Ramsey Farrier Services

07/31/2024

07/14/2024

Biiiiiiigg feeeeeeeet!!!!!!🦶🏼🦶🏼 I don’t normally work with drafts and I sure don’t ever shoe them, but this guy is pretty special!! He’s been a long time client for just trimming but now that his wonderful owner is ready to put him back to work and start riding again, we thought a full set would be the best protection for his giant cracky feet.. glad to say he was a perfect gentleman for the whole process 😍😍 Good Boy Remi!!!!🥳

05/08/2024

😳Todays project 😳

With some much needed help from the crew at Equus Veterinary Services, we were able to sedate, drop, saw, trim, and get this girl back on her feet. It was nothing shy of a few hour project, but we got it done💪🏼 I’m sure she’ll be walking much easier once she’s gets used to not having her flippers anymore.

04/27/2024

Baby Ellie’s first shoes 👠🥳🥹 Although I don’t love putting shoes on a rising 3 yr old, she’s got some thin soles and slightly low angles so we’re hoping to give her some protection with the as well as encourage some heel growth by stimulating her frog with the amazing flat pads. Need to get her angles nice and good and get the stress off her tendons so they can heal, and we can get back to learning our basics and playing with our friends in the field! 😆

03/22/2024

Knowledge sharing post No.1.

Digital/Phalangeal Alignment in a wet environment.
Pollitt and Hampson did a study at University of Queensland a couple of years ago.
They concluded the hoof wall has a constant moisture content. The sole however is like a sponge, soaking up all available moisture .
When hydrated to capacity, it loses it's tensile strength and the ability to support the hoof capsule as intended.
The back third of the hoof, which is also the shock absorbing section, drops or prolapses as a result. Counter rotation of the coffin bone occurs.
This is now known as negative palmer/planter angle. That is the angle the bottom of P3 makes in relation to the ground.
As a farrier, the best results to help this are to engage the back third in a load sharing package. Traditionally a heartbar shoe or wide bar was used. More recently dental impression material or pour in material is added to load share with frogs and commisures.
Plastic frog support pads are available most recently, as skills to fit a heartbar correctly are highest level. Protecting the internal structure are paramount whilst load sharing.

Horse's hooves are not designed to be constantly wet. Best results are to remove the cause.
A dry bedding of pine sawdust draws moisture and helps kill bacterial invasion of the whiteline and/frog's.
Overloading of the over hydrated hoof is exacerbated by the weight of the horse. To many horse's are overweight for the tensile strength of the hoof capsule.
If your horse gets to the situation where it needs this specific shoeing package, it's your responsibility as an owner to change the management or husbandry process.
Horse's shod with a load sharing package should be in a confined environment where they can't gallop about with the possibility of overreaching causing premature shoe loss. They should not be in a herd environment where other horse's can stand on the shoe's at play causing premature shoe loss.
Your farrier sees your horse at a cyclic time to reshoe, trimming the hoof to keep in balance perimeters.
The management between visits falls squarely on the owner.
Unfortunately to often expectations of correct digital alignment are overshadowed by owner mismanagement. I'm older and get grumpy when "buck passing " ends up in my lap.
At the end of the day as a professional tradesperson, it's me who decides if I continue to be trying my best for your horse's welfare 🙏

03/16/2024

Ms. Lirio got her first set of kicks with me nailed on today and she was a gem for it☺️ she can be a bit silly sometimes but when it mattered most 🔨🔨she composed herself very well!! This tender flat footed lady is now ready for her summer trail rides😍🌲🌞

03/04/2024

02/28/2024

Another progress report! Coffin Bone fracture, was diagnosed in September and has been on rest since then with a four clipped bar shoe and 2degree wedged pad (and glued up walls for extra stability and surety of staying on the foot). Fracture is slowly but surely healing and horse trotted sound again at last vet check😎💪🏼

02/28/2024

Progress pics from the last post! Per vet recommendation, we decided to go barefoot and try a shorter cycle in order to keep toe in check and try to get some heels to grow on the right front. First picture was before I worked on the horse, second pic was after our first shoes, and third was the latest trim.. Already looking loads better only two cycles in 🤓

01/06/2024

💥Work in progress💥
A project I got started on the other day.. sadly no X-rays prior to this appointment, but hopefully by next time we can get some🤞🏼
Owners of this horse approached me while I was at a barn working on another horse to get my opinion on how their farrier was doing… barn owner and horse owner said horse had been done 1 week previous.. I pointed out to them all of the good and bad things I could see and gave my personal opinion on how I would feel if this was my horse that was truly done only a week prior.
Flash forward to now six weeks later… as with most severe cases, this guy will definitely take a few cycles to get back to normalcy but I’m happy with the progress we made thus far and am excited to see the changes we can make over these next months☺️
2 very different feet on 1 horse.. different shapes, different angles, different problems…
Glad to say the horse walked off noticeably improved 😊
End goal: properly support white hoof, address flaring and high heels. Bring toe back and angle up on black hoof, as well as bring support back under himself. Hoping to get X-rays to see exactly how our angles are internally and where they need to be.

