I was trimming a draft horse's feet all wrong for years

I was working on a big Percheron last week and the owner, a retired farrier himself, just watched me for a minute. He finally said, 'You're fighting his foot because you're trying to make it look like a lighter horse's.' He was right, I was taking too much off the quarters trying for a shape that didn't fit the animal's build. I switched to just cleaning up the flare and leaving more support, and the whole job got easier. Has anyone else had a client point out a basic mistake you were making?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_green864d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, that hits home. It's funny how you can get a whole routine stuck in your head and just keep doing it wrong, even when the job itself is telling you it's a fight. A retired farrier watching quietly is the most polite "you're an idiot" I can imagine. At least he told you instead of just letting you keep wrestling with it.

lily3943d ago

Last summer I was trimming my mare's feet and kept fighting with her left front. Took me three tries to get the angle right on the hoof knife. My neighbor, an old cowboy, finally leaned over the fence and said, "Son, you're holding it like a pencil, not a tool." Felt so dumb but he saved me another hour of struggle.