a day in the life of a farrier

From Australian Stock Horse Journal -By Joy Poole (OAM) - July/August 2004

I shod my first horse when I was 14 years old when I went to work on Angorichina Station in the Flinders Ranges, recalls David Farmilo, “It took me all day to shoe him and the next day all the shoes were off. It was that day, I decided, if shoeing was so important, I’d better start to find out something about it!”

After 49 years of finding out all about it, David Farmilo is now one of the recognised world Gurus on shoeing and the horses’ hoof. His website fields questions from people all over Australia and the World who are having problems with their horse’s feet and have run out of places to go to try to find a solution.

There are not many that David can’t help. “I want to put back into the industry what I have gained from it over the years,” said David “as I believe that the correct methods of balancing the hoof are being lost. I have started running courses to teach horse owners what to expect and demand of their farriers and even to shoe or trim their own horses if they wish.”

A lot of people make shoeing seem very hard but I’ve done the opposite I’ve made it as simple as I possibly can.”

Today I catch up with David at one of his ABC Hoof Care Courses. About 10 students have arrived at Scone’s White Park to pick up as many tips as they can from the Master Farrier. Before picking up a rasp or a hammer, the first thing David does is show his students models of a horse’s hoof and a horse’s hoof, pastern and fetlock.

“Before anyone starts to shoe they should have a complete understanding of the horse’s hoof and lower leg,” maintains David, “it is amazing how many people have no idea where the various parts of the hoof are, yet they may have been shoeing for some time.”

This makes a lot of sense, as when you’re hammering nails into an object it pays to know where the safe areas are to nail and where disaster can strike if you head in to those danger zones. There probably isn’t a person alive who hasn’t had a weekend ruined at sometime because they’ve either ‘pricked’ their horse when shoeing it or their farrier has.

After the initial discussion on the horse’s vital hoof parts, David gets down to the business of showing people how to trim and balance the hoof correctly before applying the appropriate shoe. All the participants have brought a number of horses to shoe during the day under David’s direction. One horse also arrives with a serious seedy toe problem, David puts him aside to use as a demonstration model later in the day.

David certainly wasn’t exaggerating when he said he tried to make shoeing as simple as possible. “The angle of the pastern and the hoof need to be the same,” emphasises David, “if you do that you are not putting undue pressure on ligaments and tendons in the leg. A lot of farriers leave too much toe and cut the heels away which changes the angle of the pastern and the hoof and really starts to put strain all the way up the leg.”

I know what he is talking about as when I was a 12 year old and used to sit watching my farriers, Silas and Aden King, who were generations down the line as farriers, shoe my pony, I would see people bring horses, who had been racing in Sydney, to the Kings at Maitland, who were so lame they could hardly get them from the float to the blacksmith shop and inevitably they always had long toes and no heel. After the Kings worked on them for a while they would be back winning races.

David’s ABC of shoeing translates as, A = Assessment, B = Balance and C = Correction. “My way of achieving perfect balance,” continues David, “is to clean out excess sole, establish the point of the frog, then by reducing the flares you end up with an even thickness of hoof capsule which imitates the coronary band which Nature has usually made perfect anyway. You will then have a balanced hoof.”

David moves from student to student giving advice, picking up a hoof giving a demonstration on how to trim and then he reaches a horse that needs a shoe on and David trims and puts the shoe on, demonstrating to his pupils.

He is like all talented people whether it is at sport or at work, they make the job look so simple, the file almost seems to work itself, the hammer just hits with the right force, the ends of the nails seem almost to come off of their own accord and in what seems like no time the shoe is clinched.

If I hadn’t seen David work I could have been a little sceptical when I read his autobiography where he talks about the numbers of horses he used to shoe when he had his farrier’s practice. One job that stuck in my mind was when he was asked by the manager of a Mt Barker Stud if he could trim the feet of 300 visiting broodmares and 10 stallions that he had in a stallion station but he warned David that it would have to be done every six weeks on the dot.

At the time David was 38 years old and as he puts it, ‘as fit as a mallee bull.’ He looked at his schedule and realised that he had three days clear each six weeks so he said he would take the job. He would knock $2 off each trim if the stud gave him a couple of grooms to catch the horses.

The owner agreed. David had looked at the set-up on the stud and had the grooms lock 100 mares each day up into yards with 20 in each yard. The mares were packed in like sardines but they didn’t kick as they were used to running together.

