In the pursuit of becoming a better farrier, there are many subjects we must study; anatomy, biomechanics, pathologies, forging, business, and horsemanship are just some of the list. One of the subjects that is often overlooked or misunderstood in the beginning is tool maintenance. Maintaining tools is a skill that may not be listed as …
The Farrier is a pictorial journey across the equine world, recording farriers at work on six continents.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
We were given a box of Liberty Cu 5 Slim XL nails to try and review. While we typically use an E-head nail instead of a city or regular head nail we do occasionally punch a fullered shoe for a city head. In deciding what nail to use for a particular shoe and foot there …
Recently we won a Diamond hoof knife in a drawing held by Farrier Product Distribution. Since it is not one that we typically use, we figured it would be a good first product review. The knife that was sent to us was the right hand drop blade hoof knife (DROPR). Observations as the knife was …
