The easier you make your farriers life the happier we will be.
In the perfect world, horses should be caught and tied before the farrier arrives. Legs should be clean and dry, and feet should be picked out. We understand that winter can be a hard time of year as everything is wet and muddy, but in order to provide your horse with our best work we need a flat area free of mud and puddles. This area needs to be big enough we can move around the horse comfortably and move with the horse if we need to. Preferably, this area should be undercover as the weather can be unpredictable (especially in Melbourne).
If your horse is covered in mud and you don’t have a chance to remove the mud and dry the legs before the farrier arrives then please provide a towel. Do not! I repeat, do not!! Hose your horses legs before the farrier arrives unless they have time to dry completely. It makes everything very wet, cold and slippery.
If you are going to put your horse in your shed or garage for us trim on rainy days, please make sure that your horse has been in there before and is relaxed about it.
If you don’t have anywhere out of the weather to trim it’s preferable to let your farrier know at the time of booking the appointment and again the day before your appointment if the weather isn’t looking good.
Remember to chat to your farrier about their weather requirements. Ask them if they have any advice on what you can both do to make those wet, miserable days a bit less miserable.
Do you do anything special if your farrier has to work through miserable weather? Let us know in the comments.