Shoeing the Horse

Your horse will need to be reshod every four to six weeks, and your farrier will advise you of this. Before he arrives, have the horse standing on a hard, flat surface with clean, dry, and picked-out feet; you will also need a bucket of water nearby if your farrier hotshoes.

It is very important to ensure that your horse will be well behaved for the farrier and is used to having its feet picked up. With young horses, it is a good idea to spend some time every day picking up their feet and banging with the flat of your hand on their soles to accustom them to activity and noise in this area.

First your farrier will remove the old shoes, and he will begin doing this by knocking up the clenches. He takes his buffer and places it under each nail, and then bangs this with the hammer until the nail has been levered up. Alternatively he might take his pinchers and cut the top of the nail off.

He will next carefully lever the shoe off the foot using the pinchers, starting at the heels and working toward the toe using an inward-pulling motion. ШШ   Great care must be taken when removing the shoe to prevent any pieces of horn being pulled off.

Once the shoes have been removed, the feet need to be prepared for shoeing. The farrier will trim the excess hoof growth as necessary using hoofcutters and drawing or toe knife, and will clean out any ragged parts of the frog or sole.

Then he will level the foot using the rasp, and cut the notch for the toe clip using either the rasp or drawing knife.