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A visit with a farrier By Peggy Dover Nov 06, 2022 12:15 AM A A “No foot, no horse.” That could be the farrier’s mantra. This chilly week, I’m in the barn with certified farrier Brian J. Bauer. Maybe it’s because my old house originally was the home of the town blacksmith, but interviewing a modern-day smithy has been on my radar. Brian agreed to meet me at the stables at Corey Odle Performance Horses in Eagle Point. Brian’s been caring for horses’ feet for 13 years and is about the only certified farrier around. “I’ve been going to a lot of clinics and trying to educate myself more, and this last year I passed my certified farrier exam through the American Farrier Association.” Brian said in the United States, certification isn’t necessary to hang out a shingle. “You can watch a YouTube video and go out and charge money for it,” he said. “Whereas, in England you have to do a four-year apprenticeship and then pass your diploma to be able to shoe a horse legally there.” Today, Sadie Hawkins showed up for a trim with her owner, Sue. Sadie wasn’t wearing shoes. She was barefoot. “Not all horses have to be shoed,” Brain explained. “It depends on what you’re doing with the horse. Shoes are for three things: traction, protection and for therapeutic purposes. If you’re doing any kind of performance work, you want to have more traction or less traction. So with reining horses, they put wide sliding plates on the back so they’ll slide further. Cutting horse, you want a lot of traction up front, or a barrel or roping horse.” Brian showed me the parts that make up a horse’s hoof starting with the wall that grows down, the part he was trimming like giant toenails. Then he used a large rasp to file everything down to keep it from flaring. He recommends a visit from the shoer every five or six weeks. I asked if he’d been kicked. “Yeah, I’ve been kicked several times. Nothing life changing.” He named three top farrier schools in the country: Five Star in Oklahoma, Troy Price in Indiana and Heartland in Missouri. He went to Oklahoma to learn his trade and continues his education each year with clinics and conventions all over the country. As I watched him working, bent double, on Sadie Hawkins, I rubbed my back and wondered about his. “I try to take care of it. I try to do yoga. That helps a bunch. I go see a massage therapist once in a while. I have a massage chair at home that I absolutely love. You don’t get as sore if you’re doing it day to day. A week off for a convention makes a difference. “I’ll be sore for three days. “I just love being around horses. I like the blacksmith part of it.” A horse doesn’t always get a new pair of shoes. Sometimes he resets them. He shapes the shoes individually to the horse’s foot and prefers hot shaping to cold. “I think you can do a better job hot shaping it because you can only manipulate cold steel so much. (With hot), you can fit it right to that foot.” Then Sue brought in Miss Bud for her pedicure. I watched Brian remove Miss Bud’s shoes and clean and trim her hooves. He fired up his propane forge to heat the shoes red-hot before hammering them flat on an anvil. When he burned those shoes onto the hoof, smoke flew, and an unexpected stench assailed the air. But Miss Bud was calm and cool. It doesn’t hurt. Brian’s territory covers the Rogue Valley, and he can do 15 to 20 trims or shoe four or five horses on an average day. I asked what he’d tell a young person interested in shoeing. “Go and ride with somebody. You know, call a farrier in their area and see if you really enjoy it.” Brian is open to a ride-along situation. If someone you know might be interested, or if you need a well-respected, certified farrier, give Brian a call at 541-219-1931. Peggy Dover is a freelance writer/author who’s full of surprises. Reach her at [email protected].