The Art of Horse-Shoeing: A Manual for Farriers

by William Hunting

The Agricultural Societies that have made Horse-shoeing Competitions a feature of their Annual Shows have distinctly done good to the art. In those districts which have had the benefit of these competitions for many years past, horse-shoeing is best done. In those districts where no competitions have been held shoeing is generally badly done. When the farrier takes a pride in his work he is more careful with details. Provided proper principles are adopted, no calling is more dependent upon care in details for the best results than that of the farrier. Competitions stimulate emulation amongst men. Public appreciation, as displayed by the prominence given to the art by the Show authorities and by the admiring crowd that generally assembles to see the men at work, encourages a feeling of responsibility and gratifies the natural and honest pride of the workman. Very few trades have suffered more from public neglect and indifference than that of the farrier.

The success of a shoeing competition depends almost entirely upon the secretary of a show, unless that officer has amongst his stewards an energetic horseman who has grasped the importance of good shoeing and who possesses some organising powers. In this connection I may perhaps offer a word of acknowledgement for the work done by Mr. Clay, to whose energy and skill the Royal Agricultural Society has for many years been indebted for the success of its valuable annual shoeing competition.

All the arrangements for the competition must be completed before the work is commenced, and upon their perfection depends the success of the whole thing. There should, if possible, be two classes—one for heavy horses and one for light horses. At large competitions there should also be a champion class. There are farriers who travel from show to show and generally appear in the prize list. This handicaps the local men, and is not encouraging to those who have not quite risen to front rank. The object of the competition is to improve the work of the district, and it is quite a question whether the rules should not exclude men who have taken, say, two first prizes at any large competition. The only argument in favour of letting the well known smith who has taken many prizes enter a competition is that his work may be seen, examined and imitated. By confining prize winners to the champion class this good would be attained; at the same time more encouragement would be given to local men.

The necessities for a competition include anvils, fires, tools, iron and horses.

For every five men there should be one anvil with its accompanying vice and forge. The anvil should be so placed that the sun is not full on the face of the workman. The exact relative position of anvil, vice and forge should be entrusted to a practical farrier, and the whole placed the night before they are wanted. Coal, nails and iron should also be provided. If competitors are allowed to bring their own iron or nails some poor man may be placed at a disadvantage, and the habitual competitor, versed in every detail, is given an advantage. Each man should bring all smaller tools he may want. In broken weather a canvas roof should be supplied both for horses and workmen. At all times a temporary wooden floor should be put down for the horses to stand upon. This should be a little longer than the line of anvils so that each man has his horse opposite his anvil. It should be at least twelve feet deep so that there is room enough behind and in front of the horses for men to pass. On the side farthest from the anvils a firm rail must be fixed to which the horses' halters may be tied, and outside of this—at least six feet distant—should be another line of post and rails to keep back spectators.

Horses have to be borrowed or hired, and one horse is sufficient for two competitors. Care should be taken not to have any horse with unusually bad feet. The most suitable horses are those with overgrown hoofs. Under no circumstances should a vicious or very fidgety horse be selected.

When time is not an object, the best test of a workman is to require him to make a fore and hind shoe and put them on the horse. At a one-day show, or at a competition when the entries are large, it is sufficient to require the making of a fore and hind shoe and the fitting and nailing on of the front one. A reasonable time should be fixed, and undue haste should be deprecated.

There should always be two judges, who should be supplied with books in which each division of the operation of shoeing should be separately marked. There are only three important divisions of the subject: (1) Preparation of the Foot, (2) Making the Shoes, and (3) Fitting and nailing on.

Sometimes these operations are marked separately for fore and hind feet. I consider this quite unnecessary. There is not sufficient difference either in principle or detail to require each foot to be specially marked. The judge of course notes every thing in his mind, and it is sufficient for him to estimate and mark the value of the work under the three different operations. The great fault I find with most competitions is that "the preparation" of the foot for the shoe is not more strictly defined. The competitors are permitted to mix up the "preparation" and the "fitting." Some of them do nothing to the foot until they commence to fit the shoe. This is wrong, and every foot should be properly prepared—the bearing-surface formed and the proportions of the hoof attended to—before the fitting is attempted. A rule to this effect should be added to the conditions in the schedule of the competition. Each judge may perhaps be permitted to fix his own standard of marking but a uniform system would be useful for comparison. If the maximum be indicated by too small a figure difficulty often arises in exactly determining the merits of men who have come out equal in the totals, and there is too often, in a large class, a number whose marks are about equal. The three operations—preparing the foot, making the shoe, fitting and nailing on—are about equal in value. A maximum of five points in each is too small a number to make distinctive marking easy, but there is nothing gained by adopting a higher maximum than ten. A marking sheet for the judges of a shoeing-competition may be something in this form:

Class——