|
Why do I have this page? A few years ago, I gave up on the
search for a decent farrier that would actually show up when he said he
would, and started shoeing my horses myself. Was this a wise move?
To me it was. It has enabled me to tailor the type and fit of each shoe
much more to the horse than any farrier I have used.
From the time I got my riding pony (a hackney/welsh cob cross) in
1994, I could never find a farrier that could reliably put front shoes
on him in such a way that he wouldn't pull them off prematurely. I
even made sure that I stressed to the farriers that he had this problem,
but nothing was ever changed about the way in which he was shod.
Now that I shoe my own horses, I have been able to try different things
with him to see what works and what doesn't. I ended up using
Natural Balance shoes on
his front feet and he rarely loses a shoe anymore. Currently he is
being used in my plastic
horseshoe testing so he is cycling through those shoes.
What research did I do before deciding to shoe my own horses?
This was not a decision that I made lightly. Initially I
thought that it would be a lot cheaper to shoe my own horses, and in the
long run it has been, but the initial cost was large. Good quality
tools and an anvil are expensive. My initial outlay was in excess
of $500. If you decide to shoe your own horses, DON'T get cheap
tools. You don't have to get the best tools made, but get good
tools. Poor tools will make shoeing difficult. After shoeing
my own horses for a few years, I finally spent the money on a good
nailing hammer and I have been kicking myself for waiting so long ever
since. That hammer has made nailing on shoes much easier.
I watched many farriers shoe a wide variety of horses, and bought
some inexpensive books and videos, but eventually I spent the money to
buy a copy of Principles of Horseshoeing, II by Doug Butler. This
is an excellent textbook that is used by many farrier schools. It
covers nearly every aspect of shoeing including many types of corrective
and special shoeing. There is also a new revision of this book
available.
If anyone is considering shoeing their own horses, it is extremely
important that they first be able to do a nice balanced trim. A
shoeing job can't be any better than the trim job that was done.
Horseshoeing resources and forums:
Farrier and hoof care
forums has areas for both farriers and horse owners to ask questions
and discuss various topics.
Plastic horseshoes:
I am in the process of evaluating three different brands of plastic
horseshoe. They are EponaShoe,
GroundControl,
and PonyW'air. Progress of
my testing can be found here. |