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"How To" Forge 90° corner the hard way using vice finish on anvil.


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I respect what your saying, I never have owned a twitch or used Ace but as horses step on each other’s feet to move them out of the way I figure it’s just good horse makers to do so. No dust, no drama, just step on them till the move. Usualy only takes the once. Generally a my bad imitation of a mare squeal is enugh, acasinaly we do stupid circles. But I have also found that if I expect them to behave they generally do. Of corse just saying hi to the horse helps (I often forget to say hi to the peaple, lol). Horse makers are od to be sure (or is it peaple manersnthat are off)

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It funny about the sayng Hello thing but so true..  A few of the horses I do, down right look at it as being disrespectful If I walk from one and not say "Hello" and then start to work..

I figure it out pretty quickly and apologize and say hello and then we are good to go..

Some people believe we project feelings, behaviors and such to make animals more human like but every horse I have ever worked on is completely honest, yet not mean or demeaning about it..  Have worked on a few that thought I was an idiot in my early days and they were 100% correct.. :) 

I've worked on a few that literally were not mean,, they just were missing a few cells with hair triggers.. Sometimes perfect other times volatile all within just a few seconds.. That was 28 years ago.. Different world back then..

Sorry if I said something in regards about seeming mean.  Some people have a tendency to have a  "Eye for an eye" thing going on as that was what I was brought up on in the farrier business..   I may have over reacted to the picture presented in my mind.  There are a lot of subtle things horses do which more never even see..  Way to go.. :) 

What do you run for a hoof knife?

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JLP ... you clearly have a special skill in you. A few people have that skill with horses others with dogs or other animals. 

When I was a kid I used to climb trees to look into birds nest and the bird sitting on the eggs would let me touch her and stroke her as I was talking to them.  They would stay put and did not mind me at all. This days I don't climb trees but talk to dogs and they seem to understand what I tell them. Go figure :)

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No offense taken. You only know me from my bad spelling here, lol. Besides that we tend to talk to the wider audience as well as the person we are addressing. 

Tho I loved horses from a far I didn’t start working with them until about 20 years ago (a pair of PMU Belgians and an off the track quarter horse, all bred) didn’t like the way the horseshoer treated them so I went to the Oklahoma shoeing school. Learned to ride the hard way, and to drive. Started my first horse 15 years ago (we are still to gether) 

as I said there was a steep learning curve as to horse mannners and learning to speak horse (I have a serious lisp, but generaly get my point across well enough to be treated like a funny looking deformed member of the herd). Anamophasising animals is greavasly unfair to them, they are not Disney characters, they are creatchures whom millions of years of evolution (and some few centuries of man) has shaped to perfection. They think and communicate in their own ways, they form their own tribes and in the case of horses read every nuance of your body language and facial expressions (with our permenantly pinne dears we must loot pissed off all the time). 

Here is my hoof knife, not that I use it that much, but the shape of the Hastings handle and the short wide blade work well for me as we can go from rock hard, no rain in 6 months to standing in a bog for three months. I learned to leave well enough alone and let the frog and sole serve their perpose (Little Miss is tender footed) trimming the bars, keeping the apex below the hoof wall and making sure the frog is no more than a 1/4” above that level in the heals is generaly what I use it for. I don’t cut the fog out of the comisures as a general rule nor exfoliate the sole with out cause ( we have some king ranch horses that grow their bars compleatly over their soles if neglected and some seasons the dead soak forms chunks I will address) I generaly won’t expose live sole unless I have some particticularly deformed hoof and am seeking landmarks to determine the location and angle of P3. 

The gray mare is Little Miss, she came out of West Texas via 8 difrent auctions at 14 months. Wild as a snake, she is the first horse I started under saddle. Don’t let the Q horse look fool ya, that is an App threw and threw. The sororal is DB ( Bolier’s Da’Bomb), third horse I broke to drive (client decided he walked to fast and trades him for credit on training) he is my baby sitter, as nothing fazes him. And lastly Baby, a friend of mine gave me her yard ornament, that’s Sandy,s mount.  

An appiloosa mare will teach you a lot about respecting a horse...

 

 

 

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I love Appies..  My favorite of all the horses.. And yes Sir they sure do..   Loverly herd there. and thanks for posting up your methodology.. You and I would get along very well indeed as to methods and such.. 

