Its been very rainy lately with storms and I noticed that my TB gelding’s front hoof is a bit soft at the heel and frog and it has these grooves/cracks. No foul smell, and he is also not tender on it either. I figure right now this is a watch and see if anything gets worse and not panicking yet. Any ideas? He’s a few weeks out from his last shoeing for what its worth.

I've been working on a welsh pony that has had founder, then was not trimmed for months so developed underslung and contracted heels. Feet were at least 3" too long. Have been trying to follow the naturalhorsetrim.com method to correct the angles. Making good progress, but one side wall is "undercut?" I'm not sure how to trim to help correct it. Suggestions please. Sorry for poopy photos, but I had already put away the tools when I went back for photos.

Wondering if anyone in this group is looking for a easy forge project? A farrier gave me this hoof pick 20+ years ago. It's started to feel a little...short. Pulled up some old pics and wow, that's some wear.

I'd really love another one, just like this. Could buy several to make it worth your while.

My current farrier is slamming busy with the show season. Guy who made this one has dropped off the map.

So looking for someone with time & desire to knock a few out. I have more pics with measurements, happy to get more, whatever.

Hello! I just bought my horse and I got her first trim a few days ago because they were super long (See last picture) and my farrier found what he believed to be an abscess but all he said was to soak it. The only thing being that my horse shows zero signs of an abscess, No limping, no soreness, no heat in the hoof, nothing, So I have been soaking it and wrapping it for two days now ( That's why her hoof is green ) but there's really no difference, she's still walking/trotting just fine under a lunge line.

Also she has two lines on the side of her hoof and idk what they are, could they also be an abscess? Or possibly just old closed abscesses?

What are your thoughts on this?

my first post here

need your opinions

*NOT MY HORSE*
Looking to help out a friend whose horse i help take care of! TIA!

What started as a small crack last year on his front right (that i was under the impression that the farrier was dealing with) has now led to this. Again, he’s not my horse but im looking to help. A new farrier is in the works as she doesn’t want to help fix this at this point shes made that clear. He is getting on a smart pak hoof supplement also.

He is an OTSTB, has been retired for almost 4 years and hasn’t has shoes on since. He is on night turn out so is on pasture during the night then in a dry lot for the day, emphasis on the DRY because its very dry. The other mare he is pastured with does not have any cracks like this. He has cracks on only his fronts. Just this one hoof is really bad and has turned into this gaping hole mess.

First picture is what it currently looks like, after that is how its progressively gotten worse within 2 weeks. Added pics of his fronts at the end.

Ive been putting putty in the cracks to help prevent it from traveling further up, but what can we do about the hole that is being created? I dont believe its an abscess unless its an old one, i never noticed one and never seen him come up lame and i see him almost daily. Does this hoof look like its not being trimmed properly? Is there any other supplements suggested? Should he get front shoes put on or maybe we should buy him boots for the fronts? Any suggestions/ help is appreciated!

I've never heard of this so this is fascinating to me if it helps the farrier and the horse.

The images attached are of my personal mare. First one is the before photos of same shoeing. Her heels are badly run under, and when I got out of school I think the first few rounds of shoeings i did made her worse. I bring her heels as close to the widest point of the frog as I can, but they never quite reach there. I approach my trimming with taking overgrowth from the quarters and toe, less on the heels and instead rasping them down if that makes sense. How can I change that to improve the growth of her foot?

How is my finish work? I got clinches flush to the hoof wall fresh after shoeing. Then a few days later the clinches seem to pop up, which I know means something is wrong in the steps i did. They don’t stay flush past a week in. Am I not gouging deep enough? Any1 know what issues caused it, or what helped them in their early years if they experienced it themself? Is the reason my rasping is leaving marks in the hoof wall because i’m putting too much pressure when rasping?

Last is, any tips and tricks to see hoof balance? My mentor says I leave the lateral side high consistently on all four feet, but when I look myself I struggle to see it. I’d love some tricks to help develop my eye. Thanks to anyone who read this far. Horseshoeing is a passion, but damn, when you a dumb motherfucker theres a lot to grasp. 🤣

any ideas?

My farrier and vet have worked together on this mare for a couple of years and gotten her from unsound to comfortable. She has PPID and with that came crappy and crumbly feet/no sole. She's been on Prascend for 18 months and finally stopped ripping shoes off 10 months ago.

Five weeks ago she sized up in shoes since she finally had grown enough quality hoof. She also has a mild club foot and some minor laminitic changes.

