Was out to a horse yesterday and set 4 shoes. Is a great horse with nice hooves and never had a problem shoeing this guy. Last night I received a text message on the phone: You were out and set 4 shoes on my horse today. I have been called out to him as he is sore on all 4 legs / hooves. He stands with fronts forward like a founder and the backs much further back. I gave her a call. She said the horse could hardly move and was sore on all four legs and if I could come and look at him. She had given him pain killer for the evening. I arranged to be there today at 0630, arrived at 0620, owner wasn't there yet. I pulled the horse out of the box. He moved freely forward on the lead rope. I tied him and checked pulse, none; no warm hooves, and the only reaction I got to my hoof tester was his nose pushing in my back and smelling around on me. Owner came and she walked the horse, then I had her move out with him and he automatically pick up the gait. I told her there was no problem with my work and I believed her horse had a colic or something as of sorts. She thanked me for coming out, but I wonder what she will say when she get the bill!! Why is it always our fault when something goes wrong??
Mikel, Since you had just worked on the horse, the owner assumed you did something wrong. At least she called you sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, as is true of most owners today, she didn't check to see if anything else could be the culprit. Dollars to donuts that when she gets the bill she will go ballistic and could very well fire you even though you did nothing wrong and gave her great customer service. C'est la vie, C'est la guerre....
I arrived into a livery yard one day to shoe a horse and before I started the owner told me he was a bit lame, checked the foot and nothing, we looked at him trot and it was obviously up high. I put on the set of shoes and thought no more about it. The next day I get an unpleasant phone call asking me to come back immediately and pull the shoes the vet had been to see him and his prognosis was I had put the shoe on too tight!! I asked her was her horse psychic that he had known in advance of me putting the shoes on that I would catch him with a nail and had gone lame after having this premonition and before the set of shoes were actually put on, she replied I don't know but that's what the vet said.
And WTF does put the shoes on too tight mean? It's BS, a meaningless catch-all phrase that is a logical and physiological furphy.
too tight in American...means that the guy has put all nails too close to the white line and a slight nail burn has happen. but it has nothing to do with this conversation
I have heard the phrase "too tight" used to describe a shoe that was applied without enough sole relief and blocked and clinched aggressively enough to produce sole pressure which lead to the pain and associated lameness.. Pinched the sole, in other words..... I think that this is an accurate use to the term "too tight".... But to the OP's original post, yep it's pretty easy to throw the farrier under the bus for any number of ailments that can occur with a client's horse... especially if it happens to occur right after the horse's feet were just done. I'm sure we all have driven an errant nail or two .... I know I have..... and once I was called back to "fix" a horse I had just shod because I had "caused" the saddle fit to "change"..... I gave her my special "saddle fit adjustment trim" and didn't even charge her....... Dave
The key to survival in this business, is not to believe the client when they you "you're the best shoer in the world" or "you crippled my horse, caused fluffy to get navicular". The best set of shoes, are the ones the horse never notices are on it's feet.....
I work it the other way. Yesterday a client had a lesson while I was shoeing another horse before her's. When she brought the horse to me to be shod, she and the trainer showed me where the horse had gotten a little dirt on the (1" thick on each leg) leg wraps on the fetlocks. I just told them it was caused either by rider error or poor training methods.
There are people out there who are sure I killed their horse. There are others who are convinced that not only did I save their horse's life, but that I was the only one who could have. They're both wrong.
Sole pressure and dragging your clinches will get some in trouble...I grind the inside web of everyshoe I nail up because for on thing I dont get knife crazy..cleanup the frog and bars then scrape more than knife..I have had some guys ride with me that I have to get on to let the tool do its job ..
The vet in question would call any shoe that causes lameness put on too tight. My point was the jack ass of an owner had seen with her own eyes the horse was lame before I started. Any one who half knew what they were lookin at could see the horse was lame up high by his movement, my point was that owners, vets, trainers all these so called horse men, if there is a recent set of shoes on, blame the farrier regardless.
Logic leads to only one possible conclusion. It is never the owners fault as the customer is always right. Vets are infallibile and all knowing so it can't be them. I have never met a trainer ever who would allow that anything is his/her fault. By process of eliminiation the only one who can be responsible for anything that is wrong with the horse is the farrier. We are the only ones left.
I could make a book from the sayings u come up with. Another of my favorite Bill Adams quote, 'I don't work for anyone who knows more than me.' Hahaha
