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Revision as of 07:20, 19 April 2005
A farrier is a specialist in horse care, especially shoeing. Effectively the farrier couples a subset of the blacksmith's skills with a subset of veterinary medicine to primarily address the care of a horse's hooves, feet and legs.
Historically in the United States farrier and blacksmith have been all but synonymous and traditionally includes smithy or blacksmith work. In Europe, historically, and more recently in the U.S. farriers are considered to be in a separate, although related, trade.
While it might at first seem to be a simple job, the farrier's tasks involve more than handling the occasional intractable horse.
A farrier's routine work is primarily hoof cleaning and trimming, and shoeing. In ordinary cases it is important to trim each hoof of the horse so that it retains its proper orientation to the ground. If the horse works and/or travels a good deal on hard surfaces the trimming is preparation for shoeing.
More advanced tasks for the farrier include dealing with injured and/or diseased hooves and application of special shoes for racing, training or "cosmetic" purposes. In cases of horses with certain diseases or injuries, special repairative procedures may be needed for the hooves, and then special shoes may need to be constructed and fitted.