I’ve found a new farrier with whom I’m very happy. My original/still current farrier, who has been with me for twelve years, will be here next week. I plan to deliver the news in person rather than making a follow-up appointment, which seems a little kinder than calling before next week’s appointment or sometime afterward to cancel (forever).
As quick info for those who will understandably skip the TLDR portion, new farrier has started trimming two of my horses, and I’ve kept Farrier1 on the other two. To be… nice? It’s kind of a pain to have two farriers, though, especially when I would prefer that Farrier2 do them all. Any suggestions for how to frame this conversation? I can certainly handle this unhappy job, but if anyone has suggestions I hadn’t thought of, I’m all for hearing them.
TLDR, Background: Farrier1 has been with me for twelve years. As a first-time horse owner in a sport-horse desert, since there are so few options where I live I was happy to have any farrier. I have four horses; two are retired and all are barefoot. I don’t ride frequently enough or do anything that rises to the level of needing shoes.
As years passed and I learned more about hoof care, I became increasingly unhappy with Farrier1’s trims. I eventually met and became acquainted with a veterinarian from an adjacent county. She was previously a farrier herself and dislikes “all” the farriers in the area (which encompasses multiple rural counties across two states). Recently, Farrier2 came to this area, and my vet acquaintance said he was “actually pretty good” and the only one she’d recommend. I called him; I like him and started having him do two of my four who have had chronic issues as long as I’ve owned them. One stumbles frequently (a lameness exam with my non-sport-horse multi-animal general practitioner vet was inconclusive, and I finally stopped riding him out of fear of potential consequences, which are summed up well on other threads on the topic), and the other has extremely underrun heels and is very ouchy when not on grass or a giving surface. The remaining two are also underrun, though not quite as bad.
I’ve tried to encourage Farrier1 to shorten toes and build more heel. Heck, I’d hoped he’d see the issue at all. He’s very concerned when I ask him about it, but he doesn’t trim any differently, and, during subsequent visits, he doesn’t seem to remember our previous conversations—it’s like every time I mention it, it’s the first time I’ve mentioned it. He’s told me the “angles are good,” according to a tool he has that he slips over their toes after trimming.
Farrier1 is older and mostly retired. In his day, he was very involved in the walking horse scene, traveling to different states to shoe at walking horse shows. He’s told me about the “packages” he’d put on those horses; this is how I learned that walking horses wear “packages.” I’m unfamiliar with gaited horses and the gaited horse show world and have no idea of their hoof care requirements, but I suspect it’s different from how a low-level dressage-dabbling and previously eventer-dabbling rider like me would want their horses barefoot trimmed.
That said, he’ll be here next week. I welcome suggestions on how to have this conversation.
! It wasn’t my intention to bring up anything negative but thanks for the reminder. Really, these have been all such helpful responses and I’m so glad this community exists.
, but it made me feel better that sometimes these thing must happen, and I’m not alone. It really helped.