Hello all! I am so happy to tell you that I had a farrier that came to my barn Friday at noon which was our set time and day. Exactly at 12:00. Not hours later with my horses unhappy with being stuck in their stalls away from their lovely pasture grass.
This farrier was extremely careful with trimming both horses, especially with my older mare who had laminitis two years ago. He had me walk her back and forth, telling me she had some toeing in. That was news to me. He used a device to check both horses’ angles and especially with my older mare. Her front feet are slightly different in shape, with different angles on both. He told me that her toes were too long and her heels were under run.
He put shoes on both horses’ front feet and, once again, he spent extra time with my older mare, placing the shoe on her sole and then going out to his anvil to make changes. Several times. He was thorough, careful, and patient with both mares. He spent almost two hours, not because the horses were unruly, but just doing the best for them.
This young man, way younger than me, had spent the last ten years in Georgia working with a vet who worked for the University of Geogia, (maybe a vet program down there? I don’t know.) He traveled with the vet, doing farrier work with horses needing special types of shoeing. He worked with dressage and hunter/jumper horses as well as fox hunters. He explained things that made sense to me.
He moved back to Michigan to help his grandfather with his big farm. He keeps eleven horses on his grandfather’s farm , training them for western pleasure and stock work. His grandfather was a really well known farrier years ago in this part of the state. He started off learning from his grandfather. I was impressed and happy.
He charged me $65 for each horse and I added in an extra $50 for his travel time. (Maybe I should have given him more? I certainly can do so the next time round. I think his drive over to my barn was close to an hour.) That extra money took him by surprise and I got a big “thank you, ma’am” in return. He told me to just call him in four or five weeks when I thought there was enough new growth and he’d come back out. I told him how much I appreciated his willingness to work on my horses and he said he was happy to help me out. Wow!
His uncle was the last name and phone number I had on the list from my vet and his uncle gave me his nephew’s name and number. (Not my area code so I hadn’t called earlier.) The young man who came out was the nephew. This evening we called the horses in from pasture and they both galloped up to the barn, sliding on wet grass and feeling good. I think that was a good sign!
Thank you all who gave me comments on this thread and messages too. I’m feeling less stress and feeling better about farriers. It’s a big relief!
