Career - Farrier

Farriers will inspect horses' legs and hooves while they are stationary as well as in motion to check for irregularities, interference, peculiarities in gait (how the horse walks) or abnormalities in size and shape of hooves. They will talk to the horse owners or trainers to decide on types of shoes and nails required and will remove worn or faulty shoes and note wear patterns, foreign bodies, bruising, infections or deformities. They will examine, clean, trim and shape hooves using knives, hoof cutters and rasps. They will measure hooves, take a template of each hoof on a piece of cardboard and estimate the length of metal required for the shoes and will select and cut metal according to type, size and weight of shoes and type of horse. They will hold shoes against hooves to determine the amount of shaping required and will heat shoes in a forge, shape them on anvils and hammer them to size. They will place and nail shoes to hooves and check that clips and clenched nails are smooth and lined up with the walls of each hoof. They will remove steel shoes from horses before they race, replace with light aluminium shoes or 'tips' and replace the steel shoes after the race and will work in the areas of corrective or surgical shoeing.

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