Has a farrier ever refused to shoe your horse?

arwenplusone

arwenplusone

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Following on from EF's post on Farriers, just wondering if you'd ever had a refusal.

One Farrier refused to shoe Arwen once because she fidgeted a bit (he'd never done her before). I was livid as he is a chap with a v good reputation & I had bust a gut to get there in time from work.
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(in fairness to him, he does have old injuries but even so...). Obviously never used him again,

Then I went out with a farrier for a year or so, which was great
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but I broke up with him and we fell out. When I tried ringing round all the others in the area most of them wouldn't come anywhere near my horses out of loyalty to him!
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Now have a chap who is great, ex household cavalry. He isn't really sympathetic to the horses as some are but he's quick and very good and, has never refused to shoe anything!
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No me. But my farrier who is a lady will oftern refuse to shoe horses if they are naughty. Too many horses, too little farriers which means she can only shoe the good ones.
 
Once - B used to be very unbalanced and wobbled a lot. My old farrier used to stand her by the stable and let her lean against the wall but the new one wouldn't let her do this and took exception to her wobbling
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Not only have I had a farrier refuse to do one of mine, he also abandoned him half way through a shoeing. He was left with 3 shoes on. As he had a reputation, the horse, not the farrier, other farriers that came on the yard also were reluctant to do him. In the end, I agreed to have him sedated by the vet. IMO, the horse wasn't that bad, they just weren't patient enough with him.
In the end, I moved him to a new yard and a new farrier, who refused to do him sedated, took him on. He was as good as gold and we never looked back after that.

I wish now I had spoken up to the other farrier, he was a mean, horrible little man whose temper was infamous. I would never, ever have him near a horse of mine again, even though he is probably one of the top remedial farriers in my area.
 
Yes, I have a Lippy,she had a really bad start in life, took a month to get anywhere near her, and a year to gain her confidence, had a really good farrier who retired, he took 2 hours to trim her the first time,but anyway he retired .Found another farrier when he came did all the other 4 fine but I said to introduce himself to Lippy before he went for her feet.He didn't , he went straight in and she struck him across the head oops, no major injury thank god,but he badmouthed the filly and us.Now have ayoung farrier straight out of school, he is brilliant .
 
I've walked out on horses, telling the owner I will come back when they have kept their side of the deal and present a safe horse who will stand and pick up a hoof without endangering me or itself!

They are paying for a farrier, If they want a trainer, send the horse over for a week and I will send it back trained to be shod....with an appropriate bill!
 
Nope. My horse is a bit of a s*d to shoe too as he has bad feet and gets sore when the nails are banged in. He doesn't help isuses by fidgeting about, dropping his legs and trying to sit on the farrier mind! Makes getting nails in straight very hard.

Our farrier is patient though (although firm) and I think as our other 3 are perfectly well behaved he puts up with mine. we always have mine shod first too - get him out the way!

And mayflower yes, there are a lot of farriers in our area and seemingly a hell of a lot of unreliable ones at that! To be honest, sometimes I wonder how half of them retain customers. Luckily ours is not on of these (thank god).

I can see why a farrier may be reluctant to shoe a badly behaved horse though. It is their livelihood on the line after all. Ours was off work for a while following an injury caused by a horse mucking about.
 
No - but I have had to ring up twice now and explain that I'm very sorry but I have a horse that is a complete git to have feet picked up (one an unhandled youngster, one just an opinionated old so and so) and if they would rather not deal with them could they recommend someone else. With the youngster my wonderful farrier at that time said "Oh we'll soon get that sorted" and allowed an extra half an hour to kindly but determinedly get her to understand that if he wanted her to pick her foot up and keep it up that is just what she should do. He also took the opportunity to pop in a couple of times before he had to do her feet next to come in and pick them up as a reminder.

My current farrier dealt with the complete so and so - who isn't "nasty", just a bit of a twit - very calmly and firmly. He did leave the back unshod the first time - we decided discretion was the better part of valour - but since then the horse has been much more sensible and has been shod all round.

