Tuesday, December 14, 2010 3:54:04 AM
My dad was a farrier as a second job in Bridger Valley, Wyoming. He was the only one around who knew how to shoe horses and he was real good at it. While growing up, I helped him on a lot of the horses he did. Besides helping my dad, I had to shoe my own horses. It is back breaking work - especially if the horse wants to fight you over it. In this picture, it looks like the horse is very calm about what is going on but the farrier is a little out of position. He should be working 'outside` of the horse and have the hoof resting on the chap of his left leg for safety. Some of the work is done with the horse`s leg extended as here, but most is done with the horse`s leg curled back.