Roland’s nags and nail: ‘hoping for some nice cold weather’
Thankfully the weather has got colder — what a relief. I can actually work on a horse without breaking into a sweat!
There’s so much I still have to grasp about shoeing horses. I feel like I’ve been writing this blog all of my life, but I feel I know nothing more about horse shoeing. I make a great deal of mistakes still and often miss the blinding obvious, except it’s not really the blinding obvious.
For example, many horses have slightly different sized feet. One might be slightly flatter and the other one may be more upright. To the layperson you would never notice it. I’m somewhere between a layperson and a specialist and will not always spot these subtle nuances. Arrrgh! As hard as I try, sometimes, I just do not see it!
My midway review is happening this week. I get a visit from the farriery training people who come and make sure I’ve done all my homework and review my training to date. The Farriery Training Agency has been closed down (as you may have read in the press) and has been replaced by those who run the farriery college courses.
It will be interesting to see if anything has changed. These visits to the work place are quite important for monitoring purposes and each and every one of us apprentices gets 2 visits a year.
I’m hoping for some nice cold weather from now on. No more hot days please. They are murder! I have though, got to be careful what I wish for. I’d hate to be the cause of a Siberian winter. Somewhere between 10 to 12 degrees centigrade will do me nicely!
Until next week
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
Roland
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Roland owned a computer software business until he realised he didn't want to be stuck behind a desk for the rest of his working life. So in 2011 he started the four-year apprenticeship to become a farrier on the borders of Somerset, Devon and Dorset. He became fully qualified in 2014.