Skunk Creek Ranch & Horseshoeing, LLC

01/12/2024

International Equine Veterinarian Hall of Famer Jack Roth, a major figure in the hoof-care community, has died at the age of 80.

01/12/2024

Riley Kirkpatrick is going to do a demo at the Winter Clinic once again. Riley has turned just about every stone over in the blacksmithing world and it has been fun to watch his journey. Family, hunting, fishing, photography, Gavine and his Podcast. They have broke down the farrier industry to the nuts and bolts and interviewed countless points of view for us to re-exam again and again. With just about all our clinicians we have a basic theme, which is we as an industry need more fundamentals of skill sets and basics. Forging which was once symbiotic with trimming and fitting now has become an option. Some points of view actually think that shoe making sets you back in your way of thinking. This is not what we or our clinicians believe. Riley is going to talk about a plan of attack when moving metal. Make your way down to the Winter Clinic in Amarillo, TX @ Well Shod February 8th, 9th, and 10th. Education the way it should be, FUN!

01/12/2024

I get the privilege of spending some time in Guthrie, Oklahoma for the International Professional Rodeo Association Finals! Also known as the IFR.

I was asked to be a flag girl for the rodeo performances this weekend and that means my horse, Rooster, got to come with!

Did you know that if you are taking a horse over state lines there’s rules you have to follow? Since we left the Land Of Oz, Rooster had to have a vet make sure he was healthy to travel! This included a basic check up. And afterwards he got his “health certificate.” He also has to have what’s called a “Coggins” paper! A Coggins paper states that the horse has had blood work done to prove that they do not have the lethal illness of Equine Infectious Anemia. This disease is devastating, as the animal has to be euthanized if they are found to have it. Luckily, he is healthy and ready to go!

The more you know!

01/12/2024

Today I am going to break character, as I normally do not post much via social media, much less rant. If you are a horse owner and employ a farrier, then that farrier derives a significant portion of their livelihood from caring for your stock. While it is winter, and weather can be crazy, please do not just assume that we can do without the income from caring for your animals. If weather is slated to be less than ideal, please be willing to have a conversation with your farrier.

It is only the second week of January, and this has been by far the worst winter I have had in probably eight of my almost twelve years in this business to get texts saying things like “because of winter growth, put us off”, or some such. Those that take care of us, we will bend over backwards to take care of. Those that push us off, just know your level of priority drops very, very quickly. Especially with messages like this text I got this morning with absolutely no other explanation.

While our customer’s lives truly aren’t our business, in the event of extreme circumstances, we are quite caring and absolutely willing to accommodate. I am no different. A little information goes a long way at to being able to be empathetic. However, just remember that every farrier has a heating bill, mortgage, groceries, and kids’ clothes to buy, just the same as you. And don’t be surprised if when you skip/push appointments, you are also likely to be charged appropriately for long and overdue feet, and the fact that we cannot make up for revenue lost. I care immensely about the horses I work on, however at the end of the day, I still have to run a for profit business to stay afloat.

01/12/2024

Coming up next week, World Championship Blacksmiths team clinic. We will be hosting 4 of the baddest dudes on the planet. Among them, 2 National Champions. If you have any questions about shoeing a horse, there is no better place to be than at the Colorado Horse Rescue on Jan 19th&20th.

Clinicians:

Carl Via, CJF
Stan Mullin, CJF
Troy Wood, CJF
Daniel Russo, CJF

Location:

Colorado Horse Rescue
10386 N 65th St, Longmont, CO 80503

Friday 1/19: Pay to play hands on forging. $100 buys you access to a full day of hands on instruction from the team. We have a good group already signed up and few slots still open so please reach out if you want to join us.

Saturday 1/20: free to all active members. Renew your membership ($100) at the clinic or reach out and join ahead of time.

Important information for Friday:
8:00 set up time begins
9:00-?:?? (the team gets tired): hands on forging
*****you must bring a free standing station!!! There is not enough room for you to forge out of your pickup.******

Saturday itinerary:
8:00-9:00 sign in, social hour, coffee and doughnuts
9:00-11:30 WCB team clinic
11:30-12:30 lunch(provided)/RMFA winter meeting
12:30- we get tired: clinic continues, hammer in/hands on forging time after the team is done with their clinic.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Jake Maestas 505-614-4678

11/19/2023

Are black hooves stronger than white hooves? John Dollar documents in The Handbook of Horse-Shoeing, published in 1898, that hoof color is a critical indicator of durability and strength. The late Doug Leach refutes the anecdotal observations in a September 1981 article in American Farriers Journal.

10/31/2023

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 🎃

10/11/2023

09/10/2023

This all day long.

People call me all the time saying that they can’t find a farrier or they only show up once and they never come back. Usually there is a reason for this.

In person consultations are not free. Gas is not free and time is valuable. If you just want an assessment, there is a fee.

Just because your horse stands well for you to brush him and feed him treats does not necessarily mean he’s well behaved. If you have not trained him to have his feet handled it’s not the farriers job to do it. If he’s going to pull my back out and put me out of work and behind schedule for two weeks then I’m not going to wrestle with him, I’m going to dope him. Dope is $20 extra.

If you are not going to keep your horse on a schedule and are going to only call a farrier once they go lame or after they’ve gotten so long you are worried your neighbors are going to turn you in, it will cost extra if I can find a place in my schedule to work you in. I will not drop everything and shuffle regularly scheduled customers just because someone neglected their horses and now “need a farrier right now today “.

If I get your foundered horse on its feet again and then you proceed to neglect to have him regularly maintained or put him right back on grass to re-founder, I’m not going to waste my time.

Lots of people seem to think that farriers should be available at the spur of the moment, that our prices are negotiable. This is not true. It’s a highly skilled job. If you want to treat your farrier like a lawn boy, maybe you should see if your lawn boy wants to trim your horse.

07/07/2023

There are very good reasons why farriers impress staying on a solid schedule.

06/07/2023

Excellent questions of the basics…

05/22/2023

Is there a magical place to shoe horses where horse's feet function better than other environments?

05/18/2023

Another day!

04/24/2023

Have an Awesome Sunday!

04/14/2023

Just a bit outside

04/14/2023

I have been asked by quite a few people about this shoe so I figured I would let everyone know what it is and what we used it for.

This is a navicular bar shoe using a centre bar insert with a full sole pack (the sole pack is a copper sulphate version, but that is irrelevant).

It was for a navicular issue and we found that by heavily support the navicular bone with both packing and the static bar it reduced it seemed to help more than any other method of treatment. X-rays were taken and the bar was place where we wanted it to the X-rays.

My thought process is that the area was so heavily compromised that the bar provided the protection and a rigidity to the foot and that and with the packing took a vast amount of the force out of the landing and loading phase of the stride.

04/14/2023

Farrier Photo of the Week: Colton Thornton, CF, owner of T3 Farrier Services LLC, working a late night at a shoeing job.

Check out more farrier photos of the week here! http://ow.ly/VmLT50NH2M8

04/14/2023

Happy Friday everyone from Skunk Creek Ranch & Horseshoeing, LLC !!

04/14/2023

There's just one space left on the BFBA Walk the Talk, Lecture & Content Preparation course. For more information and to grab your space follow the link ➡️ bit.ly/BFBAWalkTheTalk

04/12/2023

Huge congratulations to BFBA Vice President, Abby Bunyard, and Stephen Britten who both recently passed the Practical exam of their FWCF qualification after completing the BFBA course. Well done Abby and Steven!