I am extremely lucky to have had two wonderful and patient men who not only understood that a little time and patience spent at first make life so much easier for everyone but were able to put it into practice too.
 
when I was on a big yard - there was one farrier who used to come once a week (she was the appointed "yard" farrier) and spend the whole day just at our yard.
She always used to say she would never do more than 4 full sets in that day.
Anyway I got a phone call one evening from her to say that she wouldn't shoe my horse anymore and I needed to find another farrier for my mare. Later found out it was because my mare was figeting, and was being a bit of a pain, but also because she had quite a few more to shoe that day (don't know how many but more than 4) and her exact words were "I am trying to run a business and can't afford to spend so long on one horse"

Ever since then I would never have a YO dictate to me what farrier to use
 
yes-he was punching it in the stomach, I told him to stop and he said he wouldn't shoe him then. The horse hadn't tried to kick him etc.
Needless to say that did not end with us keeping him as a farrier!
 
Yep, not that long ago - my 6 yr old had never been hot shod before i bought him - he was OKish for fronts. Then he needed backs as he got a little footsore. He kisked out with no warning and hit the farriers knee and farrier refused.

Fair dos though i totally understood, he has massive feet and is naughty at times.

We had to go with sedation, which went well and we are working on his legs now. So hopefully can be weaned off sedation gradually.
 
Kind of. Where I used to work we used a 'firm' of farriers, and only one of them would ever work with a pony we had who used to rear when you tried to pick his feet up. Luckily he was unshod so we could wait a bit longer between getting the farrier out. We were never refused as such, we just had to book a time when this particualar farrier could do it, as he was very patient and the pony took a shine to him.
 
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I've walked out on horses, telling the owner I will come back when they have kept their side of the deal and present a safe horse who will stand and pick up a hoof without endangering me or itself!

They are paying for a farrier, If they want a trainer, send the horse over for a week and I will send it back trained to be shod....with an appropriate bill!

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PMSL - nice to hear the other side talking!
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Yep... sadly, a very good farrier, after my horse was really terrified and would try to bolt. Said he couldn't afford to get injured, which I understand - farriers rely on their bodies to make money, after all (that sounds a bit wrong, but you get my drift...)

Unfortunately, the next farrier who was brilliant with the horse ended up taking too much foot off and making the horse very uncomfortable - we are still waiting for the foot to grow out so we can try farrier number three... really hoping things will work out this time.
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No I have never had a farrier refuse to shoe any of the horses I have owned in my lifetime. To be honest I'd be mortified if one ever did as I spend a lot of time making sure my horses are perfectly behaved with the farrier. I'm also very careful about the farrier I use, in that he has to be a good horseman with a gentle but firm personality.
 
Never. We did have one pony that dragged a farrier up the road after rearing and getting stuck upright against a wall the way you are when the police search you. It was totally out of character as he was usually good. But the old guy told us to give him some time with him alone, and we did (watching through window) and after that pony was never a problem for him again.

Have only had folk refuse because it was just my horse at my house and they only did yards!! That went on for 7 months until I finally gave in and took him to livery just so he could get a farrier (he was unshod in this time and we rode on the roads so his feet were ok, but not the point!)
 
i had one which refused to shoe the fronts!! as we had had lameness problems, turned out to be front feet he agreed to let the remideal farrier deal with it only to then turn round and say would no longer do her fronts. well a lot of use that was have a farrier thatwould only do half the horse! now have lovley farrier
 
No. My neds are always in and ready, feet cleaned and they pick feet up with no problems.
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No I have never had a farrier refuse to shoe any of the horses I have owned in my lifetime. To be honest I'd be mortified if one ever did as I spend a lot of time making sure my horses are perfectly behaved with the farrier.

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^^^ Exactly what she said. Although I've only got one horse who's never had a problem with shoeing, I have worked at a yard in the past and used to put hours into getting certain horses to accept having their feet and legs handled and behaving with the farrier.
 
Only if a horse is very dangerous, but i can only recall one horse that i will not shoe (he is still trimmed and coming on so well that maybe one day we can get shoes on him - we being me and the owner because they are the ones that are responsible for the training not me!)

every time we are under a horse that puts us in danger we risk ourselves, our lively hoods and often other who depend on us (my fiance for instance would be unconsolable if anything happened to me) so i am careful.

if a horse is a 'problem' then i will just take more time. no worries.
 
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