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FARRIERS IN WISCONSIN
Do you need a Good farrier, or a farrier?
Sometimes farriers are like the Princess and the Frog... you gotta kiss a lot of frogs before you meet the Prince. From an old fairytale...I hope most of you get the gist.
Know your horse's feet and don't depend on the farrier to be telling you foot stories about your horse's feet unless you have some background knowledge on hoof structure yourself. There are plenty of sources out there, take a few evenings to educate yourself.
I had a "door to door" farrier stop at my place awhile back on a Sunday. It just so happened, I had a horse with the first signs of laminitis and coincidently my own farrier & vet had not returned my calls yet. The guy immediately put down my regular vet and farrier. #1 sign - a good farrier will not put down another in their own field of expertise, but offer suggestions to the customer how they can work together. #2 sign - this guy was going door to door looking for jobs.
The farrier continued on to other horse-folks in the area, and established ONE new customer who happened to be a client of my regular farrier. A few months later, the client called my regular farrier, saying "come fix my horse, he is now lame."
I sincerely hope everyone finds the best farrier that they can find for their horse's sake. If you are knowledgeable, you know when a farrier is taking too much off the toe or the heel, or paring into the frog. Be aware of how your horse's hooves grow and that even filing down the flares may make them lame. Don't depend on shoes to be a fix-it method in all cases.
I prefer no shoes for my horses, and over the last five years using the farrier I currently have, their hooves are strong, do not chip, have good growth and you can mess with their feet because they haven't been hurt or scared by the farrier.
Costs? Not inexpensive, but not overly expensive either. My farrier currently has many customers in a relatively small driving area, so does not need new customers. That's how good SHE is.
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