Re: Trouble finding reliable farrier : (

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Thu, 23 Apr 1998, Becky Hackworth wrote:

> I REALLY  like to book my farrier every 4 weeks, alternate my horses ( 5 in
> shoes ), no one is out of a lost shoe very long.  Must have a good farrier,
> almost never loose a shoe, and we shoe every 8 weeks.  I have my farrier
> booked almost 6 months in advance.  

Am I the only one who finds this surprising?  My horses are not shod on a
schedule....they get new shoes when they start to get long in the
foot...different horses grow at different rates, and so are on completely
different schedules....and the same horse grows at a different rate
depending on work load.

To top it all off....none of my horses goes 8 weeks between shoing, most
of them get redone at about 6 weeks, but sometimes it is only 5 and
sometimes it is 7 (if it has taken three "appointments" to get him out
there :))  If I waited until 8 weeks, then the horses would be barefoot
before he got there :).  Perhaps it has something to do with covering 20
miles per day on a DG pasture that causes the hoof to grow faster and the
shoes to wear thinner (had less of a problem with this since I changed to
St. Croix eventers).

How often do most of you reshoe your horses....and is it really "regular"
or does it vary (the way it does with me?)

kat
Orange County, Calif.