r/Farriers

Hi all,
I’m not a farrier. Would never pretend to be or pretend to know more than one.
I’m in a bind with a horse of mine, he yanked BOTH front shoes, trashed both boots, while I was between farriers (my farrier moved away and took my happiness with her). Couldn’t find anyone to come out, tried to keep his feet together, but he trashed them. We’re talking worn to the sole, nowhere to nail, trashed them.
My new farrier did her best to get shoes on and not cripple him, and one front foot has held the shoe well, one won’t keep the nails in at all because she can’t nail high up without hot nailing (because of bad feet). She put it back on three times before throwing in the towel.

So, I asked her if I bought glue on’s if she would try it. She said yes, but that she doesn’t typically do them and hasn’t had good luck keeping them on.
I bought the shoes and adhesive and caulking gun today, and she is gone for two weeks and said I could just do it myself. Quite literally “well you’re not gonna hurt him if you mess up”. And at this point he needs something since he keeps trashing the boots I buy.

But here’s my dilemma. The glue on’s are aluminum. The other three shoes he has are steel.
I’m worried about the difference in weight and how that might affect his movements.
Any insights? Should I pull the other front and put both glue ons, on? I asked my farrier, but it’s Saturday, and she’s on vacation, and I don’t expect to hear from her anytime soon (which is fine, she’s busy and works hard).
I’m just freaking myself out and would love some input 😅

Long story short, my farrier and I have a somewhat up and down relationship. He’s a nice guy, and does a good job— which is why I continue to keep him for his services.

But he is a HUGE know it all, and extremely opinionated. He’s always critiquing my barn, my hay, my grass, my garden, my truck, etc etc etc. I chalk it up to just being awkward and maybe not the best conversationalist.

But recently we’ve really gone head to head over two issues.

(1) his pricing is wildly inconsistent. He might charge one thing one visit, and increase by 30% the next. Then decrease the next and so on. And he doesn’t do Venmo or anything, cash only— so it’s impossible to plan ahead. I generally ask him how much EXACTLY so I can run to the atm before he arrives. I had to question him multiple times because I couldn’t make the pricing make sense. I don’t care if it’s a little higher, I just want to know why the wild swing.

He, of course, acted like **I** was the idiot who couldn’t understand how economics works and that I should be thankful he gives me the pricing he does

(2) I have a just turned 2 year old, I’ve had him about a year now… just over. When I got him he was completely untouched and not even halter broke. Since I’ve had him, he’s halter broke and we’ve started some groundwork with him. He has stood tied for the farrier every 8 weeks like clockwork, has had saddle blankets on him, doesn’t bite, can be caught, etc.

Now, he’s NOT perfect and I’m not a trainer. I know enough to be dangerous and start some good habits, especially around setting boundaries, but I haven’t ever started a colt.

My farrier today, after leaving— texts me that I need to tie him up next time (he was in a stall bc farrier is usually 2-3 hours late) and that I needed to handle him more. I was like…? Well obviously, he’s still unstarted. But he’s been getting trims for a year. Anyways, it irked me because we take good care of our horses, their training, our property and it seems like this guy just gripes.

But my question is, as farriers, is this feedback you usually give clients? And what’s your real expectation for a 2 year old? The colt will actually be started this summer, so this may all be overcome by events but I’m just curious if I am out of line to be considering looking for another farrier or if as farriers, you have some expectations of a 2 year old that I need to consider. As far as I know, he didn’t drug the colt and nothing major “happened” per se other than some general movement.

This is probably a stupid question and I suspect the answer is going to be one part "buy new nippers" and one part "your hands are weak and sad", but I'm curious if anybody else experiences this and what I can do to stop having it happen because it's making trimming painful. I tried to take a photo but it won't show up- it's basically bruising at the joint closest to my nails that swells, and the finger goes numb for a few hours after trimming.

I just do my two horses (have been doing them for 6+ years) and as we are getting into drier season with harder hooves, I've given myself a hematoma/injured the last joint on my middle finger from squeezing on the nippers hard enough to actually cut off a chunk of foot. I might just need to buy new nippers and/or get mine sharpened, but I've had this happen a couple of times and want to know if there's some technique involved as well!

what is the worse rehabilitation case yall have ever worked on? i am kinda known around my area to work on extreme rehabs. there are a few cases that come to mind of some pretty severe hoof pathologies that i have worked on. here's a picture of one that really blows peoples mind. ill post progress pictures and videos if yall like to see. this is FR. chemically induced founder from vaccinosis. this is day one.

https://preview.redd.it/a281mqh6txzg1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ae082521add6aa3e2a0e72f9f854412229663f9

I work out of a 99 f350 with a flatbed and I’m currently storing everything forge anvil grinder etc in a job box and I’m getting tired of taking everything in and out at every stop. I don’t want to lose the use of the flatbed for hauling and such, is a trailer the best way to go or is there a way I can modify my truck to make work flow better. I’m just looking for opinions and ideas