One of the reasons many cannot own a horse is not the initial buying of one, though some can be very expensive, but the ongoing costs. Dental checks once or twice a year, every 6 to 8 weeks a farrier must come to trim their hooves, worming, agistment if you don’t have property, feeding, the gear you need and last but not least, your mentor/instructor to help you with all the skills necessary to enjoy your equine friend.
Farriers are currently in short supply, so if you are wanting a career and horses are your thing, consider this. You must be strong and physically fit and know equine behaviour, especially ground rules.
In 2021 I made the New Year’s resolution to be my own farrier. I don’t shoe my horses so trimming every 6 to 8 weeks is all that is necessary. I was having problems getting a good farrier and so I naively thought this would solve my problem. I bought the gear necessary, swatted up on books and YouTube to educate myself before embarking on this very important task.
I decided to do Minni Molly first, our miniature pony of about 22 years. She is the size of a large dog. What I didn’t encounter was her leaning on me, deliberately, so that trimming her front foot was made very difficult. It was hard enough learning all of this but lack of cooperation was not part of my plan! Then Golden would not put her foot on the mount thingy so filing was not possible that way; but, worst of all, it took me two weeks to recover from doing any of this!
I have since sold my farrier equipment on Marketplace.
Finally, I was lucky enough to be given Beth’s number and she agreed to do my three horses. Phew! She is a competent horsewoman and did the ‘farrier course’ after 20 years of experience. Some have done the Certificate IV in farriery and my experience with one of those was that she was incompetent. You need to work with an experienced good farrier in addition to doing the course in order to really learn this skill.
Today my three were trimmed. Prior to Beth coming I soaked the sand in Minni Molly’s stall and made sure she was hoof deep in watery mud for four hours. Her feet are particularly hard, grow quickly and soaking them makes Beth’s work a lot easier. I know, I tried to be a farrier once!
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