The Farrier
The Farrier is a pictorial journey across the equine world, recording farriers at work on six continents.
Spavin – one of the most common pathologies
Bone spavin, sometimes simply referred to as spavin, is an osteoarthritic condition or degenerative joint disease (DJD) of the distal hock joints.
Meet Abigail!
Abigail has recently started apprenticing for Cody a couple days of the week until she goes to farrier school. You can read some more about her below and what she’s learning right now. “Working with horses has always been a dream for me. As long as I can remember, spending time around horses has been …
Benefits of Joining an Association
Taking a day (or week) off means messing up the schedule and losing income, education is also not free, there is the cost of the event, the cost of travel, and if it is a multi-day event, the cost of accommodations. This year alone I will spend close to $15,000 and 300 working hours on education. The question becomes, is it worth it? I would answer that with a resounding yes.
HISA Rules for Shoeing
Recently new rules for how Thoroughbred race horses are shod have been released causing an uproar in the racing and shoeing communities. The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), operating under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), brought out several new rules related to racing, including limiting what horseshoes are allowed to be …
The Pursuit of More
One of the many things I love about this trade is that there is always more to learn. While a person could always assume that they know much while knowing little, this profession has the opportunity for a boundless amount of learning. DFS is built on the foundation of education, this year is no exception. …
The Hoof Book
For this month we are back to our book review series, this time the book is for horse owners rather than farriers. Heather Beauchemin CJF TE has just published the best book on hoof care for horse owners I have ever read. Heather is a Certified Journeyman Farrier with her Therapeutic Endorsement and works in …
Bellota Top Level Review
As farriers, we all have favorite tools and tend to stick to the brands and styles that we like. Every once in a while it is good to try a new way of doing something or a new tool. Maybe we have been missing out, or maybe we will confirm our preference for the tool …
Grading Horse Behavior
As farriers, we have a dangerous job. We routinely get underneath horses that are strong enough and fast enough to end our career or life in the blink of an eye. Thankfully all horses can be trained to stand well and be relatively safe. Teaching a horse to stand still while we are working on …
Therapeutic Endorsement
This November I attempted and passed the Therapeutic Endorsement at the American Farriers Association (AFA) annual convention. The TE is one of three possible endorsements or add ons to the Journeyman (CJF).
Farrier Industry Price Increases
We have seen prices rise anywhere from 10%-300% in the past year to year and a half. Some of the shoes I like to use have been on backorder for 6 months, the glue that we use had to change how it is packaged because the company couldn’t source the normal containers, steel that we hand make shoes from has more than doubled in price and is increasingly difficult to find.
Gregory’s Textbook of Farriery
The last two books we have looked at are of historical significance but are not up to date for the modern farrier. Today’s book however is one that should be at the very beginning of everyone’s library. Published in 2011, Gregory’s Textbook of Farriery by Chris Gregory CJF FWCF is widely used as the primary …
The Principles and Practice of Horse-shoeing
Our next book for review is another older book, this one from the late 1920’s. The Principles and Practice of Horse-shoeing by Charles Holmes FWCF is on the reading list for the Worshipful Company of Farriers AWCF exam, it should of course be noted however that this is a historic book and the science of …
Practical Farriery Book Review
The first book we will look at in our review series is Practical Farriery by C. Richardson FWCF. First published in 1950 in London this book was originally written with a young farrier or apprentice in mind. At just about 70 pages long in the 1968 edition I have, it is a relatively short book …
Upcoming on the Blog: Reviews of Farrier Books
Have a farrier book you want Cody to review? Comment below and let us know!