Will You Raise Your Shoeing Prices This Year?

Some 59 percent of farriers expect to raise shoeing prices during 2003. Among farriers who filled out an American Farriers Journal survey at the American Farrier’s Association (AFA) convention in Salt Lake City, 24 percent indicated that they will raise prices only if outside factors such as rising fuel prices force them to do so. Another 17 percent expect to raise shoeing prices when the economy improves and they feel that they can do so without losing customers. Only 9 percent of surveyed farriers say they definitely won’t raise shoeing prices this year. (See chart on page 27 for details on how long it has been since these shoers have raised their prices.)

Egg Bar Modification Relieves Sore Heels

Curtis Brown says sore-heeled horses usually have one foot that is normal while the other is low in the heel. With different hoof angles, the Bernardston, Mass., farrier finds these sore-heeled horses often can’t take a degree wedge pad since it just keeps beating the heel down. “Instead of putting a degree wedge pad under the shoe on the low-angled foot to bring it up to a proper angle, heat up an egg bar shoe and shape it to the horse’s foot,” he says. “Lay the shoe back on the anvil with the ground surface facing up and use the rounded part of your ball-pein hammer to tap the shoe just where the heel would end on the branches to curve the bar…