Farrier issues

Well here I am dealing with farrier issues again.

Many years ago I used to have a farrier, I'll call him B.  B used to shoe my older horses, Sky and Skippy.  As time went on I noticed Skippys feet looking "funny" but I didn't know enough about how a foot should look after being shod.  B said her feet were getting too hard, that he wanted to "chop off her heels" and let her go barefoot for a while and that he needed to use smaller shoes.  So at that time I got my friend Blake Brown involved.  Blake consults on farrier/owner issues.  He used to shoe at the vet I work at and has spent many years shoeing problem horses with great success.  He has retired from farrier work and now consults.  The owner pays for Blake's consultation and he guides the farrier to shoe the horse to correct any problems.  It's a great idea for the farrier...he gets to have a "continuing education" class with a great teacher and the farrier doesn't have to pay for it.  The owner pays for it...well it's money well invested as it will make life better for the owners horse.   And I don't mind supporting Blake Brown...I believe in what he is doing.   Well it helps to have a farrier that wants to work with Blake.  B didn't want to work with Blake, so I got a different farrier...I'll call him J.  J and Blake work together all the time.  The situation was corrected and I have continued to use J as a farrier for my older horses.

When it came time to put shoes on Zoe, J wasn't available...had no time in his schedule.  So I got a different farrier,  I'll call him D.  ( Yes...I have 3 horses and 2 different farriers)  I've known D for many years.  And he knows Blake and has worked with him before.  And up to the last couple of months I thought D was doing a good job.  But I have noticed that Zoe's heels are looking "funny".  Now when I was there for Blake consulting on my other 2 horses, I got quite an education.  It felt like a college course in a few hours.  I do remember some things, but not everything.  But I do remember enough to know that Zoe's heels are "funny" looking.  For the last 2 shoeings D has been saying that Zoe's feet are too hard and that he thinks she should go barefoot for a while, and that her heels aren't doing well and that he has dropped down to a size smaller for her shoes.  WARNING...sounded familar to me!  I had J, my other farrier, look at her feet that were done 13 days before.  He didn't like the way they looked and told me what was wrong and that they looked like it had been 6 weeks since they had been shod...not 13 days.  But I can't tell D how he should do his job...he knows I don't know enough to be correcting him.  I can't just pull the horse from D's care and ask J to shoe her...there is a better way to do this.  So I decided to call in Blake Brown again and do a consult on Zoe with D there to learn how to shoe her better.

So now I have an appt with Blake Brown and D on 8/14 @11am.  I had to wait this long because D had to find a 3 hour time slot in his schedule to work with Blake...it takes this long with Blake talking to the owner and guiding the farrier.  D didn't mind me calling in Blake and has worked with him before.  I tried to describe to Blake what I thought was wrong, but I don't speak "farrier" very well.  While I was on the phone to D to get a date and time...J was talking to Blake and explaining what he had seen-that was great because J can explain it a whole lot better than me.  So when I called Blake back to set up the time that D could do it...Blake told me he had talked to J.  So I felt better knowing that Blake had a better idea of what was going on.  That helped with my next question...can I continue to ride my horse while waiting for this consult/farrier appt?  Blake said yes but with conditions.  No sand-esp deep sand, no steep hills, no rocky trails, and only at a walk.  Well...I guess that's better than no riding.  With no riding I'd probably have attitude issues to deal with later.  And I had another question-I'm leaving for horse camping on 8/16-will this be a problem?  Blake said probably not because we will probably be putting wedges and pads on her feet for a few shoeings and she will be pretty comfy.  So I hope everything will work out okay.  I just need to remember to ride her gently...maybe I'll be working on bareback work in the arena, and I guess walking on the trail.  I don't think she will get too out of shape for our camping trip, no worse than Skippy will be.  Besides, it's a new place for camping, we probably won't be "zooming" around the trails anyway.

I took a bunch of pictures of Zoe's feet 13 days from the last shoeing.  I'll take pictures after the consult/farrier appt.  Then I'll post some pictures with some of the information I'll be relearning.  Maybe I won't forget so much this time.