Your Farrier.

[TGM]

Ten horses a day

! My OH's back would be knackered if he did that on a regular basis. I think you totally underestimate the overheads involved too - if you cover a reasonable area (as opposed to doing a few big yards) then the motor costs really add up. There is the cost of the lease or loan (or the capital cost if you buy outright) plus insurance, diesel, tyres, servicing and repairs. The average farrier's van gets a lot of rough treatment travelling up and down farm tracks and narrow lanes. On top of that is professional idemnity insurance, Continuous Professional Development costs, etc.

I've found the farriers that really rake it in are the ones with several apprentices, as they don't have to pay the lads much, but it enables them to get through a lot more work. The other rich farriers I know usually work all the hours God sends and risk knackering their backs

. There is no sickness or holiday pay for farriers, and they run a greater risk of injury than the majority of tradesmen.

My OH turns away customers every week and charges a competitive price, but there is no way we are wealthy!

 

[esports]

[ QUOTE ]
I think for the most part the gripe against farriers is that they do not seem to be able to communicate with their customers about lateness or not being able to come. Other trades and professions would be sacked on the spot if they failed to turn up on time but because farriers are usually few and far between, we as horse owners have to put up with it.
My farrier is great and I do not knock his work or attitude but there have been occasions when a phone call would have been nice rather than leaving me standing next to a horse on my drive way (I have no yard) with nothing else to do but wait and wait...I am self employed and cannot afford to hang around all day.
I do believe that most farriers are lacking in the commercial etiquette about customer service...and it would be nice for an element of that to be brought into the syllibus that is taught in training.

[/ QUOTE ]

Too true, though i have been lucky over the years with a couple of the best farriers in my area, their punctuality is brilliant their service is second to none, in the past 20 odd years owning horses i have seriously been put off with owning horses due to some farriers not turning up on quite a number of occasions, it can get you mad if they are unreliable as we have to rely on their services to own horses 'no foot-no horse' is too true and some farriers know it!

we know horses are unpredicatable but surely with the technology we all have today a phone call isnt a big deal?

the more important a company or person is that offer services i.e. farriers or a gas man, sometime in the afternoon is not good enough!

Vets are blooming worse in my area!

 

[Fairynuff]

You lot dont know how lucky you are. Even those who are considered "bad" farriers are excellent compared to most of the farriers here! Most of the so called farriers here in Italy have NO training whatsoever. They decided overnight to shoe/trim horses, bought the tools from their local tackshop and an impressive pinny (suede with magnets all over), chucked it all in a van and set off on their new careers as farriers. Most feet here are bloody awful and sadly the owners either dont care or dont know the difference between a farrier and a postman. Ive got 3 who come to me and only one is half way decent, the other 2 are the owners choice

. Mairi.

 

[JessPickle]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
But my farrier is awful he cold shoes!! (and as I can see in your siggy you do not approve of that!)

[/ QUOTE ] Good point Jess! I did think it was a bit hypocriticial of Lou to post this, when she is slagging off a multitude of farriers in her sig every time she posts

.

My OH cold shoes and hot shoes according to the needs of the individual horse.

[/ QUOTE ]

Our farrier is just DAM lazy like if he can be bothered he will hot shoe pickle then a few weeks later he will cold shoe!! Doesnt make sense. But pickle is the only one he ever thinks about hot shoeing!

 

[Tia]

I have to say my farrier is absolutely fabulous!! He is never late, always punctual and very often early. He works here for 3 hours every 6 weeks and is absolutely wonderful with all the horses. They all love him!

He is fantastic with all the babies here, never shouts or gets upset with them and totally understands when we have a new horse here who isn't used to farriers or is scared of them. My guy is soooo patient with them that he has them eating out of his hand by the end of his time here.

My farrier would never ever strike any of my horses - we have an understanding that if any horse misbehaves then it will be me who shouts or thumps them, not him......to date neither of those things have happened, mainly because my farrier is so calm and takes his time.

I have nothing but top marks to give to my farrier! He really is terrific!

 

[lucemoose]

Another farrier post in which I would like to sing mines praises! He had a call from me yesterday at 7.30am, because my beast had managed to rip a few chunks out of his foot and expose nails in the treacherous clay pit that is his gateway..no probs!he says, leave him in and we shall do whatever needs doing..
I return later to a set of new shoes, a happy pony and am wondering if its wrong to send the farrier and all his apprenticices (sp) valentines day cards!!

 

[henryhorn]

Mmmmm having had a horse off for over a year due to unbalanced shoeing I can agree they receive great training, but nothing seems to be done afterwards to keep them up to scratch!
When our mare developed a hairline crack we asked our farrier for advice, he said ignore it. We asked several more times, and eventually she started to go lame.
XRays, several vets later it was discovered the crack was opeing and closing a minute amount, just like a pinching human shoe .. She had radical remedial farriery, we have travelled her an 80 mile round trip every four weeks or so to get the best care and it's cost us over £1000. Now after a year of being stabled the crack is within reach of the bottom of the foot and she will shortly go back into work.
We had another mare, same farrier, who damaged her tendon. When scanned two vets expressed shock that her heels were trimmed to different lengths making her slightly crooked. They said that would have made the injury more likely to happen.
Another two horses on the yard developed cracks so we said that was enough and changed farriers.
To sy we are a little paranoid re our new farrier's shoeing is an understatement , but she is good, and hopefully we will not have repeat problems.
The orginal farrier was trained correctly, was superb with the horses, but he should have referred us to a specialist if he couldn't solve the problem himself.
there was no doubt his shoeng caused the crack, the horse was looked at by three vets, four different farriers and all blamed the shoeing.. and the shoes actually "looked" good to the naked eye. it was only when you picked the foot up you realised one side was shorter than the other!
I would say to you if you want to be a good farrier remember not to be too conceited to pass on something to another person if you feel it's above your capability..
Our horse had just won it's first two un-aff ODE's, been placed in it's first BE and then had a year off...alll due to someone being too arrogant to ask for advice elsewhere..

