Farriers - can't live without them, can't shoot them.
I'll just say before we start that our farrier is very good. At nailing shoes on. He diagnosed and fixed the NAUGHTY PONYS three year lameness.
But at actually turning up at the arranged times he is crap.
Last time he came out he was two weeks late, by which time THE FELLA and MONSTER had both thrown shoes. We were all agreed that they couldn't afford to go lonmger than our scheduled six weeks.
After three weeks THE FELLA lost a shoe.
After a week of unsuccesfully trying to get hold of the farrier to come out specailly to do him I phoned the farrier and told him we'd do THE FELLA on his regular visit.
Come the arranged day I took an afternoon off work, only for the farrier not to arrive. To make things worse his phone was no longer ringing. I eventually got a message to him and he rang back apologising saying that he thought our appointment was the next week. So the next week I again took an afternoon off work. Guess what. The farrier, rang to say he'd be there in an hour, only to change his mind once THE FELLA had been sedated saying he now didn't want to come out citing no shoes. Well by now THE NAUGHTY PONY was seriously long and THE MONSTER was clanking when she walked. I insisted he come out and do them at least. He agreed and turned up an hour late.
He promised to return at the weekend for THE FELLA.
Well we stayed home all Saturday waiting for the call so that we could go and sedate THE FELLA. The call never came. RIDER rang him on Monday and received some lame excuse about not having his phone. He promised to ring back this week when he "had his diary" to sort out a time for THE FELLA.
THE FELLA has now been missing at least one shoe for five weeks. He is now down to one, loose, front shoe. He is two weeks past his due date for shoeing. Neither me nor RIDER can bring ourselves to call THE FARRIER for fear of just being rude to him. If he doesn't want to come out and do out horses we wish he'd just say. In the meantime we are looking at another farrier.
We'll even box all three up and transport them to a forge if it means that we get our horses shod when they are due. If this was any other service industry this guy would be out of business.
But at actually turning up at the arranged times he is crap.
Last time he came out he was two weeks late, by which time THE FELLA and MONSTER had both thrown shoes. We were all agreed that they couldn't afford to go lonmger than our scheduled six weeks.
After three weeks THE FELLA lost a shoe.
After a week of unsuccesfully trying to get hold of the farrier to come out specailly to do him I phoned the farrier and told him we'd do THE FELLA on his regular visit.
Come the arranged day I took an afternoon off work, only for the farrier not to arrive. To make things worse his phone was no longer ringing. I eventually got a message to him and he rang back apologising saying that he thought our appointment was the next week. So the next week I again took an afternoon off work. Guess what. The farrier, rang to say he'd be there in an hour, only to change his mind once THE FELLA had been sedated saying he now didn't want to come out citing no shoes. Well by now THE NAUGHTY PONY was seriously long and THE MONSTER was clanking when she walked. I insisted he come out and do them at least. He agreed and turned up an hour late.
He promised to return at the weekend for THE FELLA.
Well we stayed home all Saturday waiting for the call so that we could go and sedate THE FELLA. The call never came. RIDER rang him on Monday and received some lame excuse about not having his phone. He promised to ring back this week when he "had his diary" to sort out a time for THE FELLA.
THE FELLA has now been missing at least one shoe for five weeks. He is now down to one, loose, front shoe. He is two weeks past his due date for shoeing. Neither me nor RIDER can bring ourselves to call THE FARRIER for fear of just being rude to him. If he doesn't want to come out and do out horses we wish he'd just say. In the meantime we are looking at another farrier.
We'll even box all three up and transport them to a forge if it means that we get our horses shod when they are due. If this was any other service industry this guy would be out of business.
posted by Nick on Thursday, October 20, 2005
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