Every barrel-racing client has a singular personality. Each one will want something different from a farrier, and often what is valued most will vary from horse to horse.

Lindsay Harold Bouquillon is the kind of client whom farriers wish they had more of in their shoeing book. The Oxford, Conn., barrel racer is a horsewoman who has been riding most of her life. Bouquillon is confident, yet humble. She understands horses and wants her farrier to do what’s best for the horse, not her trophy case.

“It’s easier to say a well-shod foot, but I guess that’s different for every single horse out there,” Bouquillon says as she prepares Sadie to run the pattern at the mid-June Goshen Stampede in Goshen, Conn. “Mostly, I’m looking for good balance. I want the farrier to work with the horse appropriately to what its feet are.”

Although Sadie is 11, she’s only been racing for about 5 years.

“I didn’t really start riding her until she was 4,” she says. “I didn’t start her on the pattern until she…