I would just like to defend Farriers if i may

[showjump2003]

My farrier is fab

 

[yethersgill]

Well said!
My farrier is one in a million. He gets tea and biscuits when he arrives and part way through the shoeing/trimming session (we have 7 ponies).
I always feel guilty if ponies are muddy and do my best to clean them up but not all take kindly to the hosepipe..........
Oh and I always pay cash

 

[LadyRascasse]

i think my farrier is fantastic, takes his time and does his job brilliantly, if he is late then he is only human and always texts to let us know.

 

[Britestar]

Mine is a star too. Very grateful he kept us on when he moved away, comes once a fortnight, phones/texts if he has to have a change of plan.

This week, ultra-star, as one of our guys pulled a shoe and was very sore. I rang to see if he was in the area, said he wasn;t but would get the guy more local to us to come and out it back on.

This chap finished his apprentiship (sp) with him, so will do favours like that. He turned up today - albeit a bit late (err..2 hrs), but ponio has his shoe back on and very happy.

 

[algy666]

I love my farrier, I'd never have anybody else shoe my horse

he always gets a bottle of whisky at Christmas.

 

[WelshRuby]

My farrier has just left having done a brilliant job as always. I love him, hes always on time (sometimes early-I always have horse in 45 mins before hes due!) rings if hes going to be late, has a wicked sense of humour, love the dogs and horses. My horse was leaning on him today which is not usual and when I put him back in the stable he released a torrent! Farrier thought he was trying to keep his legs crossed!

 

[Flame_]

Don't take it personally, The Farrier. You sound good at your job and reliable, as are my farriers, but there are plenty in your profession that warrant moaning about! I expect your customers have nothing but praise for you, but in some areas the standard of farriers isn't great, and the shortage of good ones means that these good ones don't seem to try very hard to keep their customers happy, reliability-wise.

I appreciate your input on this forum and I'm sure your customers appreciate your good service too.

 

[lferguson977]

My farrier's an A$$hole...

He's not great at his job, in my opinion, he's rude, arrogant, unreliable, hard to get hold of, and charges a complete fortune...

BUT - he's related to my YO, so I'm not allowed to bring another farrier in, and I can't tow, so I can't go elsewhere... I've considered asking a different farrier to shoe her on the roadside!!! haha!

 

[davejoiner]

I LOVE my farrier ! he has a roast dinner when he comes and is never late ;-)

 

[pottamus]

Well thanks for taking the time to post that and I think you have a valid point. My farrier is good and is usually no more than an hour late and usually on time. We have a severe shortage of farriers in the area and am very lucky to have him coming out to my one horse as I am not on a yard.
The farrier I had before was a pain...not bad at his job but incredibly un-reliable. At the time I was self employed too and paid by the hour so was taking time out to be there ready for him with my horse. Every minute he was late cost me dearly and there were times when I pleaded with him to at least call me and let me know he was to be up to half a day late! The last straw came when for the third time he did not turn up at all and when I eventually got hold of him on the phone he said he had woke up that day and felt a cold coming on so did not leave the house!!! I lost alot of money in earnings because of incidents like that and managed to find my current farrier and dropped the other one. A couple of months later he rang me up to see if he could have another chance!!!
I think the main frustration comes from a lack of communication on the part of some farriers...everyone understands lateness and how it can happen and that is fine but I just wish they would ring and let you know rather than leave you stood waiting.

 

[millitiger]

my farrier is excellent and is looked after very well!

he does an amazing job on all of my horses from foals to eventers, has fixed awful feet and not minded when some of the sellers were horrendously behaved.

he has never lifted a hand to any of them, listens to my endless concerns and paranoia about their feet, is on time, cheerful, knowledgeable and has followed me around 4 yards in 6 years!

i have had awful farriers in the past either in their skills, time keeping or whatever and instead of bad mouthing them, i simply changed farrier!