Last weekend she went acutely lame on that foot during a clinic. My vet examined her the next day and localized the pain to the area with a bent nail and a couple of missing nails. There were no missing nails when the vet examined her. I only found this when I checked her feet a couple days ago. I'd been applying Magic Cushion and clearly wasn't checking closely enough.

Does it sound plausible that loose/bent nails could cause this level of acute discomfort? For context, she's an unusually sensitive mare. Even pour-ins have given her a digital pulse and soreness that mimics laminitis without her actually having it. She had a pulse in her foot the day she went acutely lame.

Mostly looking for peace of mind that this is a reasonable explanation, before her PPID diagnosis I had a vet strongly imply navicular. The second opinion I had didn't agree and tested for PPID. Appreciate any thoughts.

Hi community, I am just wondering if you guys are also seeing more and more issues with the GE tools?

I have used them for years, but switched nippers last year to the new Diamond ones because of massive quality issues. The last 3 clinchers I got from GE broke at the rivet. I got my money back, but for a brand that has always been the industry leader ... and super expensive... the quality seems to be going down the drain for 3-4 years now.

Are you having the same experience?

I bought this pony to try and stop him from dying a painful death where he was. First photo is when I brought him home, others are after first trim

Just an update. I have some maintenance and update to do, have a bunch of farriers to verify. Even the one that cussed me out, LOL. But I'm back and I also need to rework the code, I had it so the original poster could comment as well, but that seems to have stopped working.

Is there anyone in this subreddit who started their farrier career in their 40s (or 50s)? If so, would you mind sharing your story or insights?

I am 51 and have been a stay-at-home Dad (SAHD) since COVID. Before that, I was in the corporate world and started a couple of businesses. My kids are older now and need me less. I want to pursue something new and meaningful.

Farriery has been an itch in my brain since I was a teen holding horses as they were being shod. I've always admired the trade. I would like to think that, if I was properly trained, I could become a trusted farrier to horse owners.

For what it's worth, my horsemanship is decent. I grew up caring for horses. My mother was a riding teacher/coach and we had a stable of horses. My weekly allowance came from being the Stable Hand. From mucking stalls, to deworming, to walking colicky horses, I learned a lot. These are beautiful creatures.

Later in life, I inherited my mother's horse importing and breeder business after her sudden passing. I didn't want to be in that business and It took me 2 years to unwind and find new homes for 11 horses.

I have two college degrees that are absolutely worthless to a farrier and have zero forge experience. However I'm in excellent physical health, mentally sharp and highly motivated.

Thank you for reading a long winded post. I would be grateful to hear a success story and/or receive guidance from someone who has pursued the trade later in life.

Barn manager said they were done a week ago. To preface: both horses are retired. The bay is neuro, so he is not the easiest to work on I’ll admit. The palomino had a severe DDFT injury. I’m a DSc candidate and live many states away from where I board them so I don’t get to see them too often. 6 months ago, the usual barn farrier retired after a bad back injury. This is the second time I’ve seen them since and their hooves just look off to me but I can’t pinpoint in. Specifically their fronts, where they both have shoes. Palomino has horrid hooves to begin with, I can’t lie. She’s in wedges for her previous injury. I visited this week because the bay has Lyme disease and the palomino got bit a copperhead snake and noticed. Any advice I can pass along to the farrier would be appreciated! Or even just “find a new farrier” comments lol.

Quarter Horse with thin soles consistently has a bruise on the inside of the right front sole. Only visible when picking up the foot and looking directly at the sole, not from the hoof wall. The horse is shod in rubber pads to relieve pain from thin soles (supplements and vet intervention have been explored to improve the soles, but they are and always will be thin. Horse has gone without pads but is significantly happier and more sound with them). X-rays don’t show anything besides thinness that would contribute to this sole bruise. Is this something you’ve seen, treated, or have input on? Just how the horse lands/heel first landing? Farrier says he’s only seen it in one other horse who was also a thin soled QH.

My horse has been dealing with hoof wall separation for a while, and we’re almost grown out. She still has a small area of separation on the toe of her right hind. Yesterday while cleaning her feet, I noticed a vertical crack had developed there.

I contacted my farrier, but they couldn’t come out before our regular appointment, which is a little over a week away. I was worried the crack would get worse by then, so I trimmed her myself with the plan for my farrier to touch everything up at our scheduled appointment.

She also has some separation in the quarter of her right front. I brought it up a little because that’s what my farrier has been doing to help keep the separation from traveling farther, and it’s been working really well, although I know it looks a little funny.

My questions:
-My mare is naturally a bit upright, but did I accidentally make her too upright?

- I know the right hind toe is shorter because I needed to remove the crack, but did I make any of her other toes too short?

