Are you ready for your own equine friend? Part 3 - The Farrier

A farrier is a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of a horse's hoof so as to fit shoes to the horse's foot. A farrier couples a subset of the blacksmith's skills (fabricating, adapting, and adjusting metal shoes) with a subset of veterinary medicine (knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the lower limb) to address the care of the horse's feet. (illustration from the Photobucket of kittygal01)
A farrier's routine work is primarily hoof trimming and shoeing. In ordinary cases it is important to trim each hoof so that it retains its proper orientation to the ground. If the animal has a heavy work load, works on abrasive footing, needs additional traction, or has pathological changes in the foot, then shoes may be required.

Additional tasks for the farrier include dealing with injured and/or diseased hooves and application of special shoes for racing, training or "cosmetic" purposes. In cases of horses with certain diseases or injuries, special repairative procedures may be needed for the hooves, and then special shoes may need to be constructed and fitted. (From Wikipedia.com)

There are some things the horse owner can look at to determine the overall quality of a shoe job. Let us start with the premise that we are dealing with a sound horse that has no problems. From there we can begin to see what basic good quality work looks like.

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