“By using the left-handed knife, I’m pulling up,” he says. “If I hook it and push down, I’ll get two separate angles.”

He prefers using custom knives, such as those by Neal Baggett of Bishop, Ga., or Mark Milster of Washington, Okla., because they tend to be harder. Today, he opts for two knives that he picked up from Ramsey, Minn., farrier Mark Thorkildson when doing a clinic at Duggan Farrier Supplies.

12:15 p.m. When discussing fitting the foot of the third horse, Doug says there needs to be consideration for support. However, fitting a horse wide can be a result of laziness or an improper fit by a farrier.

“If I shoe this horse and give it an 1/8 of an inch on the outside and 1/16 of an inch on the inside, and I come back and he’s way over, then he’ll get a 1/4 and 1/8 next time,” he says. “You can’t change the weight. If you add extra width and length, you’re only increasing the weight on the area.”

To avoid breathing harmful aluminum particles into your lungs, avoid using a grinder with this material.

Doug has rockered the toe of
this shoe. Instead of the more traditional approach to rockering the toe, his preference for horses like this is to rocker the entire web at about a 30-degree angle.

“I’ll have a smaller transition and take the shoe to the grinder to knock off the outside edge of the toe quarters, sort of rolling where there are corners,” he says.

12:27 p.m. Doug grinds the “corners” off the shoe. He likes to touch up the entire shoe rim with the grinder for aesthetics.

“If anything, it shows the client you’ve been there and that you care — it looks more professional,” he says. Touching up a shoe at the grinder or applying a hoof coating aren’t wasteful steps when clients appreciate them, Doug says.

Working at the grinder, Doug has a couple of tips. He keeps a narrow pan with a few inches of water to cool the shoe at the grinder. To get more life out of a 3M belt, flip it around for a “life and a half.” If you grind plastic or leather pads, rub a bar of soap on the belt so the pad material doesn’t collect on the belt.

Grinders get a bad wrap by some, according to Doug. “It isn’t a shortcut to forging, it is a shortcut to cardiovascular work,” he says. “Be efficient and save your body. It’s funny though — there is hardly a rig without them.”

1:01 p.m. When asked why he’ll use aluminum shoes with this jumper, Doug jokes, “Don’t you know, that’s what they are all supposed to wear?” The shoe choice is the owner’s preference, and although Doug thinks the horse can get by with steel, he’s happy to oblige as long as the shoes won’t introduce any problem to the horse. The farrier just doesn’t like working with aluminum at the anvil.

Doug prefers to hot fit his shoes, so he opts to use a burn plate on these feet. He notes that the burn plate is an excellent tool to have around, but make sure it air cools after use, otherwise
it may warp in water if it is too hot when quenched.

He won’t take the aluminum shoes to the grinder to box and safe, but instead hot rasps them. Doug warns against grinding these shoes because of the health hazards of inhaling aluminum dust particles. To hold the shoe he uses a set of Vise Grips welded to a bar that slips into his anvil’s hardy hole. He then welded two pieces of cut rasp to the jaws of the tool. It keeps a solid grip on the shoe as he rasps it.

1:33 p.m. With aluminum shoes nailed on the fronts, Doug moves to the hind left of the fourth horse to trim the foot. Colten has finished the fronts.

Doug Workman says it is important to evaluate your work from the previous trimming or shoeing to understand how the feet are being maintained under your care.

The elder Workman notes that he believes one of the most overrated aspects of what farriers do is sighting a foot perpendicular to the cannon bone. He does it himself and sees value in it, but says the problem rests more with doing this incorrectly. Offending farriers are bringing the limb too far out laterally.

“That’s not the way the foot travels, it travels here,” he says, positioning himself directly in line with the limb under the horse, with his head above the limb, parallel to the foot.

While rasping the hind foot as it rests in a cradle atop a hoof stand he’s used for 25 years, Doug says he doesn’t know why some farriers don’t use one. He says it is similar to the grinder in that there is an importance to avoid prematurely wearing out your body.

Following various attempts at addressing a laminitic foot, Workman has had success slightly rasping the foot and using a Kerckhaert aluminum Century Support shoe and leather pad.

1:50 p.m. Doug leaves a paper invoice. He sees the value in using computer invoicing, but it isn’t necessary with his practice. Nonetheless, he stresses the need to invoice clients as a good business practice.

Before leaving Four Seasons, both Workmans change their shirts. As a policy, they keep extra shirts in the truck to change between stops to maintain a professional appearance.

2:01 p.m. Doug drives his truck and trailer north toward Athens to the next stop at the University of Georgia. All of his practice is situated within a 2-hour drive outside of Atlanta, primarily in the Alpharetta area. He says that the area is a good fit for his practice and goals.

