Tidwells Horseshoeing

02/15/2024

This is great information

11/23/2023

If ANYONE is not working/not getting a paycheck and runs out of food or necessities or times are just tough...please don’t let yourself or your kids go to sleep with an empty stomach. Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to send me a private message. I am more than happy to share whatever I can. I will drop and go. No one has to know and I will pretend it never happened. What's understood never has to be explained!

10/09/2023

07/11/2022

Be happy!

07/06/2022

ALERT ❗️❗️

The State Veterinarian’s office has confirmed two cases of Potomac horse fever. One is in Rutherford County and the other in Dekalb County.

Freshwater snails are the source of the bacteria that causes Potomac horse fever. Horses may be exposed when drinking from creeks or rivers, and can then suffer from colic, fever, and diarrhea. Potomac horse fever has not been found to directly transmit from horse to horse.

We urge horse owners to be sure their horses are protected by using best management practices, which includes consulting with your local veterinarian for appropriate vaccination needs and schedules.

• Regularly disinfect stalls, water buckets, feed troughs, and other equipment
• Eliminate standing water sources where disease-carrying insects may gather and breed
• Avoid co-mingling your horses with other, unfamiliar horses

Potomac horse fever is NOT a known threat to human health.

06/14/2022

Tidwell’s Forge and Farrier service has current openings for your horses and Donkeys hoof care needs.
Vet references available

Services offered:
Trims
Hot steel shoes 1/2 and full set shoes
Aluminum plating
Cold steel and aluminum shoes
Special needs for laminitis or founder
Hospital plates
Glue on shoes
Abscess care

04/12/2021

11/26/2020

I would like to take a moment and say a large Thank you to all of my clients and their horses. My family is very thankful for you, without you we wouldn't have food for Thanksgiving.
Thank you
Jacob Tidwell

10/25/2020

Very good read and lots of information.

Winter is coming and with it comes the rain and mud and boggy fields. The reality is in the wild horses would never choose to stand in saturated ground, they would roam and find more suitable grazing areas. As we enter these wetter months what should we know about the effects of the wet and often we...

10/22/2020

Our 2020 contest is on!! Please share away! Also, follow our page for the upcoming shoe list, to see our awesome prizes and to see our great auction items!

10/11/2020

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a farrier? Or maybe just how many times your farrier was p**ped on that morning before shaking your hand? Maybe you have thought to yourself “what’s that smell?” or “what is that green thing stuck to his ear?” or even “The dogs sure love them, I wonder what hoof trimmings taste like?” If 12 years of standing at the anvil have taught me anything it’s that the answer to such mysteries (at least the ones that can be answered in a few words) are: a lot of p**p; also p**p; and salted p**p…

As for what it’s like to be a farrier, let me try to explain. This job is not for the faint of heart or the mentally stable. You can’t be sane (or hope to stay that way long) if you wish to work with equestrians. You have to be insane to participate or work in a full-contact sport that lays under the line where rugby meets motor-cross and your only bit of protection is a hat made of the same material as a disposable coffee cup. Seriously, aside from crash test dummy, what other sport or job exists where someone can suffer massive blunt force trauma and is expected to get right back up and repeat whatever activity just about killed them a moment ago? “Horse or hospital!” is an expression I have heard more than once both as a horse rider and as a farrier (moving target) apprentice.

The ability to withstand impact aside, this is a job that requires the same attention to detail as an artist, the skill and steady hand of a surgeon, the patience of a saint, and the endurance/pain tolerance of a Navy Seal. For those who have never seen a farrier practice their trade and wants to walk in their shoes, try to imagine you are working in a stiflingly hot building, bent over and holding a 2×4 between your knees. On one end of the 2×4 is a small platform you are attempting to perform incredibly detailed work on. This table is incredibly valuable and the slightest mistake could cause it to explode; most of the tools you are given to work with are crude, bulky, and (like the table) also incredibly expensive considering they were invented sometime in the 14th century. While you are standing in this pizza oven from hell you will have to light a fire, which you will use to heat up your art work. Sometimes this art work will set you on fire.

Meanwhile the Hulk is tugging on the other end of that 2×4, occasionally ripping it away from you and dragging small knife blades that are sticking out of this table through your hands and legs. Side note: Friction tape will become your new best friend as it makes holding on to the rusty and poo crusted tools (which are now covered in your own blood) much easier! From time to time the Hulk might let you have the 2×4, but he is going to sit on you while you toil away on your art project. Now, as you fuss over details and panic every few moments that the speck of blood you just saw might not be yours (and are incredibly relieved when it is,) imagine there is a bucket of excrement sitting above your head, which at any moment may tip over on you without warning. Depending on the time of year, that bucket of poo may be switched for a bucket of spit. (Ah, clover…) And I mean more spit than you might think any earthly critter would have the capacity to produce. You will also sweat so much you will drink two gallons of water by the end of the day and not need to p*e once. For this reason you will never leave the house with no less than nine extra shirts and just as many towels.

To make your task even more impossible imagine that there is this invisible crazy man wildly running around your work area swinging Gallagher’s hammer. At any moment he might run up and smash you like one of Gallagher’s ill-fated watermelons. If you are unlucky enough to find yourself on his pedestal of doom that day, you are going to be faced with one of those moments when where most rational people might question your sanity. Since you can’t give up and call it a day with only three of the four 2x4s now complete (there is this very terrifying 5’4” 120lbs women who just body slammed a 1,300 pound Hanoverian into submission who would be very displeased if you did) you must trudge on despite the pain of what you are pretty sure is a broken leg and maybe a few pulverized ribs. It takes a special kind of stupid to keep working after the might of Thor’s hammer (a draft horse) knocks you through a barn wall. Fortunately you’re a farrier and you are just the kind of stupid needed to get back up and finish the job!

Now that you’re done with the first horse there are 12 more waiting…

05/28/2020

05/13/2020

Alot of being and becoming a decent farrier isn't just shoeing horses it's continuous studying, developing and building your knowledge.

05/07/2020

A day of fun!!!

04/28/2020

04/25/2020

Tidwell's Horseshoeing is currently accepting new clients for trims, and Shoes! Contact me for more information regarding pricing and setting up an appointment. Serving Northern Middle Tennessee and South Central Kentucky.

04/10/2020

PSA: Clients and potential clients as well as horse owners with shod horses. If you have your farrier shoe your horse in less than ideal conditions( dark lighting, not flat surface, horse that will not stand well, ect.) Then you turn your horse out into 6 inch deep mud. We as farriers can not and will not guarantee that the shoes will stay on. Thank you

04/10/2020

Donkey I did today. I didn't get any after pictures.

03/30/2020

Happy Monday everyone! Some good tips for barn safety and minimizing exposure to others during this time!

03/22/2020

I love black hooves!!

03/16/2020

I have openings this week on Tuesday and Wednesday as well as next week. Spring is quickly approaching.

03/15/2020

All domestic horses need good, regular hoof care. Hooves that are allowed to grow long are not just unsightly – the internal workings of the hoof, the tendons and ligaments of the legs and ultimately the movement of the horse are all affected by having unbalanced hoofs. If you are not convinced of how important good regular hoof care is then imagine trying to walk in clown shoes that also have high heels! Imagine trying to run in them! Imagine having to wear those shoes for days, weeks or months and how this would affect other parts of your body

Spca

03/13/2020

Some pictures from today.

03/08/2020