It is funny that I love Appi's but plain old Qhorses there all right a little to tense for me sometimes.. It would be Appies, Arabs then all the rest I do a lot of 5 gated horses now..  My first horse awakening was by and Appie named Winnie..  I had just finished my apprenticeship and over the course of 4 years each year he would raise his rear feet less and less.. By year 4 I could barely get his foot of the ground for shoeing. He'd hold it up about 3" off the ground.. LOL..   I went over there on a February day to put winter shoes on him.. It was 10F out, I had a really bad cold.. Shod both front feet and got to the rears.. He didn't even want to lift it the 2"..  I was dieing.. I was on him for about 1hr when I couldn't handle him weighting me down.. So I took the rasp and lightly gave him a smack in the bum while holding him between my knees.. When I say smacked him it was more like a pat.. Anyhow, he Dropped both rear feet and looking right at me started kicking.. Well I started swearing and he would start kicking some more. this went on for about 10 minutes all the time looking at me while double barreling on the cross ties..  I said" you can booger it horse" left him there and went and sat in the running truck to warm up and blow my nose.. 

In there I found my "Right mind" after about 10minutes I went in and put my hand on his withers and said  " I am so sorry for what I did, I apologize to you and please forgive me"..  

His eyes went soft and he dropped his head..  He then lifted his rear foot the full height like back 4 years ago and I put the shoes on him and thanked him for the lesson.. After that time frame I could work on him anywhere, anytime with no halter, lead line or anything..  I would walk in the barn, open the door and he'd walk out and stand on the mat, I'd get finished and he'd walk back in his stall. 

After that is when I realized, What I was doing was wrong and nearly all the things I was taught was wrong.. I had all ready started looking for alternatives with trimming and shoeing horses but he sealed the deal..   He lived another 8 years after that and he taught me so much.. I then started to notice all the horses started to look at me differently or was it me looking at them differently.. :) 
 

I find Appaloosa's ( horses of color) once you talk with them are just so consistent and over the years I've worked in lightening and thunder storms, wind storms etc etc on Appies, with nothing but ground tied and they just stand there till done..   Stuff would be flying by,  metal roofing, paper you name it..  

Love the herd.. 

What kind of sharpener do you use? Diamond coated or chainsaw file? 

What get presented to the world " in speech, sound or sight rarely represents what is truly going on inside someones heart"..  I have no interest in judging others any longer so you or anybody else can right it bakwards, upside down or anyway you'd like..    I only want to help where I can..       I always enjoy what you have to say and learn from it..  thanks very much.. 

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Diamond.  Save edge. It has lasted me almost 15 years wile the more expensive Mustad only lasted a year.

shoeing and trimming Andilusians was an eye opener, I believe that the adilusians (and barbs) are the reason for Appaloosa attitudes. They still have the warhorse mentality. 

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That is, they demand respect and return loyalty. They have a wicked sence of humor and a willing ness to fight if you are dumb enough to go there. 

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Great vid!

You guys are missing an important farrier learning. Don't you know the reason why cowboys and farriers wear pointy to boots?

Horses know the end of the toes is where it hurts the most,, so, point toes get stepped on and fools the horse. ;)

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5 hours ago, anvil said:

Great vid!

You guys are missing an important farrier learning. Don't you know the reason why cowboys and farriers wear pointy to boots?

Horses know the end of the toes is where it hurts the most,, so, point toes get stepped on and fools the horse. ;)

Thanks, I've got some pointy toed shoes and boots but I don't think they would be appropriate for trimming horses.. 

Have you seen those Mexican Dancing guys who have the curled toed cowboy boots.. Almost like Munchkins in the Wiz of Oz.. 

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When we had horses I can only wish I had farriers like you guys. We had one fairly good one that after 2 or 3 years just said sorry cant do em' any more and that was it. Another husband and wife team trimmed one of them up because we didn't ride at the time so no shoes, made an appointment for 6 weeks and when they left I found an engraved hoof pick, called them and left messages so they could get it but never heard from them again. The worst was my wife asked me to watch one of the guys we had come in to trim that had a bad attitude he got pissed when my wife's horse pulled his foot off the stand and went to hit the horse in the belly with his hammer. I stopped him and explained that he could leave the property and if he returned I would drop my hammer on him. It wasn't like he tried to kick the guy, step on him  or anything, he took his foot off and put in on the ground. A good farrier is a god send, one that knows how to put shoes on is even better

 

Bob

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