No matter how great a job he does or how long he works on a horse, Red Renchin of Mequon, Wis., knows that when it comes down to it, the owner wants the finished product to look polished.

“I can do all the basics of the shoeing job quite well but most people will tell me if the foot is not smooth,” he says. “It’s all based on finish.”

With that in mind, Renchin went to a trade convention many years back and saw a belt sander being used for something completely different. 

“I just thought, ‘Wow, I bet you that works for feet,’” Renchin explains. 

Hunch Pays Off

Since then, Renchin has been using the belt sander to smooth out the rough spots on many of the valuable show horses that he shoes.

“I work on a lot of fancy horses,” Renchin says. “I have to make sure that when I finish the feet, they look good. The horse isn’t going to look good if the feet don’t look good.”

Horses Not Bothered

While Renchin says he’s the one making the feet look presentable, it’s actually his apprentices who usually handle the finishing touches. 

“I tell my guys who do the clinching and finishing that they have the most important job,” he says. 

SMOOTH FINISH. Ryan Radosta, one of Red Renchin’s apprentices, uses a belt sander to add a finishing touch to a shoeing job.

“I just try to make it look nice,” says Ryan Radosta, one of Renchin’s…