If you think organizing one shoeing rig is a challenge, consider the late Red Renchin. He used three pickup trucks for shoeing: A Ford F250 and two Ford F350s. The oldest is vintage 2001, the newest is a 2007. One rig is used in Florida, where the Hall of Fame farrier often shoes during the winter, and two are kept at his home in Mequon, Wis., just outside of Milwaukee in the southeastern part of the state.

He sometimes sent his two apprentices — he prefers to call them associates because they are an important part of his business — to shoeing jobs in one of the rigs, while he goes to shoeing appointments in the remaining truck. “It also gives me a spare,” he says, “so it gives me the flexibility of not having any down time because I don’t have something to work out of.”

The rigs, all similar in model, feature shoeing bodies made by Stone Well Bodies & Equipment. The rigs not only look alike, the interiors are set up identically to avoid any confusion and wasted time when Renchin and his associates move from one rig to another. Some of the important rig accessories were built according to Renchin’s own designs to further maximize efficiency.

Ramping