Grinders offer a tremendous ability for farriers to include a number of mechanics in a shoe, all the while increasing quality and efficiency.

A trio of veteran farriers — Nick Denson of Sagamore Beach, Mass.; Gary Gatts of Fredericktown, Pa.; and Jason Usry of Manakin, Va. — share a variety of tips that they find useful at the grinder.

Safety First

There’s enough risk involved trimming and shoeing horses to go around. Using grinders in your practice definitely makes quicker work of such mechanics as boxing and safeing, but they also carry an injury risk. The easiest, yet most ignored safety precaution costs as little as 59 cents.

“Safety glasses are a must,” Denson says, “unless you enjoy metal fragments in your eyes.”

High-speed gyral power equipment that employs abrasives is incredibly practical. They also have a tendency to grab and pull objects that dare to venture too close.

“Baggy clothes, long hair and dangling jewelry,” he says, “don’t mix well with rotational forces.”

Neither do knuckles and arms.

“A brand new Cubitron belt does not have the technology to decipher between a size 2 SSP and your knuckle,” Usry says. “Prepare accordingly.”