How to save money on the blacksmith

I have had my own horses now for about 20 years. When I got my first one, I was in a stable with 15 other horses, so it was quite a family atmosphere. The blacksmith that everyone used was a 70 year old guy, who came around with his little fire stove and his old-fashioned methods. He was a great guy though. He worked by himself, only the owner of the horse he was working on had to assist and hold up the feet. I still remember standing bent over breathing in clouds of smoke from the red hot iron shoe he melted onto the hoof.

Nowadays things are vastly different. The blacksmith comes with a helper and uses modern high tech equipment.

But after several years of watching the blacksmith work on my horse’s feet, I got a really good idea of it. So good indeed, that I am still doing my current horse’s hoofs myself. That only works of course, because he doesn’t need shoes.

It is actually very simple to do and I save a lot of money doing it myself. All you need is a rough rasp and a hoof knife, both of which you get in horse shops. I lift up the hoofs one by one and rest them on a brick, while I rasp them down evenly in a half circle. It seems rather natural how far you cut. Then I lift the hoof up, clean it and cut with the knife along the groves and take out all the soft bits that stick out. It is that simple.

Another good thing about this is that I can do that according to my own schedule.

There are only two things you have to be careful with: to not cut into the soft centre of the hoof inside and not rasp of to much.