11/13/2023

Had to fit some fun into the packed full week of learning as well😆😆 shot my first gun(had a full safety lesson before hand😎), ate at a, way too fancy for us, fancy restaurant, had some drinks, some laughs, and turned $5 into $200 (which I promptly spent on new tools😅) such a fun weekend!!!

11/13/2023

52nd annual American Farriers Association Convention in Reno!!! So. Much. Learning🤯😍 Soo many interesting lectures from correcting foal deformities, to new products and how to use them, and all the way to communication skills🤓 it was a well packed with information as well as getting to be inspired in the forge room again watching all the badass blacksmiths and farriers create some beautiful shoes💪🏼⚒️ 🔨

10/01/2023

To You From Steph

09/27/2023

Not a joke...

Have you ever wondered why you can have a 15 acre field and part of it is chewed down to nubs and the other part has grass a hand high, But your horse is constantly grazing in the chewed down part?

Grass 6 inches and taller has less sugars than grass under 6 inches.

For every inch drop below 6 inches, the fructan (sugar) content rises.

Grass under 6 inches is stressed like it's a Monday morning with a project deadline. It uses sugar to repair itself.

Stop mowing your fields short.

Stop grazing your chubbys on chewed down grass. (this is why grazing muzzles are so touted...they keep the horse from being able to get much short grass)

(We aren't saying let your fields be 3 feet tall, by the way. The optimal thing to do is keep them 6-8 inches tall and graze them in small areas there)

09/23/2023

Todays project: Left wing coffin bone fracture.

Mr. Jesse here turned up lame over night about a month ago. We agreed the likely culprit was an abscess, he continued to be lame with slight improvement, but then got worse. I hoof tested him and the only positive spot he gave me was right under his coffin bone… instead of digging aimlessly into his foot searching for an abscess, I told the owner to take him to the vet and get images taken. Sure enough, no abscess to be found, but a fracture of the left wing on the coffin bone.
Fast forward to this morning, Mr. Jesse was a very good boy while I nailed up this wedged 4 clipped bar shoe (per the vets recommendation)😊

For now it will stabilize the hoof as well as keep him as comfortable as we can during these next months of healing. The clips were smaller than I would like after adding his wedge so Next time will draw bigger clips to cover more foot and give more stabilization🤓

09/14/2023

Good boy Mr. Cody got his feets done yesterday 😊 a pleasure, as always, getting to work on this wonderful boy. Stands well, cleans up nice, and gives lots of cuddles and kisses as thanks 🥰 🍑

09/12/2023

Gotta do what you gotta do in order to get the job done sometimes… little old lady deserves the patience and easy (for her) position, she’s a sweet one💗

09/12/2023

The first full round trimming I’ve gotten on my mini donkey clients… 😍 It’s been some time battling with some serious white line disease on all four feet of both these donkeys (Jack & Jill). Major hoof wall resections in all quarters, and some toes, to clear out the WLD as well as fighting with rotations from overloading on green grasses and getting the hoof to grow balanced with good angles again after not being trimmed for many months prior to our first visit. It’s been a battle but Jacks hind feet were completely clean today and no further resections were needed on any other hooves. Fingers crossed the other feet grow out a bit more before our lovely mucky Oregon winter weather comes to ruin it all!

09/08/2023

Big Drafty boy trim today.. stood like an angel!!! Hadn’t been trimmed in idk how long but Mr. Clyde was a doll while I hacked away at his feet for nearing an hour. Took off well over an inch of growth, but he cleaned up pretty nicely if I do say so myself😇

08/11/2023

You know who y’all are💕 The ones who do all these things and more.. So many people think getting abused by horses and disrespected by owners is part of this job, but it is most definitely not! Sooo, THANK YOU to all my amazing clients and friends who make all the back pain, blood, sweat, and tears worth it ❤️ I couldn’t mentally do this job without y’all✨

07/12/2023

The margin between a sound horse and a lame horse 🐴

07/09/2023

CONTINUED EDUCATION‼️ (one of the key ingredients to becoming a great farrier)

This weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the “From the Ground Up” clinic held at Northwest Equine Performance. Vets ands Farrier came together, bridging the well known long term gap, teaching and learning from one another.

Learned about a new shoe hitting the market this November, a new type of wrap, and got to see these things being applied and learn why they work so well. Very interesting stuff!

07/01/2023

One of todays little satisfying jobs😍 Good boy held it together well and cleaned up real nice!!🤩 All that matters is he’s in good shape again

06/14/2023

Tiny feets this week!!! Triple 0’s and double 0’s… so smoll😆

04/05/2023