 

[eoe]

Totally agree with you TF, in 35 years I have only had 3 farriers, the first one I had to box the horses too and travel 30 miles, then one started up nearer who was mobile, so used him for a number of years until he went and gave up and became a EDT. I have had the same blacksmith now for over 12 years, I always expect him to be late if I am not first as I know how difficult horses and owners can be especially if they get there and have to do extra work, he is never more than 30 minutes late and if he is someone always lets me know, always make him a cup of tea on arrival and maybe another one depending how many horses he has to do on my yard. If one of mine looses a shoe, he always fits me in and what I like most about him is that he fits the shoes to the hooves and always cuts their toes well back, whereas there are quite a few round my way who like to leave them too long. Good farriers are hard to find so I hold on to mine as though he was gold dust, it does help that his wife is a friend of mine and has been since I started in horses and we used to compete against each other. Unfortunately it is the old scenario it is always a handful that give the rest a bad name, people should think outside the box and give farriers the respect they are due, its not a job I would want too do.

 

[TheFarrier]

[ QUOTE ]
Good on you, speaking as a farrier's wife, I agree with everything you said.

Can I add, clients who think it is the farrier's job to teach their young horses manners and to stand to be shod

and clients who bounce cheques on you (repeatedly) and then wonder why you don't come and shoe for them any more

[/ QUOTE ]

Hear hear

these are things i was NOT going to mention

amongst others.

My wife would say similar

 

[mickey]

I feel proud to say that my horse/situation ticks none of the boxes you have mentioned, so we are good clients.

It's a hard job and my farrier deserves respect. He does a great job after all.

 

[4leggedfurries]

May i congratulate you on a fabulous post?! Well written! I have had my fair share of cowboys, that have messed me and my horses around, but now i have what i believe to be the most fantastic farrier (except for one occasion where he completly forgot about me, he had crossed me out of his diary for some unknown reason, but i'll forgive him for that, he came out two days later). He's always on time, if he's going to be late he calls, i always make sure the horse is ready and presentable for him. He's out within a day or two if the 'oss throws a shoe, no quibble. He is always offered a cuppa and cake/biscuits as soon as he arrives so that he can eat/drink as he goes along. He is patient, kind, considerate, and willing to answer my 1001 questions that i always fire off at him. Always has a chat and asks how things are going. He is a one in a million farrier, who deserves every penny he earns and is a true credit to the profession! Bring on farriers of his calibre!

 

[Donkeymad]

Well done TheFarrier for speaking up, it really annoys me how so many people rant about their farriers, but are less than good owners themselves, ie, the bringing in, training in readiness etc. It is also nice to see so many, for a change, praising their farriers.

My farrier is fab, has only ever been late twice, in many years, each time due to holiday makers driving stupidly along our narrow Cornish roads, then crashing (he lives near St.Ives) he is always early otherwise. Our nags are in ready, cleaned and gets coffee part way through. He has clean hardstanding, inside or out as he prefers at the time, and our neds are trained.
He is around 70 years old now, and we dread the day he retires.

The Farrier, I bow down to you

 

[TheFarrier]

[ QUOTE ]
Well done TheFarrier for speaking up, it really annoys me how so many people rant about their farriers, but are less than good owners themselves, ie, the bringing in, training in readiness etc. It is also nice to see so many, for a change, praising their farriers.

My farrier is fab, has only ever been late twice, in many years, each time due to holiday makers driving stupidly along our narrow Cornish roads, then crashing (he lives near St.Ives) he is always early otherwise. Our nags are in ready, cleaned and gets coffee part way through. He has clean hardstanding, inside or out as he prefers at the time, and our neds are trained.
He is around 70 years old now, and we dread the day he retires.

