Our farrier of 20 years is retiring, in part because she is done with driving all over southern Maine. She is the remaining one of the 2 or 3 best farriers. It’s a tough transition for me and the horse, who is 27 with a big lump on an arthritic knee. Our former BO decided to lock out all of the boarders in April 2020. He stood around for a month. His arthritis got worse, he lost quite a bit of flexion in the lumpy knee and it hardened up.
Our new farrier was at Cornell’s farrier school for four months and rode with her for several months before the pandemic got established. I met him several times and he did part of the shoeing. When he got out on his own I could see her influence. She is short and aging. He is young and flexible. There was one thing we totally forgot about. What to do when they don’t want to pick up a hoof.
Use your ankle. This assumes your farrier wears steel-toed work boots. She started it years ago when my horse had a soft tissue problem on the hind. All she asked him was to cock his foot so the toe was still resting on the ground. She rests the heel of her boot on the floor with the toe in the air. She rests his hoof in the angle and can trim and rasp. She can stand closer without pulling the leg out from under him. His foot is close enough to the ground that he is much more comfortable. He does it all the time now including when I pick his feet.
A long time ago we realized that he offered a foot to the farrier. Could be any one of the four. That’s where she started. Then he offered the second one. And so forth. There was no pattern, no consistency. “Do this one next.”
