How to Shoe a Horse

Farriers were in charge of making iron shoes for animals such as horses and oxen. These animals regularly walked on hard surfaces which wore down their hoofs. Therefore, the farrier would shoe these animals by nailing the iron shoes onto the hoofs to protect and cover them from harsh surfaces, just as the shoes you wear protect your feet. Like the way humans switch the type of shoe they wear in the winter, animals do as well. The farrier would shoe animals with shoes that had studs on the bottom of them which gave the animals a better grip while pulling sleighs in the winter. It would have taken a lot of time and patience for farriers to shoe a horse. The steps to shoeing a horse include the following;

      

      Relax the animal: horses often became nervous, therefore the farrier’s first job would have been to relax the horse before he/she could lift its leg and cradle its hoof in his/her lap.

 Pulling off the shoe: in order to pull off the old shoe to replace it with a new one, the farrier loosened and removed the nails and pulled it off with a set of tongs. Once it was removed he/she could start to clean the excess mud and stones out of it.

Cut away the dead ends: like clipping a humans fingernail, the farrier would clip away the dead ends of the horses hoofs.

Cut, heat and bend! The Farrier would then cut an iron rod into 4 different pieces and heat each piece in the forge in order to hammer it on the anvil to be able to bend it into a wide curve.

 Cat’s ear: The farrier forged what was known as a cat’s ear at the front of each shoe to keep it from slipping. The farrier would then heat two heels of the she and turned them downwards.

 Holding it in place: In order to hold the nails in place, the farrier would punch 8 different holes in each horseshoe.

 Molding: While the shoes were still hot, the farrier would place the shoe on the horse’s hoofs which would mold to fit the hoofs perfectly. Once the shoes were molded to the hoofs, the blacksmith would hang them to cool them down.

Hammering: special short nails were used to hammer shoe shoes onto the horse’s hoofs.

Final product: when the horse was shod, you could see where the nails were put in on the upper   roof of the horse’s hoof.