy. One of the most useful tools has yet to be invented. I’m referring to a type of mechanism that will automatically eject a horse’s shoes according to a preset time.....somewhere around six to eight weeks! I say that jokingly, but it helps drive home an important point. Far too many horse owners determine the quality of a farrier’s work by the length of time a set of shoes stays on. We’re not talking about the shoes that come off once a week.....it’s the exact opposite problem. If you think for a moment that a farrier’s ability to have shoes stay on for several months on end is a good thing, then you need to further research the detrimental effects (both short and long term) of leaving shoes on for extended periods of time without regular trimming and resetting. I find myself wondering sometimes if it’s my lack of properly educating a customer or his/her inability/unwillingness to be taught. There aren’t many farriers (if any) out there that don’t grumble a little when they get a call to replace a lost shoe. However I would much rather get those kind of calls than the ones from the “occasional” customer saying a shoe came off that I put on 4 months ago and the horse needs to be reshod. I suppose professionalism is the only thing that keeps me from telling them that in order for the shoes to stay anchored any longer, they would have to have been born with them on! The most notable thing these “occasional” customers have in common is that when a shoe does come off, they are the ones that insist it be put back on immediately. Interestingly enough, when the farrier does go back to put it on, it’s usually terribly obvious that the shoe has been off for quite a while.........probably something that would have been noticed if the feet were cleaned out on a regular basis!

Communication and respect between farriers and their clients are two areas that need to be maintained so that everyone involved knows what is going on. It has been said that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” I can assure you that no knowledge is far worse. You should feel free to ask questions of your farrier and he/she should be willing to explain what they are doing and why. As a farrier I am very interested in knowing how the horse is moving and if there are areas that might need to be changed, etc. I welcome all the input I can get from the horse owner. By the same token I don’t want to be told how to shoe the horse. If you are the only one that knows how to shoe the horse right... buy some tools and nails! When a relationship gets to that point, it isn’t fun anymore for anyone involved. The respect part is something that is earned over time and it too works both ways. Farriers need to respect what horse owners feel when they ride and what trainers see as they develop a horse. The horse owner needs to respect the farrier for his commitment to the trade and his desire to keep up with the newest information available. Your horse is the ultimate beneficiary of this unequaled dedication and discipline.

In conclusion, a heartfelt thank you to the many horse owners who have those well trained horses that are kept on a regular trimming/shoeing schedule and are willing to spend what is necessary for the skilled care your farriers provide. You are, by far, the ones that will own the healthiest horses, have the most peace of mind concerning your horse’s well being, and have available to you a farrier that enjoys working on your horse without the fear of leaving hurt, unpaid, and unsure whether or not he will be returning to shoe for you another day. Good customers are like good tools.........priceless.