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Advice on moving on from farrier

When my farrier of 15 years got increasingly flaky and then finally ghosted me, I was distraught. Turns out that the guy I found to replace him ( through recommenfmdation from another farrier who i knew but who wouldn’t travel to my area) is actually much better at his job and much more organized and businesslike.

Total win!

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Same here.
After horses moved to a different part of the state (too far for the excellent trimmer of my barefoot horses) I agreed to barn shoer.
Who was fine for about 3 6-week cycles.
Did not require we be present after the 1st, barn was accommodating by keeping them in & holding if needed.
Then, without any attempt to contact me or DH, using a total of 5 ph#s provided, put shoes on both horses :expressionless:
When I called him to ask why, he said “I thought they needed them” & offered to come back & pull shoes. Leaving walls w/nail holes? NTYVM.
I called my vet, who recommended another shoer. Who I’m still using 20+yrs later.
If #1 talked to #2, I never heard about it.

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Omg I can’t even fathom how livid I would be if someone put shoes on my barefoot horse. Not only the nail holes but the trim for a shoe is a whole process to grow back from!

This is actually the crux of the issue with the trimmer, even though they are adamant they are a barefoot trimmer, I feel they are trimming too flat, like trimming for a shoe. And I want a contoured barefoot trim that encourages a dynamic foot and proper landings.

I had a good trimmer who did this and I saw the difference in my horse’s feet and movement. This is also the problem, once you experience how it can be done properly, it’s hard to accept less.

You could text back "Thank you for so clearly explaining why meeting for a discussion about my horse is a bad idea. " :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Okay, you could imagine you had texted that. Probably not a good idea too actually reply.

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When someone acts like that you are totally justified in never contacting them again

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… I’m sorry, the “quality” of their manure?? Oh boy I’m glad you slept on it!

I had a good farrier for years who was doing it FT and volunteering as a FF PT, and when he got a FT FF job he flipped those and cut customers - I was one of the customers, being an hour or so away from his home base, nothing negative. I found a farrier who has all sorts of accomplishments and posts on SM about going to and winning various shoeing competitions and clinics, etc, had a “journeysman” or something from some national farrier assoc, but after about a year I noticed one of my horses was constantly (constantly) tripping under saddle. I have the vet out thinking it was a lameness issue, she doesn’t like the shoe job and in a round about way tells me that this farrier not only tends to do this sort of shoeing job that leaves toes too long in general, but also he does not like working with her as a vet and her other clients have had issues when their horse needs a recommended change based on rads and he learns the rads were taken by her. I get rads and show him, I ask for shorter toes and deal with the macho posturing for a bit. Then my pony trips at the canter and somersaults in the arena and I got a concussion. Then the then-yearling starts tripping while leading her around and probably out in the paddock too. THEN my old man with arthritis starts stubbing his toe often enough that he is wearing it away and it’s actually visible. Each time I point these out, he grumbles and does it but goes right back to the old way at the next appointment.

I tell him I’m trying a new farrier who is married to a friend and just graduating from farrier school (both actually true) to get him going in his new career, absolutely no comment on current farrier’s work at all. He grumbles and then tells me “good luck with that” and “it takes five years to get proficient” and throws his shit in his truck and leaves while giving me this disgruntled/dismissive/condescending sort of glare while going through the gate. Uhhh yikes?

New farrier is new. Some tweaks are needed but he listens to the vet and he’s tolerant of my baby horse who is learning manners and Rory, who was always an ass about the farrier and generally needs drugs. Too tolerant apparently, he got wrecked by another client’s horse that landed him in the hospital in Sept and required several surgeries and he’s just now off a walker as of January. I had to switch to another guy and omg he’s chatty :laughing: BUT holy shit he does a good job. I mean a GOOD JOB.

So just keep it up, sometimes you have to kiss a lot of farriers. I mean frogs.

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You know, I don’t think I have ever face to face fired a farrier? 98% of them were a " call before I need them type" to schedule. A bit hard for me but works wonderfully when you need to find someone else. You just never call.

Funny thing is that one farrier I used was also a PT FF! He was excellent too, BTW. He also went full time and it got hard to schedule, so my vet gave me the number of a farrier he liked and he was wonderful .

Yeaahhhh it was awkward but I just grew a pair and did it. I always schedule my next appt at the current appt - farriers always get booked around here, no “call when you need me” because that means you might get the trim you need next week in another four weeks :woman_shrugging:t4:

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My current farrier ( who I absolutely adore) is a schedule before he leaves kind of guy. I would never fire him but just thinking about doing it and how awkward it would be…

None of my other farriers would schedule in advance and yes, some of them could not get here even with me calling 4 weeks in advance :grimacing:

Do you have rads and a vet to consult and does your vet and farrier consult? That would be the best for your horse. I use both my vet and farrier together and they consult with each other on my horses behalf.

I am chuckling and SMH. How many of us have complained about how hard it is to get communication from our farrier. This one sounds like they responded (ranted) within 12 hours.

Probably a COTH record.

Perhaps they have a lot of free time in their life for obvious reasons

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This has happened to me before with several professionals, including one horse trainer. I used their services, decided they weren’t for me, then informed them (politely) of this. Often, one reason I was stepping away wasn’t just quality, but that they were very bullying and got angry with me if they viewed me as being disobedient, almost like someone teaching a child. Follow with emails of WALLS OF TEXT and no paragraphs with their whole life stories, and minute critiques of my performance/ behavior and several weeks of being sent communications until I stopped responding.

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Ah. The true crazy comes out and you were right to trust your gut. Blocking on SM is also a very useful strategy.

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Yes definitely some similar vibes going on here. Dismissing my concerns because they are the professional and know best. I try first and foremost listen to my horse so if things seem off I am merely trying to advocate for the horse. Not being contrary for the fun of it.

Anyway I responded to the wall of text being firm about my concerns that had been unaddressed, got another nasty response and left it at that. Don’t have the energy to deal with that kind of nonsense.

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I’d be likely to respond that I’d be sure to share their response to anyone who asked about their services going forward.

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