The Farrier, I bow down to you

[/ QUOTE ]

LD we will be coming back to Cornwall soon

and it will be great to meet you next time! thank you for your kind words. Its is great to see people saying good things i think we focus too much on the bad and then tar everyone with the same brush

 

[teresagarsden]

My farrier is a star i have used him since he started training( supervised by another farrier) and continued with him when he quallified. Josh ur a star and you never let me down and always let me know when u are not able to get to me.
Also bless him he puts up with a 3/4 mile god awful lane to get to me.
Good farriers are worth their weight in gold, i treasure mine.
Teresa

 

[Laafet]

I have not read all the replies but did read OP and I have to say it is about time that people were made to think before they slag off their farrier. I know from close links with farriers that the easier we make their job, the quicker and better they can do theirs. I always try to provide an area that is out of the weather with solid footing, my farriers have been happy to shoe in the field providing it is not p*ssing with rain and muddy. I work professionally with horses and the number of farriers that have said to me that they prefer to do pro yards as the horses are better handled is shocking, you may think that it is acceptable to let your horse trample, barge or bite you but is not nice for the farrier. Tarquin was terrible to trim when I first got him as he had never been trimmed and was 4 1/2 years old, so I used to put a chifney on him and ask for him to be done in his box, we then moved to a Dually and now he can be shod all round stood tied up outside his box. It has taken 2 years and a very patient farrier, but he never once complained as we made sure that everything was as safe as possible.
I can forgive him being late if he phones/texts. Having run a yard I can appreciate I used to often ask 'while you are here....can you do x y and z.' hence making him late for his next appointment.
I also offer refreshments in the summer and a cup of tea/coffee in the winter and the obligatory bottle of wine for Christmas. A good farrier is something to hold onto and I often recommend my farrier to others.

 

[TheFarrier]

I was not expecting such a positive response to this post due to the nature of the posts which lead to this one.

 

[haras]

My farrier frequently has to wait for me to catch my horses..................................

Not my fault he ALWAYS turns up half an hour early!!!!!!!!!! (and yes, I am when able starting to allow for that now!)

In all honesty though, my farrier is great.

 

[rocketdog69]

My farrier is always late but I know that and I always add on between an hour and an hour and a half on top of whatever time he says he's going to arrive. He's the best farrier around and I wouldnt change him for all the tea in China. He's always patient with my youngster which is fab and has a great sense of humour. If I ever need him to put a lost shoe back on he always tries to get to me ASAP.

Big Cheers for Martin Head (Wiltshire)

 

[Tinypony]

I've never "slagged" my farrier, even though he was unreliable and prepared to rush the job to the detriment of my horses when he was in a hurry. We had to part company, but his name does not appear. I have recommended my old farrier by name several times, he was brilliant but moved away.
I guess we just have to treat everyone as an individual, the good and the bad. It's a shame though that there seem to be rather a lot in your profession who give it a bad reputation. Well, there certainly are round my way.

 

[JackDaniels123]

my farrier is great,i have a 2 year old that never had he feet even picked up when i got him,rung bill and told him got a new baby he has now been trimed 3 times with out a problem.THANKS 2 A GREAT FARRIER I LOVE HIM LOTS

 

[Spot_the_Risk]

Mine is great, always on time (well, nearly!), been with him 10 years, since he qualified, he shoes and trims, his apprentice is lovely, the horses feet are considered and shod correctly. They've both been great with our two youngsters, as someone else said, there is only so much replication of being a farrier you can do! These guys can hang onto a pistoning leg or an unbalanced youngster easily, whereas I just can't!

He's followed me around nine yards! and I've recommended him to many people, who now use him on a regular basis.

 

[chestnut cob]

My current farrier is fantastic but unfortunately they're not all like that. When I moved back in to the area last year, YO said I could slot in with her and use her farrier or could use my own. I chose to use her farrier as she arranges all of the appointments, sorts the horses out for him, passes on our cheques/money and so on.

I was chatting to him a couple of weeks ago and was actually saying to him did he realise what a good farrier he is! He said he loves doing our yard because of how YO arranges everything, so he doesn't have 14 different liveries calling, changing things etc...YO keeps a diary of when everyone's horses are due and they are automatically booked in every 6 weeks with him unless you ask for something different. Said he knows he has at least one full afternoon, if not a day, each week at our yard so it makes planning his diary easy. Plus all horses are ready when he arrives, clean legs, all well behaved.

