What is Farriery?

far·rier
[ˈfarɪə]
NOUN
  1. a smith who shoes horses.
  2. *****

On the face of it, a farrier is a person who nails a semi-circular piece of metal with holes in it, to a horse's hoof. As a group, with a few exceptions, farriers do little to alleviate this misconception.

For sure, this is part of the job, but farriery is so much more than that.

Our modern domesticated horses are asked to contend with so much more than their wild ancestors, hence the invention of horseshoeing (more on that later). Our selective breeding and domestic husbandry practices, coupled with the athletic demands placed on our horses introduce challenges for the horse they never evolved to endure.

Additionally, our horses are often overweight and are required to carry a human of various sizes (who may be quite large), plus saddle etc. and/or asked to perform athletic feats beyond what nature intended. At the bottom of all these questions we ask of our horses, interacting with the very earth and often at speed, is the hoof. Anatomically, the horse's hoof is the same as the nail of our middle finger.

It does not take much imagination, therefore, to see how this could be problematic. Enter the farrier.

Our use of horses for agriculture, warfare, transport, sport etc., goes back many centuries. Noticing that these horses were getting sore feet from the demands placed on them, as early as 400BC the Roman were strapping on hoof protection inspired by their own footware, called hipposandles.

It wasn't until the 6th or 7th century AD when metal horseshoes began to be nailed on and this remain the most practical and effective mode of hoofcare and protection to this day. While the basic premise has changed little since then, our knowledge of anatomy, physiology and biomechanics has improved tremendously.Additionally we have at our disposal a range of traditional and modern materials,plus plastics technology to augment the execution of that knowledge.

What on the face of it seems quite simple, achievevable by a basic labourer, is in fact a quite complex and  skilled profession if long term soundness and performance is to be achieved. 


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