Help needed from heavy horse owners re shoes... *long*

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tasteofchristmaschaos

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Fella has front shoes on only and one went loose two thursdays ago. However, he was moved on the saturday to a new yard, and so couldn't get the farrier out. My old farrier doesn't go to the area of my new yard, so I asked my new YM if she thought her farrier would mind doing my boy too. She contacted the farrier and he said no problem, will be out friday or saturday to do my boy and several of hers. When she rung to confirm the day he would be out later, he didn't answer and only managed to contact him today, saying he has a bad back and can't do anything atm. She contacted several farriers and one was able to come out today to do them. Farrier sees Fella and says he doesn't carry shoes that big, he needs special shire shoes as his current ones aren't wide enough. He does have shire shoes but doesn't bring them with him unless he needs them. We arrange for him to come out Thursday to put them on, and I ask how much it would be. £80. I nearly passed out. His old farrier charged £42.50 for fronts and a trim. I just wondered how reasonable this new cost was, as you can normally get a full set for £60 around here. If he needs these shoes then he needs them, I'm not going to compromise the comfort of my horse for £37.50 every 6 weeks, but I just wondered if this was reasonable for a trim and 2 front shire shoes or if it was on the pricey side.
 
Our new boy is going to need XL shire shoes!! To be honest, no farrier has a need to charge extra for the larger shoes, and infact I have been advised by my own farrier that any extra will be because of the extra weight involved working on the horse!!!! I can't comment on that as I am not a farrier.
Some farriers do charge a lot more than others, and it may just be that this new farrier is more expensive than your old farrier. I would try to find out what he charges for this service for a 'normal' horse.
 
my boy is an irish draught by the sounds of it doesnt have as bit of feet as what your guy does but i still only pay 70 for a full set its a good price from where i am so not sure about where you are but 80 for fronts and a trim tell him to get lost
 
We have two 18hh Pecherons, they have shire size feet, the first new farrier we had when we moved charged us £90 a set, now we have a new farrier that charges £80, my 'normal sized' horse cost me £60 with the same farrier.

We have always paid more for the two 'big boys'
frown.gif
 
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To be honest, no farrier has a need to charge extra for the larger shoes,

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I agree that £80 seems very steep, but having just had a shire horse join our yard, I had a conversation about this with my farrier a couple of weeks ago. He was explaining how much each of the different kind of shoes cost, and a set for the shire would be quite a lot more than the ones I have.

I took him at his word - I know the fronts that my mare has cost more than the regular shoes but he absorbs that cost as it's not much different. However the extra mahoosive shire shoes were more expensive again (not double the cost though!!)
 
to be honest that farrier sounds reasonable, your old farrier was very cheap!!! we keep shires horses + i cant remember the last time we managed to get shoes for that much! lol a full set for ours tends to cost around £120 the shoes are more expensive as there is more metal to them + they are thicker. + farriers do tend to charge more to shoe them as they take longer + they are harder work due to the weight etc.
 
QR I have a clydesdale cross with big feet but I think he may be one or half a shoe size down from a shire horse. But he is certainly not a normal or large cob size that is for sure. A full set costs me £60 a time, I think fronts and a trim would be £40 as that is what I paid for the cob I have once. The big lad's shoes are big and wide, very thick and robustly made.
I would certainly not be paying £80 for fronts and a trim. That is daylight robbery!
To OP if your horse can go bare for a few weeks. Why don't you just have old shoes removed and have a trim. Then save the ones which are removed as spares ( in case he ever loses a shoe in the future, so long as they are not too worn). Then ring around some farriers in the area yourself and price them up for the best deal/service and have a set of fronts on. Even allowing for the cost of a trim which should be around £15/20 if you can get a set of fronts put on for about £40 it will still save you from paying out £80 this time around.
 
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