During more than 13 years as an editor for American Farriers Journal, I wrote 56 “Shoeing For A Living” articles.

That meant a lot of farriers put up with me slowing them down with a lot of questions, a lot of camera flashes and just generally getting in their way. While they might have taken a certain amount of enjoyment in having their pictures and stories appear in a magazine, the biggest reason a lot of them tolerated me was to share what they’d learned with their fellow farriers.

Looking back over these years, here are pieces of advice offered by those farriers who were kind enough to share their days with me over the years. There are actually more than 56, as a few of these days involved more than one shoer.

Don’t Take Chances

“Even if you’re not putting on shoes, there are bits of hoof, even a chip of hoof knife that could fly up into your eye. It only takes a split second. I always wear safety glasses, even just for pulling and trimming.”

— Monica Hoff, Green Bay, Wis.; March/April 2001

Mind That Toe

“I don’t think that the shoe should project beyond the point of the toe, although I do think the point of the toe should be supported. About the only time you’ll see me shoe beyond the point of the toe is if it’s to fix a horse that has a deep digital flexor tendon problem, a foot that they’ve done surgery…