ecrozier
Well-Known Member
Bit of a long story here I'm afraid.
My WB mare had bad feet when I first had her, she was then diagnosed with navicular in 1998 and I was advised to use a certain farrier by the vets. I did, and for 8 years we never had any trouble with her navicular, she was later diagnosed with Arthritis in her near fore fetlock (she's pidgeon toed so no great surprise) and later in her hocks (yep, you guessed it, slightly cow hocked WB with bad joints!). But through egg bars, rolled toes, silicon to rebuild bad feet, raised heels, etc etc, my farrier was fantastic, he did everything asked, always turned up when he said he would etc etc. And she has stayed very sound considering!
Since buying my other horse 4 years ago, he always shod him too and always said the little lad had one of the best sets of feet he knew. Good shape, hard but not brittle, just really easy to shoe.
Now OH has a big mare too, never had any soundness issues in the 3 years before we had her, or the first 6 months we owned her.
Unfortunately, my farrier gave up shoeing in our area, as he now has lots of work abroad and it is more profitable for him to do this.
I went with a friend's recommendation for an alternative farrier.
He seemed like a nice guy, fairly reliable so far, talked as if he was knowledgeable, first shoeing they all looked fine. Only thing that surprised me was that he never asked me to trot any of them up even though I explained Tia's history of joint/foot problems
and that the pony had nearly died of lami a couple of years ago but was basically saved by remedial shoeing.
Anyway, so be it. Second time he came, their feet just didn't llok as good. Now the mares I could blame on weather conditions etc as T has always had slightly dodgy feet, and this is the first "summer" we have had M. But J....his feet were giving way slightly where the nails had been? Its hard to explain, but essentially where the nail can be seen on the outside of the foot, there is now a vertical crack going either side of each nail tip....and where the previous month's nails had been, the wall has cracked off slightly? Is this normal? Never noticed it before. Also the nail tips are in nothing even vaguely approaching a straight line on many occasions.... shouldn't they be?
Having examined all their feet, many of the shoes are not on straight, enough so that the naked eye can see they are not right. Also as you might have seen on my other post we are now having soundness issues with the big girl, at the moment we think this may be ringbone, after x-rays I asked him to come back and re-shoe her to bring the breakover point back, explained eactly what the vet had seen on x-rays etc. He couldn't come for a week, fair enough, but then when he did come was half an hour late so I could only stay 10 mins. He didn't ask me to trot her up, didn't ask to see x-rays, nothing...and having looked again, yes he has put natural balance shoes on, and shortened her toes etc....but the bl**dy things aren't straight!
So, my questions are:
Do your horse's feet look 'tidy' eg smooth surface, nail heads in a straight line etc? Are there vertical cracks around nails?
Do the shoes all look straight?
With a problem eg ringbone/arthritis would you expect farrier to want horse trotted up/see xrays?
I'm definately planning to use someone else now but do I have any recourse against him eg can I complain to anyone? Especially if M comes sound with a different farrier I would seroiously conisider an official complaint but am I just being troublesome. Also, might sound a bit paranoid, but I am moving to a yard later in the year where many clientele use this guy, am I on dodgy territory if I tell them why I don't? Should we just keep our mouths shut? Or warn others? I'd want to be warned if it was me I have to say.... My husband is absolutely fuming with this guy, I am trying to be reasonable....
Any advice appreciated!!
My WB mare had bad feet when I first had her, she was then diagnosed with navicular in 1998 and I was advised to use a certain farrier by the vets. I did, and for 8 years we never had any trouble with her navicular, she was later diagnosed with Arthritis in her near fore fetlock (she's pidgeon toed so no great surprise) and later in her hocks (yep, you guessed it, slightly cow hocked WB with bad joints!). But through egg bars, rolled toes, silicon to rebuild bad feet, raised heels, etc etc, my farrier was fantastic, he did everything asked, always turned up when he said he would etc etc. And she has stayed very sound considering!
Since buying my other horse 4 years ago, he always shod him too and always said the little lad had one of the best sets of feet he knew. Good shape, hard but not brittle, just really easy to shoe.
Now OH has a big mare too, never had any soundness issues in the 3 years before we had her, or the first 6 months we owned her.
Unfortunately, my farrier gave up shoeing in our area, as he now has lots of work abroad and it is more profitable for him to do this.
I went with a friend's recommendation for an alternative farrier.
He seemed like a nice guy, fairly reliable so far, talked as if he was knowledgeable, first shoeing they all looked fine. Only thing that surprised me was that he never asked me to trot any of them up even though I explained Tia's history of joint/foot problems
Anyway, so be it. Second time he came, their feet just didn't llok as good. Now the mares I could blame on weather conditions etc as T has always had slightly dodgy feet, and this is the first "summer" we have had M. But J....his feet were giving way slightly where the nails had been? Its hard to explain, but essentially where the nail can be seen on the outside of the foot, there is now a vertical crack going either side of each nail tip....and where the previous month's nails had been, the wall has cracked off slightly? Is this normal? Never noticed it before. Also the nail tips are in nothing even vaguely approaching a straight line on many occasions.... shouldn't they be?
Having examined all their feet, many of the shoes are not on straight, enough so that the naked eye can see they are not right. Also as you might have seen on my other post we are now having soundness issues with the big girl, at the moment we think this may be ringbone, after x-rays I asked him to come back and re-shoe her to bring the breakover point back, explained eactly what the vet had seen on x-rays etc. He couldn't come for a week, fair enough, but then when he did come was half an hour late so I could only stay 10 mins. He didn't ask me to trot her up, didn't ask to see x-rays, nothing...and having looked again, yes he has put natural balance shoes on, and shortened her toes etc....but the bl**dy things aren't straight!
So, my questions are:
Do your horse's feet look 'tidy' eg smooth surface, nail heads in a straight line etc? Are there vertical cracks around nails?
Do the shoes all look straight?
With a problem eg ringbone/arthritis would you expect farrier to want horse trotted up/see xrays?
I'm definately planning to use someone else now but do I have any recourse against him eg can I complain to anyone? Especially if M comes sound with a different farrier I would seroiously conisider an official complaint but am I just being troublesome. Also, might sound a bit paranoid, but I am moving to a yard later in the year where many clientele use this guy, am I on dodgy territory if I tell them why I don't? Should we just keep our mouths shut? Or warn others? I'd want to be warned if it was me I have to say.... My husband is absolutely fuming with this guy, I am trying to be reasonable....
Any advice appreciated!!