He notes that new farriers often overlook the importance of location when starting out. Can that area support your business goals 5 to 10 years down the road? It is more important than having the type of horses you want to work with. You need to make sure there is the necessary diversity of clients that will allow your business to grow.

“When a lot of people ride with me, they want to know how to make more money shoeing horses. You will never be able to raise your prices enough on current clients to grow. Sure, you can go up 3% to 5% and get cost of living, but you aren’t going to get the raise you want. The only way they are going to do that is by changing clients. I learned that from Grant Moon years ago.”

Doug Workman says it is important to evaluate your work from the previous trimming or shoeing to understand how the feet are being maintained under your care.

Doug says his clientele preference is the “B” level of riders and horses. Those owners are still serious about riding, but are down to earth and relatable for the Cleveland, Ga., shoer. You have to be willing to meet the expectations of your clients.

“Horse owners astound me,” he says. “They’ll go to see a cardiologist for a heart problem, but that doctor wasn’t available so they had to see another doctor in the practice. But if I have a reason I can’t get out to a barn, the client would rather wait than see another farrier I’d recommend.

“The key to success is not how well you shoe horses, but how well you manage the relationships with clients.”

While every level of horse owner places demands on the farrier, those escalate as the stakes get higher. If you choose to work with the high-end clients and meet their demands, Doug says the key to success comes from Coshocton, Ohio, farrier Dave Farley.

“It is all about visualizing yourself at the same level as the clients and carrying yourself that way,” he says. “You have to have the same mentality, the same thought process of those people who you work for.”

Colten Workman works with his father a few days each week. To improve workflow between two farriers, there needs to be solid communication and the helper must be motivated to improve.

2:30 p.m. The University of Georgia Veterinary Teaching Hospital is a state-of-the-art facility that just opened in February. The university doesn’t have a resident farrier, so Doug spends 1 or 2 days a week handling a variety of cases while a few other farriers tackle the rest of the workload.

He could make more money shoeing more sport horses in the time frame he spends at the university today, but he wants this experience both for himself and Colten. He says that what he learns from working on therapeutic cases is invaluable, and the frequent access to diagnostics is something he seldom sees with his clientele.

This last horse of the day presents a particular challenge in getting its feet to a “solid” state. It is an arthritic, retired performance horse with laminitis in its front left foot. The team has tried several different modalities over the last couple of years to help it, including hoof boots, clogs and tenotomy, with the best progress coming with the most recent option: wearing an aluminum Kerckhaert Century Support shoe on the laminitic foot and a hoof boot on the other foot. The hinds are barefoot.

2:39 p.m. Doug will team up today with Harry Markwell, a resident at the hospital who has worked with him on this case previously. The two take time to see how the horse moves. After removing the boot and pulling the shoe, Doug trims all four feet. Markwell orders radiographs, which requires typing in the online request, then walking the horse to another building. As the minutes pass, Doug notes this is the downside to working in the clinical setting.

3:16 p.m. The radiographs are downloaded, and Markwell and Doug take a look. They are encouraged because the rotation continues to be halted and there is about 3 mm of increased sole depth. They agree to continue using the shoe and pad application on the foot. Although Doug joked about his dislike of working with aluminum before, he feels that this will best suit this horse because of its lighter weight.

He’ll also use a leather pad and Equi-Pak with the foot. Doug recommends soaking the pad briefly in water before application.

“You’re basically helping it
mold to the foot,” he says. “If you don’t do that, your clinches will be standing up in a week or so because it absorbs moisture.”

Workman, left, works closely with Dr. Harry Markwell, right, on a variety of cases at the University of Georgia. The farrier says that mutual respect is important for building a solid working relationship with a vet.

Before Doug nails on the shoe and pad, he builds a small barrier using hoof packing across the width of the foot at the tip of the frog to keep the Equi-Pak from going forward.

With the shoes on and the pad material set, they walk the horse again in the alley. The horse walks off slowly, but comfortably, all
things considered.

4:41 p.m. Heading home, it was a fairly typical workday for the Workmans, despite the flat tire and extra person riding along and interrupting. On a more normal day they may add a couple more horses to the tally.

Maybe he isn’t driving through the night to a clinic, but Doug still has a full plate filled with his footcare practice and clinician work, while balancing these with his family and semi-professional hobby of tournament fishing. An avid outdoorsman who also spent time as a hunting guide earlier in his life, he jokes that he still shoes horses so he can pay for his fishing.

Being able to choose what he does, whether it is clinical work at the university or casting in a tournament is a reward for his choice to dedicate himself to farriery back in 1992. That commitment is mandatory to avoid repeating that first year again and again when “Shoeing For A Living.”