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Appreciation post: the old farrier in Amarillo who made me watch him trim 30 horses before I touched a hoof
I finished horseshoeing school in 2019 and thought I knew plenty since I passed all my practicals on the first try. Then Dale out in Amarillo let me hang around his forge, and for the first two weeks he wouldn't hand me a rasp. I just watched him work, sometimes 8 or 9 horses a day, and he kept pointing at the same thing: the hoof wall tells you where the last guy went wrong. I didn't get it until horse number 40 something, a little bay mare with a flare on the outside that kept coming back every 6 weeks. Dale put his thumb on the sole and said the trim wasn't the fix, the shoe was covering up a trim that was already off. I had been leveling hooves like they were tabletops and calling it balanced. Anyone else here learn more from watching one old hand than from a whole certification course?
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