This article has a very specific audience — farriers like myself who find themselves working on young stock and horses who have a poor understanding of the trimming and shoeing process.

I personally enjoy this work, however I realize that many do it out of necessity. If you do not care about the horse’s dignity, if you do not care about getting more with less, then you will get no help from me. This is for those shoers who seek a safer, more effective way of dealing with horses. For many farriers, this information will be old hat. For others, these types of horses are a one-time event. But for those who are trying to fill a schedule book and need to take every kind of horse they may get, I believe it will be of use.

A Natural Approach

I must give credit to those in the equine community who have shown us the way out of the Equine Dark Ages and into the light of “Natural Horsemanship,” a term first coined by Pat Parelli. I believe he would be the first to say that, among others, he owes much to Tom and Bill Dorrance and Ray Hunt. These men started the public movement to training from the horse’s perspective. Monty Roberts and John Lyons are also pivotal in this trend.

The techniques that I personally use come straight out of Parelli Natural Horsemanship, but since I am not a Parelli certified instructor I cannot explicitly teach his methods.

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