AFAIAC he turns up on time, he does a great job, if he changes something about the way your horse is shod, he tells you why, he is reasonably priced and he's a nice bloke as well. Last week he went to the yard to shoe my boy and a couple of others. My horse has shivers which farrier is fine with and knows he sometimes can be tricky. I rate this farrier because he phoned YO after doing my boy to ask if we'd realised his shivering seemed worse this time than it had ever been, and that he was a bit off on a front leg (bruise coming, he'd been fine the night before when I saw him). IME, not many farriers I've used would notice that your horse's shivers seemed to be a bit worse. I have my farrier to thank for me getting the vet out and pony being diagnosed with a spavin - without the farrier letting me know he'd felt a tiny amount of worsening in his shivering/stiffness, I'd probably just have thought he felt a bit stiff...

So my farrier will get extra biscuits when I next see him

The other side of the coin though...I had one farrier who consistently shod my Welsh cob with such long feet he kept falling over but wouldn't change anything when I queried it. Another who was consistently between 3 and 6 hours late for every appointment but shouted so much at my YO for the horse not being in when he turned up 30 mins early once that he made her cry....

 

[conniegirl]

It's more farriers like you that the proffession needs.
My farrier is a saint and hand on heart i can say that in the entire time i have been with him (over 6 years) he has never been more then 10 mins late and even gives me a call the night before to remind me!
He has even shoved a shoe back on my show pony whilst i wasnt there. I left pony in the stable, popped out to pick someone up from the train station (farrier was warned i might not be there and just asked that i leave ponies in and a cheque in the feed room) and when i got back ponies shoe was back on, and pony had been turned out! couldnt have thanked my farrier enough.
I suppose that it helps that all my 4 ponies are done every 6 weeks without fail, stand like saints for the farrier (ponies know better then to play up) and our farrier gets supplied with as many cups of tea as he wants and biscuits or cake depending on what weve got round.

Then again he leaves enough time between his clients that the only time i've ever heard of him not showing up to someone was when a hunter went balistic and put him in hospital (it sounded so sore when he described it) even then his wife phoned everyone on his list for that day to cancel and phoned everyone who was on the list the next day to say that they may have to cancel (they did in the end as well, but completely understandable).

One thing i hate is farriers who say some time in the morning or even just name a day and say that day! it means you have to take the whole day off work and then sometimes farriers dont turnup. I'm with my farrier because he is reliable and i've had nightmares with others not turning up.

I've also had a registered farrier screw up my horses feet so badly (and according to my current farrier horsey has very good feet) that it took one of the best remedial farriers in the UK nearly a year to sort the mess out!

 

[Puppy]

My farrier rocks!

 

[LankyDoodle]

Without reading all your post, I just wanted to say that I have the most fantastic farrier in the world. He's brilliant. He doesn't just give advice on feet but horse care and riding in general, and is very experienced in many aspects himself. He also gives his advice readily about other aspects of life, such as jobs and other stuff. He's like a friend really. I think he's great.

He is sometimes a little late, and occasionally early (which can be difficult), but he does a fab job and when my new boy came to us last summer with crap feet, he started sorting them out. The feet are completely different now.

I love my farrier and he's done our horses for well over 10 years. I dread the day he retires.

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

My farrier is great too! Is usually on time - only been late a couple of times - with good reason and has phoned to say he is running late - I am always there, horses in clean and dry, undercover on concrete, tea/cold drink etc on arrival (bacon sarnies sometimes, ice creams or biscuits on others!) try to pay cash occaisionally have to pay by cheque, always rebook for 6 weeks. In return horses feet are great, on the one occaision a shoe has come off in between routine shoeing was there the next day to replace, liased with Laminitis Clinic to get my mare sound following Laminitis (and patient in her trimming when in obvious pain), has found abcesses etc also has dad around (farrier of long standing) for advice, experience in the case of something difficult etc

The previous 2 farriers....well lets just say there are good reasons why they are ex farriers.