“The quality of shoeing is really good [in the San Francisco Bay area],” says Somerset, England, native Mike Hayward. “You have to bring something to the table that the others don’t. Everyone gets along pretty well. A lot of people try to come into the area because you can make a very good living.”
Hayward primarily shoes performance horses and therapeutic cases in the Bay area with his team, Esteban Narez and Fernando Roman, on a 5 to 6-week schedule.
At Jaclyn Pepper Dressage, a training and boarding facility in Cotati, Hayward prepares to trim Cookie’s left front hoof. Meanwhile, Roman cleans the mare’s shoes for reset.
Narez prepares Hayward’s shoeing box, organizing nails on Hayward’s magnetic wristband and bringing over a container of Magic Cushion and gloves.
“I read the foot and trim to the waxy part of the sole then see what we have,” he says. “I take enough foot so I have a good, balanced trim. Reading the foot doesn’t tell you everything. I leave a little more foot than I used to. I’m not opposed to being more conservative with the frog. If you over-trim it, you lose traction in some ways. You can have a beautiful foot, but it’s the function of the foot that’s more important.”
Hayward marks the bottom of the foot to where he wants it to be.
“There’s a bit of a flare,” he says. “When I put it on the stand, I know how far to go back to. I think you can tell a lot more from the bottom of the foot than you can when you pull it forward. When I pull it forward on the stand, I’ll see where I’ve rasped it from the side and back it up to the line.”
Hayward’s method keeps his team on the same page.
“As we’re working, it’s not always me who dresses the feet,” he explains. “Esteban or Fernando know when they dress it, that’s how far they go. They stay to the parameters I want.”
Narez busies himself at the trailer by riveting DePlano leather pads to Kerckhaert DF shoes with quarter clips that will be applied to the fronts. Kerckhaert Selects will be nailed to the hinds.
“I prefer the DFs because I don’t want a lot of breakover on these horses,” Hayward says. “It’s a good, solid, reliable shoe. The Selects are a little longer than the DFs and have a much better shape.”
Roman takes Hayward’s place under the horse and burns the shoes on.
“Since Cookie is a reset, the shoes are pretty similar to what we’ve already put on,” Hayward says. “We’ll clean both shoes, take one of them and smoke both feet. It allows Esteban to make the pad on the other one straight away. It’s nice when Esteban is with us because either him or Fernando can trim hind feet. I don’t really do hinds. It’s like a vacation for me. Fernando is magical. We did 18 horses the other day. Half of them were shoes, half were trims. I didn’t have to adjust one shoe. He has an eagle eye.”
Slipping a latex glove on his right hand, Hayward covers Cookie’s sole with Magic Cushion and nails the padded shoe package on the right front hoof with Liberty CU nails. He repeats the process with the left front.
“I get no thrush with Magic Cushion,” Hayward says. “It leaves a really nice foot. This horse wants to get a little upright and gets a little more concussion. This package helps this horse. Typically, most pads we use are either for support or concussion. If the horse doesn’t need support, I’ll use Magic Cushion.”
The trio has developed an efficient operation. Roman has worked with Hayward for 8 years, while Narez has logged 3 years. They work in concert with one another. While they perform their tasks quickly, there’s no sense of rush.
This benefits their daily work, but it paid dividends when a freak accident left Hayward unable to work. While Roman and Narez picked up the slack, losing Hayward put them behind.
“I had Esteban around a little bit more than normal,” he says. “He stepped up and helped a bunch, which is awesome. I’m extremely privileged to have such a good team. There’s not one thing these guys can’t do that I do.”
Read the full Shoeing for a Living here.
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