 

[TGM]

[ QUOTE ]
Our farrier is just DAM lazy like if he can be bothered he will hot shoe pickle then a few weeks later he will cold shoe!! Doesnt make sense. But pickle is the only one he ever thinks about hot shoeing!

[/ QUOTE ] That does sound strange

. Does Pickle ever have the shoes refitted? That would make sense if he hot shoes him when he has a new set, and cold shoes when he has a refit?

 

[Theresa_F]

My farrier is a bit of a grumpy old bugger, but always turns up on time, is great with the horses, and is happy to trim or shoe as I want.

If I cannot be there, he is happy to get the boys out and do them and put them back in the stable for me.

It is difficult finding a farrier to do Cairo as he is a heavy horse, even with me only wanting shoes fitted twice a year.

Cairo is excellent to do and his feet are not that big - 7.5" no more than a large warmblood so I wonder why they have such a problem with doing him.

I always try to have them clean and dry and they have "socks" to keep the feather out the way.

My last farrier was good but so unrealiable in terms of time keeping that we came to an arrangement - he could turn up what time he wanted, but he had to grab my horse if she was not in - he was happy to do this and I didn't have to waste hours waiting for him.

 

[AmyMay]

Behind you all the way.

I have a wonderful farrier - have been with him for 12 years now, and he and his team are great.

Oh, and Amy hasn't had a set of shoes on for nearly two years now!!

 

[Doublethyme]

Maybe the training for farriers in this country is the best in the world, but when you see the poor standard of the rest of the world, that ain't much achievement is it!

I think there are many superb farriers out there, however, there are also some extremely bad farriers who have no customer service and/or no skill. To my mind, there is something wrong with the "excellent" training and monitoring system somewhere to produce such a varying degree of professional at the end of it!

Try to make a complaint against a farrier and you mostly get hit by a wall of disinterest by the authorities who are supposed to oversee the profession and sadly we as "customers" put up and shut up most of the time.

I think it is really sad that this is the case and just wish that they would clean up their act for all the wonderful, committed, skilled professional farriers who are out there, but sadly I am sorry, but I do think that they may just be in the minority!

Certainly a few classes in customer service wouldn't go amiss with most of them!

Plus I have never ever come across a poor (as in money) farrier!!

Lou - this post is in no way meant to put down your chosen profession, but please please instead of posting about how wonderful all farriers and training is and why are owners on forums b******g about their farriers all the time, read the posts and learn from them. There are more and more people who are not happy with the service provided, I would love to think and hope that you won't be one of them once you have qualified.

Good luck with your training and future career.

 

[JessPickle]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Our farrier is just DAM lazy like if he can be bothered he will hot shoe pickle then a few weeks later he will cold shoe!! Doesnt make sense. But pickle is the only one he ever thinks about hot shoeing!

[/ QUOTE ] That does sound strange

. Does Pickle ever have the shoes refitted? That would make sense if he hot shoes him when he has a new set, and cold shoes when he has a refit?

[/ QUOTE ]He varies completely randomly!! Sometimes refits will be hot shot sometimes cold.

 

[Fantasy_World]

I would never even try to rasp or trim my horses feet without the prior knowledge. Only if I was to do an intensive farrier course and then spent a few years as an understudy to a good farrier would I even attempt it.
Having said that I feel quite happy to rasp a few rough edges or trim off a loose bit of flap off a hoof if it sticks up from the bottom to prevent further damage. My lad has recently gone barefoot and as I have not had him for long I don't know if this is the first time he has had no shoes so I'm being overly cautious.
I will have my farrier to trim and balance my horses feet for now but if I ever feel unhappy I will not hesitate to change to a barefoot specialist, so long as I decide to continue barefoot with both mine.
He has mainly been very good and has been on time when appointments have been made but does seem a little ad hoc with appointments when it comes to the duration between trimming and shoeing and I have now decided that when he comes this month I shall prebook him for another 6-7 weeks time. He does tend to rush off as soon as I have paid and not give me chance to arrange an appointment in a diary and then if I contact at a later date it is a bit of a nightmare getting an appointment as he is busy.
This will only be the third time he has visited and I'm still new to shoeing and farrier techniques. That said I will not let my horses suffer pain and I do take care of their feet.
I will see how it goes going barefoot but if I feel unsure in any way or it causes any of the horses any pain then they will be reshod.
Neither of mine have had much riding since I have had them, through one reason or another. During the winter it is fine going bare but when the drier months come that is when there is potentially more problems such as hooves splitting and cracking as they dry out.
I would never advocate anyone having a go at trimming their horses or any other horse's feet without the proper training.
Lou you are correct in saying that farriery is a very skilled job not only does it take time to learn but it also require guts of steel particularly when someone is nailing the first set of shoes on a racing youngster.
But I will also say on this thread like I did on the other on the veterinary boards there are good and bad in every profession and farriery is no exception.
Caz