Emergency Farriery?

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NeilM

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How many of you know how to remove a shoe, or have the tools to do it?

As a friend was putting her horse in its stable for the night (we rode with her until lunch time today), she found he was hobbling. On closer inspection, one of his front shoes was twisted on one side of his foot, so he could not put his foot down. As this was at about 5.30 pm, and its Saturday, she had absolutely no chance of getting a farrier, but she did get one who we know to answer his phone and he said just get the shoe off. He the gave her a quick talk through of how to do this. At this point I got the HELP!!! phone call.

Very fortunately I have a good tool kit, which happens to include shoe pullers (by complete chance). So I whizzed to her yard and remembering what I have seen our farrier do on dozens of occasions (but not by torchlight) I managed to get the shoe off. Much celebration and many hugs ensued.

So, how many members have the tools and know how to remove a shoe in an emergency?

I for one will be adding a buffer at the very least to my tool kit.
 

I dated a farrier for a while so I know how to do it and I do have some tools to do it with
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I *think* there is some sort of law about unqualified laymen removing horses shoes btw. (though obviously in an emergency that goes out of the water). I do think vets can do it though.
 
I think the odd shoe removal is OK, at least, I hope it is.

It is definitely illegal to carry out any form of farriery unless you are a qualified and registered farrier and there are a handful of prosecutions every year.
 
I have pulled off shoes in emergencies. My farrier gave me and old buffer for gettting the remaining clenches up and I bought a pair of pullers. I would only do it if there was a risk of further damage to the horse or foot if it was left. If a shoe had spread but was still firmly in place I have in the past padded the foot on the side that the shoe is sticking out with cotton wool and a vetwrap until the farrier can come.
 
Yes can and have done it but farrier makes it look really easy--it isnt!!
It is not illegal to remove a shoe but it would be to put it back on.
Far better to minimise the damage by removing a loose/partly pulled shoe, if they tread on a loose nail you can easily have a very lame horse
 
It is illegal to do any type of farriery on a horse if you are under-qualified. But i dont think it is illegal to take them off, but to do any work on the hoof such as rasping etc, or putting a shoe back on is illegal, ask your farrier.

P.S. well done
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What they said! You can take a shoe off but not put it on. I think when you order stuff from Robinsons or wherever it says this in their catalogue.

Had to take one off the other day. It was loose so tried to get hold of farrier - no response - and then it started sliding about so it had to come off. Still had three nails in so I had to use my OH's chain splicer or whatever it was to snip the clenches, then between pliers and a claw hammer
shocked.gif
I finally got it off, luckily horse didn't do anything stupid while we did it.

Anyway have decided to get some basic tools - was at feed merchant's today and they didn't have any, so going to have to order some.
 
Have done it several times, initially with some interesting toolware but have a technique sorted now. Thing am most worried is trashing foot more than necessary and then farrier berating me!
 
You're allowed to take shoes off - it's a requirement for the stage 2 BHS exam to know how to do it. Vets have to learn how to do it quickly and well too, for obvious reasons. It's just trimming/altering foot and putting shoe on that's illegal. Definitely a good idea to get some basic tools on your yard for emergencies!
 
My main worry was making a mess of the hoof, but the farrier my friend spoke to just said get the shoe off and don't worry too much about the hoof.

I was as careful as I could be, given that I was working in a stable, under a single 60 w light bulb and an LED torch, which was not ideal. The trouble was that the shoe was twisted so that one side was about 30mm from the hoof, so the poor lad could only stand on his tip toe. Anyway, job done.

As well as getting a buffer, I am also going to adapt a 2 ton axle stand, as some sort of stand would have made removing the clenches much easier.

There are a few on line places that supply farriers tools, and one I came across does an emergency kit, in a plastic tool tray and with instructions, at around £30.
 
There's one thing learning HOW to remove a shoe like I also did for stage 2, but actually DOING it is something else. I'm going to ask my farrier if he'll teach me, I think. It's one of those things you'd always wished you'd asked when you're faced with a shoe emergency!
 
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