Farrier Tom Edwards has been shoeing for 23 years. He doesn’t use pads all that often, but when he does, he uses his own hand-made pad cutter.

Edwards admits he learned the trick long ago from another farrier. It involves reshaping one rein of an older pair of hoof nippers.

He heated the rein and bent it into a shape that could be inserted into the hardie hole of his anvil.

MORE CONTROL. The anvil supplies a solid base and gives Edwards more control in trimming and cutting pads than he would have using the nippers free-hand. The nippers will also cut through heavier pad material more easily than some other methods.

“I left them bent a little over 90 degrees, so I can see what I’m doing a llittle better,” he says. “You tap them into the hardie hole and wedge them in with a spring-type anchor. It cuts pads well and gives you a lot more control than using nippers to cut pads free-hand.”

Edwards says the improvised pad cutters can be easily removed from the anvil.

“For someone who just puts on pads occasionally, they’re about as handy as having a pocket on a shirt,” he says.