David would start at first light. He’d step into a yard and pick up the first leg, by the time he got to the second leg the groom would have a halter on the mare so that she was under control by the time he got to the hind legs. He would work like this all day, finishing about 6pm with a ten minute break for lunch. “If I hurried on the second and third days, that allowed me the time to do the stallions as well on the last day,” reflected David.

This job helped David greatly in understanding barefoot horses. “I found that by setting the hoof up correctly they maintained their shape much better between visits,” said David. Getting his clients’ horses’ feet set-up right and being well organised, allowed him to complete an incredible number of horses a week. His wife has estimated he has now shod or trimmed in excess of 100,000 horses!!

“My first shoeing teacher was Old Joe on Agorichina. One thing he taught me that I have never forgotten and have always practised, is to only do what you have to do on the hoof, disturb the hoof as little as possible to get the optimum shape which then makes it easier to fit the shoe.”

“At important competitions,” David says, “I often check out the competing horses only to see less than 10% correctly set up for optimum performance.” He likens poor shoeing, to wearing inappropriate shoes in humans. Imagine going out to compete in a 100 metre sprint in rubber boots! But that is what a lot of people expect their horse to do.

In the 1980s one of David’s clients was Peter Hayes who continually pressured David to go work for his father, Colin Hayes, at the renowned Lindsay Park Stud at Angaston, South Australia. At the time Lindsay Park was having a lameness problem. Many of the horses sent down to Peter to pre-train were already lame when they arrived but David had the knack of shoeing them sound. Peter could see how this farrier could be an amazing help to his father.

David caved in and went to work at Lindsay Park. After two days, David thought it had been a huge mistake as he spent half the day trying to find the horses he was supposed to shoe. With 120 horses in work and people shifting them from stable to stable without notifying him, it all looked too much to deal with until David’s fetish for order came to the fore. He put a board in his blacksmith shop with all the stable blocks drawn on it and the horses’ names in the stable numbers and had everyone make a note of any horses that were changed about. It wasn’t long before people, looking for a horse, were coming to his shop to find the horse, and heaven help anyone who didn’t register a changeover as they would have the whole staff on their back. David also had everyone reporting back to him as to how the horses worked each day and he shod his 120 horses with regularity.

After 6 months the level of lameness in the Lindsay Park horses had dropped from 20% to half of 1%!!! If ever a farrier had a quality assurance test placed on him it was David Farmilo at Lindsay Park.

That year, with David shoeing the Lindsay Park Thoroughbreds, Colin Hayes broke all his existing records! Which proves the old adage, “No hoof no horse!”

David remained head farrier at Lindsay Park for eight years until he retired in 1998.

The day is starting to slip away but we still have to work on the horse with the seedy toe. What a mess! From about half way down the front of the hoof the laminae is detaching.

David goes to work and cuts all the detached hoof away. He files away with a Dremel tool, making sure not to break through the inner part of the foot to the blood vessels. Next he uses acetone and a wire brush to perfectly clean all the inside of the foot and allows it to dry. Then he uses Bond N Flex to fill all the gaps and shapes it to model the original shape of the hoof. The end result is unbelievable! It is done so well that even a judge in a show ring would be hard pressed to see that the repaired hoof capsule was synthetic.

“What Bond N Flex has made it possible for me to now do with horses’ feet is beyond belief,” exclaims David. ”Seedy toe, quartered heels and even realigning foals’ legs, there is no limit to what is now possible.

I had a broodmare brought to my shop that was so lame they could hardly walk her in. I redid her feet using Bond N Flex and she walked out sound.

At the recent Polocrosse National Titles a black gelding was playing for NSW all due to the wonders of David Farmilo and Bond N Flex. This horse’s feet had broken down to the stage where it was impossible to keep shoes on him and continual replacement made the situation worse to the stage where he looked like he was headed for an early retirement.

David is a man on a mission, to try to help as many people as possible understand the importance of maintaining their horses’ feet correctly and thereby helping horses live a much more comfortable life and perform more efficiently.

I suggest that if you ever get the chance to see, talk or be instructed by this amazing farrier don’t let the opportunity pass as what you learn could just change your horse’s life! Underneath the finished hoof David works on a problem hoof where the bottom half of the wall has broken away from the centre of the hoof. First David must cut away the shell and throughly clean the hoof before applying and moulding Bond N Flex to make a new hoof.