My manner around your horse
I move slow. I tend to tell too many stories. I always have a hand on the horse as much as possible.
I keep my voice down and talk slow and quiet. I may use their back as a hat rack.
I will use large amounts of your fly spray. I stop everything to kill biting horse flies. Those things hurt.
I use a good hoof stand as much as possible.
Horses taught me to do this, and there is a very good reason for it. It keeps the horse calm and quiet, and in a more cooperative mood. The hoof stand also saves both of us a lot of work.
I’m not going to get into a battle with your horse about picking up a foot. Now there are times when I must ask twice or three times, but a battle we will not have.
Sometimes I set the foot down, and just give both of us a break. This is common on older horses that tend to be a bit stiff in the joints. I get a bit stiff in the joints too. We understand each other on that one.
Some horses tend to move away from the farrier. This is often the result of certain schools, and how they teach owners to train their horse. In this situation I will ask the owner to stand on the other side, and just put a hand on the horse’s rump to hold ‘em still. No battle, just a gentle hand on them to hold them in place.
My story
I come from what was a logging town in western Montana. It’s now a tourist town.
I spent my summers fly fishing, and my winters cross country skiing. I spent as much time as I could camping, and back packing all over the place.
I never set out to become a farrier. After logging collapsed as an industry, I set out to be an engineer.
I had no money to pay for school, so I enlisted in the U. S. Air Force. I did my thing in uniform, and immediately went back to school.
Some years later after a large pile of books and grades were accumulated, I took my pair of diplomas and headed for Colorado in the summer of my 27th year.
I found employment in my desired field of engineering.
I met a woman who had a horse. Next I got married, and bought a horse of my own.
Then I ended up with a copy of “The Principles of Horseshoeing II” by Dr. Doug Butler. At only 596 pages, how hard could this be? Then I started trimming our horses.
After a workbook, some other books, and some time spent with other farriers, next thing I knew I was shoeing our horses.
Now I’m a full-time farrier with over 20 years experience.
I enjoy farrier work. It provides a lot of job satisfaction for those of us with an artistic skill set, and a uniquely joined sense of mechanics and biology, along with just enjoying being outside with a horse.
No it doesn’t hurt my back. Small cars did that. The best thing I ever did for my lower back was getting rid of small compact cars, and then getting an anvil for Christmas.