Found a fantastic new farrier...

Kellys Heroes

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 May 2010
Messages
3,396
Location
Manchester
Visit site
Just a bit of a happy glad-its-sorted post really..!!
Yesterday whilst waiting for the vet, I was asked to help with a youngster of our friends with the farrier - he's a rescue horse and still very very 'wild' for want of a better word. You can touch one of his feet, but not his back, as he kicks off, kicking, biting, rearing - god knows what's happened to him in the past. They found this farrier via recommendations.
Anyhow as we were waiting for the farrier, they were telling us how by trade he is a barefoot trimmer, but will shoe - he isn't much more expensive than our usual one (who has messed us about terribly, taking money and generally messing Kelly's feet up) and apparently shod Red Rum! :eek:
To cut a long story short, the way he dealt with this youngster simply astounded me :confused: He picked one foot up and without even doing anything to it, said "he's had an abcess there, this has happened there, that needs doing etc". As he was leaping round in the air, pulling faces and being a prat, the farrier just kept a gentle hold, talking to him (NOT keeping a tight scary hold of him) and eventually he calmed down and had all 4 feet trimmed within 10 minutes :eek::D

Without pushing for business or asking for payment, he happily had a look at Kelly's feet for us - I posted on here a while ago when she had full blown lami about her heart bars whether they were meant to cover the full frog or not...it turns out our current farrier has used an eggbar shoe and welded a bit on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad::mad::mad: She is still intermittently very slightly lame in trot, but being ridden, fine in walk canter etc and very full of herself and full of character.
He also said that her feet are the complete wrong shape and her foot needs to be trimmed back and straight to correspond with the rotated pedal bone rather than being rounded - he said this was putting more pressure on the laminae, hence why she was still slightly lame. Our question was "do you think you can put it right?" he said "yeah, can't see why not!" :D:p:eek:

Without pressure from him, we booked him for a weeks time! :D He said he didn't need to see the x-rays but I am tempted to still bring them and a laptop down to the yard just because of our previous experiences with the last farrier saying he didn't need the xrays then leaving her feet another 2 weeks (the vet says rotation WILL have worsened if only slightly because of him not listening to us)....do you guys think he will be p!s$ed off if we ask him just to look??

He reckons he can have her sound within a couple of weeks of being shod...in time for the veteran class at Croft Top which we were debating on!! :D:D fingers crossed!!!!
 
Sounds absolutley great.
My only reservation is that you say "by trade he's a barefoot trimmer but will shoe" if he's a barefoot trimmer and not qualified & registered with the Farriers Registration Council then he's not legally allowed to nail a shoe on....
If he's a registered farrier however who does lots of barefoot then that's fine.
 
Fantastic, now keep him happy with lots of tea and cake! Good farriers really are like gold dust! If it were me I would bring the x-rays down. Won't do any harm and more info must be helpful I would imagine.
 
Sorry MagsnPaddy I don't think about what I write! xD he IS a registered farrier, but is known mostly for trimming barefoot - he is legal to shoe and has dealt with lots and lots of laminitics - hence why we are so excited!
He apparently buys poor conditioned laminitic used-to-be show ponies from the sales, and gets them back up to condition, shod properly and back in the show ring, even those with slight rotation :)
and glosgirl, don't you worry there will be flapjacks, tea and cookies!!! ;);) We just didn't want to end up in the same situation as last time with her being shod wrongly and too late, causing more pain BECAUSE he wouldn't see the x-rays!!! :(
 
Top