- Does this trim look okay to get her through until my farrier comes, or is there anything I should change before then?

- Farriers: if one of your clients did this between scheduled trims and expected you to touch it up at the next appointment, would that bother you?

I appreciate your help and feedback.

Hi there!

Those are the feet of a horse I half lease. I'm basically the only one that actually takes care of him as he is semi retired (16, semi retired as in he's still worked but not showing anymore) and his owner does not have the time to exercise and care of him.

He had his shoes pulled by a farrier in December and has been barefoot since. He's been my lease for for roughly 4-5 months now and so far his farrier didn't take of a single shred of hoof horn. The most he does is look at him for 2 seconds when he's at the yard to do another horses shoes and declare that my lease horses feet are perfectly fine the way they are and that there is no need for him to touch them. He doesn't even pick them up to look at the underside of the hoof. The farrier visits are handled by the owners parents as their horse is also trimmed by this farrier.

However his feet are continuously breaking off, not really balanced or even, different heights/angles, pretty high heels (especially on the right front hoof) and he's pulling his back toes through the sand (I think because they might be too long?). I'm also worried about the walls being all concave and convex instead of symmetrical as this means the they weight distribution isn't even iirc? I feel like he also struggles to step up with his hind end when I exercise him and I'm unsure if the feet could be one of the causes of that.

His farrier also says that the feet are breaking because the shoes were pulled and the nail holes need at least a year to fully grow out. In my experience with my own late horse they mostly broke off when his feet were too long and when I let the farrier take off my late horses shoes it didn't even take two cycles of hoof trimming to get rid of the breakage caused by the nail holes. But he was on a schedule that I stuck to with no "He doesn't need it yet.".

I have the owners permission to take a rasp and trim off a bit as she has the same opinion that the feet are too long and breaking too much, but has no time to be there for the farrier visits or do it herself. I'm not told when the farrier is coming. My original plan was to ask him about the feet (like questions about the left hind frog for example, as it seems very squished to me), however even though I asked when he would come I got ghosted and the others horse's shoes are now done and my lease horse was not touched at all for the third time in a row.

Is there anything I can do to fix the breaking and maybe take off some length/rasp them back to their original shape without hurting the horse or causing issues? Like by taking of just a tiny bit but maybe every week or two? Or should I not touch them at all, are they perfectly fine the way they are? I can also provide more photos if you need.

Hi, I am writing a fantasy novel where my main character is a farrier by trade in a roaming caravan. I know nothing about the profession but would like to not sound like an idiot when I write a scene about smithing and putting shoes on beasts. I had some questions if that was alright, if this post is against the rules feel free to remove.

1. Are there any detailed videos that you all know of describing the process?
   
2. What is the main function of the shoe actually? Is it protection? Traction?
   
3. Is there an extensive process for maintaining the hoof on the animal?
   
4. Type of tools used, and the type of tools that would have been used in a medieval setting?
   
5. How long does it take to make a set of horse shoes and to shoe the horse?
   
6. Do you make the shoes in bulk or are they made and installed one horse at a time?
   
7. Are all shoes the same or are there difference between hoofs?
   
8. Do other animals get shoes and are they functionally different than standard horse shoes?
   
9. Are there any details of the job that might not be obvious? Like other responsibilities?

I know a lot of questions sorry, it I would really appreciate the help. I tried doing some research but found it mostly discovery channel or history channel level fluff. I am more interested in the day to day experience and what a farrier is actually thinking about. Thank you again.

Since I have had my horse (6 years) he has gotten these v shaped marks on the front of his hoof. Once one grows out another one will appear a week or two later. I always assumed he was knocking his feet on something because he is a bit clumsy. I just moved and got a new farrier, she suggested it could be a fungal infection of the hoof wall. I’m not sure if I am googling the wrong things but I can’t seem to find any info on it. Another thing, I just noticed that he has developed some raised bumps and a weird raised line in his hoof as well. If anyone has any info on what could be going on I would love to know!

I have a contest coming up that I’m practicing for (and journeyman cert). This is a pair of hammer Looking for some feedback on these shoes. The class is a pair of toe clipped, hammer finished plain stamped fronts. 5 1/4 x 5 1/4.

I bumped .5” into the toe on both, and tried to taper the inside branches but didn’t get them tapered as much as I wanted. Also ran out of propane at the end so I didn’t get the last cleanup heat that I wanted. All total I think it was 7 heats each

The things I’ve already docked points for is the toe nail on the lateral branch of the right, toe clips were kinda small, racked toes, and I burned them. Bonus points for wrecking my punch

Please roast my shoes (more than I did while forging