Look at Smitty's shoeing.........that is "the way" to do it!!!! and the "Correct Way!!" Smitty is well loved here, and his shoeing is one of the highest quality here, I know he has touched my life and made me a better blacksmith; as well as others here on the forum; and look at Chris Bunting's Albums with Smitty's; copy them in your forging and work; and you will be helped in the long run. hope this helps, Linda
Enigmatic statements are standard from superior beings. Be guided by your spirit, Grasshopper. Great you will be. Regards
I am trying to think of all the 'Ways' I have come upon in my 34 years of living and breathing horses, minus six for big city craziness where I only rode whores. But seriously which one is he considering The Way? The Natural Way- not pretty, mustang roll, leave sole, leave frog, shoe never, frequency 8 to 12 weeks The Cowboy Way- not pretty, shoed up with all eight keg nail holes, if you make a shoe it better have eight nails, expansion is ridiculous, shoes better be tight and stay on for years, frequency did you hear me say years? LoL no just kidding 8-12 weeks on average haha The Pro Show Way- pretty to perfection, functionality only as far as gait is concerned even if you need to hurt the horse, extreme cases attach a shoe that has eight inches of rubber, if horse naturally walks a little off alter the foot to huge degrees to straighten them out or in some cases make them walk ridiculously, frequency 4-5 weeks religiously The Pro Event Way- pretty, functionality for performance, pretty tight but more forgiving than cowboys, as long as the horse runs fast and jumps high you win, frequency 5-8 weeks religiously The Pleasure/Amateur Show Way- a careful mix of Show and Natural as far as pretty goes, functionality= it can walk away, frequency whenever they have money I am sure I am missing some, please add some if you have any.
tejun your useing the word pretty what are you meaning bye this. i have seen other farriers post this word pretty but havent got a clue what there on about
pretty to me is clean and shiny, all of the rough material removed from the hoof wall, perfect perfect clenches, everything dialed in to perfection visually. I guess I say pretty because more than once I have had a cowboy tell me, "you don't need to make em pretty this is just a ranch horse." One time I cleaned one up nice and 'pretty' and the other cowboys teased the cowboy who owned the horse and me btw Removing the rough hoof wall to natural trimmers is a no no, simply because they see it as harmful, so pretty really doesn't apply in that case.
I am not dogging it in anyway, pretty to me takes a great amount of skill and is very very difficult to achieve and it is what I pride myself in achieving, hence why I TRY to do it even when Cowboys are razin me, I am not confused in the slightest
Well I can see how you take it poorly. I myself admire pretty things. When I use that adjective in The future I will predicate it with an explanation of how awesome I think pretty is. ;-)
Nice work, Michael. Just curious, how come you have one foot all nailed up and finished off and the other foot not started?
Pretty common for guys around hear to finnish one befor moving to the next keeps them from tearing up the rest while your at the fire .finnish would be concittered the norm to.
Wow, never seen a horse shod one foot at a time. But I do enough 'pawers' that destroy the trimmed foot while I'm back at the anvil to make me see the sense in it.
