Farrier

I decided to have a farrier out to work on Boomer's feet even though I was having a hard time handling his back legs. He had his assistant hold Boomer and this guy was really calm and gentle. I liked him right away. He held Boomer's head and talked to him softly and blew into his nose and Boomer stayed relaxed the whole time. The farrier started out by putting a rope around his pastern and pulling it up, Boomer resisted but the farrier, Scott, held strong. Eventually he set his foot down and praised him. He did this a few times on each side and Boomer cooperated, somewhat begrudgingly. Scott then had me try. While I couldn't lift his foot as high, Boomer was still calm and didn't fight too much.

Scott then started to trim. He did the front feet first and nipped the cracking overgrown part of the hoof wall and then rounded the toe with the rasp. He told me that Boomer has good, strong feet especially since it has been a year since he was last trimmed. I already knew these things, but it did give me a chance to ask his advice on Biotin. He does recommend it and prefers Horseshoer's Secret. They sell this at Atwood's for $25 a bucket, which should last a few months. The thing Scott said about Biotin is that you must give it every day. If you miss a week or so, you have just thrown away your money. It makes sense as the hoof grows slowly and must regrow from the coronet band down.

The whole trim took about 30 minutes and I really appreciated the way he worked with Boomer. He told me he had worked with Arabs before, that made me feel good that he understood their flighty tendencies.

Scott charged us $30 for the trim and $10 in travel charges. I felt that was a very fair price. Last year when I cared for Steve's eleven polo horses he was being charged $35 for a trim. There was no travel charge for Steve's horses because I had eleven horses that either needed a trim or new shoes, which would rack up about $650 a visit. All in all, $40 every 7-8 weeks isn't half bad!